CHAPTER!

INTRODUCTION: REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INTRODUCTION

This study attempts to discuss and explore the dimensions that gender

'equitable' definition of education and work and the actual practice of it in the social

space known for the relatively higher gender development indicators. It is important

to look at the processes and dynamics within the institutional space to understand how

gender as a vital factor mediates the experiences of women, as they constitute

minority group in various organisations and institutions all over the world. Women

make up less than 5 per cent of the world's heads of state, heads of major corporations

and top executives in international organisations (Bullock, 1994:27). More and more

women all over the world are entering public space that has been dominated by men

and male traditions. Laws and regulations governed by democratic norms have been

adopted in various parts of the world to avoid exploitation of employees in general

and minority groups in particular.

In spite of the policy regulations experiences of women and other minority

groups are not very satisfying. A study in India shows that women do not get equal

treatment in the job market of the engineering profession despite the fact that women

engineers are equally or more successful than their male counterparts in their student

days (Parikh and Sukhatme, 1992:195). Women do not get selected in all occupations

unlike their male counterparts. Women engineers often realise that placement after the

course is often difficult just because they are women. This is an important factor that

contributes to the development of career paths of engineering professionals in India.

This study tries to deal with the various dimensions of women's experiences

within one government organisation in Kerala. This organisation has adopted all the

laws to ensure egalitarian treatment to different sections of employees. The questions

asked here are: Are things better in places/organizations where law is there to protect

the rights of women? What is to be a woman in the arenas influenced primarily by

male traditions? Also when the majority of those in a vocation are of one group, the

'expectation' develops that this is how it should be. What effect does this expectation

have on women who do not have a tradition behind them?

This study tries to explore the issues mentioned above in the discussion that

follows. The discussion starts with a review of the literature on the related areas. A

section on conceptual framework and methodology follows.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A number of studies have been conducted on family, education and work of

women in a comparative perspective in both the developed and the developing world.

Many of them concentrate on the equal access of girls to education, labour force

participation rate of women and gender segregation in the labour market. In India as

well, studies on education and work are mainly in the areas of opportunities for

women's education and labour market segmentation respectively. A detailed

examination of the relevant literature on women, education and work is given in the

following sections.

Three major frameworks dealing. with women, work and education are the

Functionalist, Liberal and Marxist frameworks. Functionalist views on education

explain it in terms of the needs of the social system and the positive contributions

made by education for the maintenance of the social system. Liberal theories

encourage personal development and self-fulfilment. They hope to achieve equality

among all by providing equal access to education through measures like free

schooling. According to them if equality of access to education exists in the society,

the outcome would be equal. Liberal theorists ignore various processes within the

educational institutions and do not explain the wide gap between liberal measures by

the state on the one hand and what actually happens on the other hand. Marxists'

stratification theory puts primary emphasis on class. Engels explains men's control

over womt>n historically as the result of the emergence of private property leading to

the monogamous marriages for the exclusive inheritance of the property to one's own

children. And in the process of explaining this, patrifocal structures and ideology or

2

differential treatments of women in each and every society are relegated to the

background. Though Marxist and Socialist feminisms try to correct this, the inherent

theoretical base on capital and economic classes limits them also. Radical feminists'

attempt to verbalize the operations of patriarchy is successful because they are able to

go beyond the above limitations of Marxist and Socialist Feminists. They are able to

put into perspective a solution based, step-by- step fight against patriarchy. Post­

modernist, post-structuralist theories help in throwing light on the context specific,

and ·culture specific institutions of patriarchy, which the grand theories mentioned

earlier, failed to do. Their findings and conclusions are often based on micro studies

and this explains the variations of experiences of women in different settings.

Women and Education

Women's education is fraught with problems of access, equal opportunities

and participation within the institutional space and outcomes at the end of the course.

Before going to the literature on higher, professional education, it is important to

mention some of the studies on women's schooling and its effect on life chances of

women. The liberal belief in schools' ability to provide for equality of boys and girls

has been critiqued by studies, which argue that the educational achievements of boys

and girls in terms of their career and life chances are different because schools

prepared them so. For example, Deem (1980) attributes this to socialization processes

within the school through formal curriculum and informal, everyday life. This study

argues that it is important to understand the context of patriarchy when we deal with

women and their achievements. The background of patriarchy is common in all

societies. Some studies try to show the direct relationship between schooling and

women's work(MacDonald, 1980; Lewellyn, 1980).

Wiener (1980), Jaiswal (1988a; 1988b) and Subrahmanyan (1998) argue that

subjects themselves are gendered. Some subjects are assumed to be masculine and

others, feminine and boys and girls respectively are expected to do better in those

subjects. Young children,. right from the primary level of schooling, understand it that

way and begin to act accordingly. This is reinforced by the reward system of the

schools too and the mystification about science that it can be handled only by the

3

hyper-intelligent devalues other subjects (Jaiswal, 1988b:08). Classroom observations

of trainee teachers reveal that the minority of girls in the science section are often

quiet and reserved non-participants (Karlekar, 1993: 26). Wiener (1980) argues that

instead of seeking positive strategies to remedy the difficulties faced by girls in the

so-called 'male' crafts and subjects, girls are excused from good performances on the

grounds that such performance is unnecessary for those who will spend their time in

domestic tasks and child caring. Schooling especially at the secondary level and

higher education like the college education should be linked to understand the process

and agencies of selection and enrolment of women in different courses. This is

important because interest in specialized subjects often develop at this stage.

However, there are very few studies at the western and Indian academics linking both

secondary education and professional education.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND WOMEN

Expectations for men and women are often seen to be different from the

instant they make a decision to get training in a particular programme. "As graduate

students, women are not expected to be as dedicated, ambitious, or serious about their

studies as men. It is assumed that marriage and child rearing will eventually interrupt

their studies and certainly their career"(Kaufman, 1984: 359). Moreover, women are

described as emotional, irrational, and therefore unsuitable for 'rational' subjects like

science and engineering. On the other hand, parents demand better performance from

boys in these subjects. Various studies on women and science fmd that structural

barriers like methodology and content of science textbooks, social structure of the lab

and so on work against women. In addition, definitions, images and language of

science are gendered (Keller, 1995:27-31; Carter and Kirkup, 1990). Apart from the

'gendered subjects', women have to face a 'gendered public place' in the institutions

of higher learning (Prakash, 1981:09; Krishnaraj, 1991; Subrahmanyan, 1998:79-93).

There are considerable social restrictions on the mobility and interaction of women

students. Study tours, picnics and conferences organized with the aim to help the

student through formal and informal learning and closer interaction often have a few

women students participating and getting involved in them. This puts them on the

backseat compared to boys who are able to make full use of the opportunity. Sexual

4

harassment, the extreme form of social exclusion, is seen as one of the tactors that

prevent women from attending these programmes and attaining parity with men

(Subrahmanyan, 199&:129}-

Krupnick (www.fas.harvard.edu) discusses a study that explores how gender

affects the quality of teaching and learning at Harvard College. The shtdy found that

male students talked much longer in the predominant classroom circumstance: i.e., the

situation in which the instructor is man and the majority of the students are men. In all

such classes, men students spoke two and a half times longer than their women peers

did. This finding is noteworthy, since the male teacher/predominantly male class

situation is common at not only Harvard but also at most other co-educational and

professional colleges. On the other hand, the presence of women instructors

apparently had an inspiring effect on women students. They spoke almost three times

longer under instructors of their own sex than when they were in classes led by male

instructors. What did surprise the researchers was the degree to which male

domination appeared _to depend on gender demographics in the classroom: when the

teacher was man and the students in a particular class were predominantly men, then

men students dominated the discussions.

What is important in Krupnick's study is that it was conducted at Harvard that

is considered as one of the most prestigious educational institutions. It is generally

believed that the admission process based on the performance of the students at the

entry point evens out the differences between male and female students, and every

teacher can cite examples of extremely articulate women students. Krupnick isolates

four factors which contribute to giving women students less access to discussion in

the classroom than men: their demographic status as members of a minority in the

classroom; their inability or unwillingness to compete against men; their vulnerability

to interruption; and the fact that men and women 'talk in runs', which tends to keep

women's participation in discussions low. By 'talk in runs' she means that once a

member of a sex starts speaking other members of that sex follow them (ibid).

Classroom environment and the development of self-esteem and self­

confidence in a profession may be linked. The extent of students' involvement in the

5

classroom is a major factor in shaping their self-concept,. because the college years are

a time of important developmental change in the personality. Current research on the

social development of men's and women's lives has shown that both women students

and women professionals tend to have lower self-esteem than their men colleagues.

There are discussions in the literature,. suggesting women's: lower self-esteem in co­

educational colleges than in single-sex institutions (Deem, 1980; Lewellyn, 1980).

Welch has tound assertiveness in discussions as one measure of self-esteem in

classrooms in a study, at the colleges of Yale and Brown and Wellesley, and Smith

(Krupnick, www.fas.harvard.edu). Women at both of the mixed-sex institutions of

Yale and Brown were verbally less assertive than men. They used 'hedges, qualifiers

and questioning intonations' in. their speeches more often. than others. On. the other

hand, women from single sex institutions at Smith and Wellesley were not only more

assertive than women at Yale and Brown, but also -- most surprisingly -- more

assertive than men at the coeducational institutions (ibid).

The effects of low self-esteem carry over into graduate school and

professional life (Walter-Goldberg, www.fas.harvard.edu). Self-depreciation is· seen

to be especially pronounced in fields in which women are present in the lowest

numbers. Even female trial lawyers are uneasy about speaking in mixed-sex settings,

according to a 1984 report by sociologist, Walter-Goldberg (www.fas.harvard.edu).

She found that female trial lawyers express 'much less satisfaction with their

summary speeches to jurors' than male lawyers do. Since both law schools and

graduate schools recruit women and men with equal abilities, the author feels, it is

logical to conclude that these settings are themselves responsible for providing

women and men with an 'unequal sense of their real or potential efficacy'.

Jaiswal's study (1988a, 1993) in the context of Indian professional education

is particularly relevant. He says that education of women is not the sole, independent

factor in their achievement of better occupational status. This factor operates within

the overall socio-cultural matrix. Jaiswal also states that education is an important but

insufficient factor for the successful career of women {Jaiswal, 1988a: 238). He

argues that the early socialization practices coupled with the perceptions of sex

stereotypical education and occupation affect the entry, development and mobility of

6

women in modem professions. Women professionals, despite their relatively better

educational attainment and more well to do family background in comparison to their

male colleagu~s, do not hold the same socio-economic status, professional

recognition, job placement and work allotment as enjoyed by men in similar

conditions (Jaiswal, 1988a: 239).

Getting a degree in the subject of their choice, however, does not come easily

for women (Mukhopadhyay and Seymour, 1994:110; Subrahmanyan, 1998:79-93).

First of all, being admitted to a particular institution or course is not a matter of

personal choice. In India" it is a family decision for both female and male students

(Mukhopadhyay and Seymour, 1994: I 06). More about the role of family in

educational decisions of girls is discussed in the review section on fan1ily. Social

values and prestige attached to various subjects and marriageability of the women

who study these subjects affect the decision. Familial and stmctural problems -­

financial constraints and the fear of spoilt reputation by sending a girl to a place far

away from home and so on-- work against women in higher education

(Subrahmanyan, 1998:79-93 ).

Women engineering students in institutes of technology face a situation

peculiar to engineering (Carter and Kirkup, 1990: 01). Engineering IS seen

traditionally as a male bastion because its traditions and tasks are set by long years of

service from its inception by men (Carter and Kirkup, 1990:09; Jaiswal, 1993 ).

Women students who choose engineering are perceived by male colleagues and

teachers as crossing the conventional sex barriers existing in the society. They have to

face considerable hostility. Number of women students is less in these courses and the

authors see this minority status in numerical terms itself as a threat to women students

in an all-male environment. There is considerable discrimination against women

candidates on hypothetical grounds like women students might discontinue the

programme due to marriage, pregnancy, etc. or that women will not practise later but

will waste the degree and the skill attained (Subrahmanyan, 1998: 127). That result in

lack of confidence and frustration among women students and they are always under

stress to keep up with their efficiency as good students along with society's images of

good women (ibid).

7

Women and Work

It is evident from the review earlier that educational experiences of individuals

have a powerful impact on their later life, especially in their work and career.

Feminists have talked about the work of women from various viewpoints. Liberal

feminists concentrate on the opportunities to be available for women to be able to

enter the labour market However, Marxist and Socialist Feminists criticize this

perspective on its simplistic solution of women's equal access in the arena of work.

They relate status of women's work to stmctures of capitalist exploitation. However,

both the frameworks fail to explain the inequality prevailing in the so-called 'non­

capitalist' countries. Radical Feminists point out the patriarchal structures that operate

in the social fabric in general and within organisations and institutions in particular.

Researchers found that the free labour force participation offered by capitalism

is not actually reflected in its actual practice at the ground leveL Patrifocal stmctures

limit women's mobility and restrict their possibilities of business expansion.

Lessinger (1990) finds that this is true in the case of women who are engaged in petty,

retail trading of fresh vegetables,. fruits and flowers which forms part of the informal

sector of the economy. She finds in her study of women market traders in Madras

during 1971-1973 that "(G)ender differences persist, or are accentuated, in some

societies undergoing capitalist transformation, so that women as workers tend to

remain excluded or, at best, marginalized" (Lessinger, 1990: 129). The patrifocal

ideology of the area made sure that women were engaged in these kinds of works only

when they were compelled to work due to due to husband's death, sickness, desertion

or inability to make both ends meet Nevertheless even after their entry into the

market "(T)he problem seemed to be that their presence in the highly public market

place and their activities as traders were viewed as slightly inappropriate, subtly

wrong and definitely dangerous to their chastity and womanly virtue" (Lessinger,

1990: 13l).Closelyconnected to this is the fact that when women have to work in

close association with men they are escorted by their male relatives like brother.

husband or son. In addition, they are confident of working in the public place where

they are surrounded by known people. Lessinger (1990} calls this 'public

chaperonage'. Women treat the market place as ifit were an extension of their home

8

or neighbourhood. "Reciprocal kinship terms' like 'young brother/older sister,

mother/son' are used to address each other who are not actual relatives.

WOMEN AND LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTATION

An increasing number of women are entering labour market all over the world.

Despite their increasing share of the labour market, women are not employed evenly

throughout the o<>cupational structure. They are concentrated in low-paid, low-status

jobs (Chanana, 2001:337).

Though women-- though not very many-- have been in engineering education

for a longer time compared to India, a summary of employee profiles of the

companies by gender in the telecommunications sector of the European community

indicates that top management and technical and engineering sections employ mainly

men whereas women constitute the lower ladder of blue-collar workers, operators and

clerical workers (Mitter, 1997: 117).

In the case of India, educated women are largely found as schoolteachers,

nurses and clerks. Chanana (2001) says, quoting 'India 1978', that in 1971, of the

degree holder employed women and women technical personnel, as many as 51 per

cent were school teachers and another 28 per cent were working in government

organisations, most of them presumably in the clerical or related jobs. "Another

problem is clustering of women in the lowest rungs of prestigious, mo!"e respectable

occupations"(Chanana, 2001 :354). She cites the example of teaching profession

where women are in large numbers but their proportion at the school level is far

greater than at the university or college level. According to her medicine was the only

prestigious profession where women were found in considerable proportion. Chanana

observes that women in the professions in India are 'trishankus' 1- neither here nor

there. Chanana (200 l) finds that the nature of career paths of men and women is

different because of the differences in their 'respective roles and social placement'

also. She emphasizes that the studies on workingwomen should not treat them as 'a

'Trishanku' is a mythological character who had to stay in the atmosphere of the earth because he, in. his bodily form, was denied admjssion. to heaven due to the differences between two great sages ofVasishta and Viswamitra.

9

monolith'. She argues that differences in career involvement and professional

commitment of workingwomen vary due to differences in their compulsions and

motivations. These differences arise from the differences in their socio-economic

status and nature of occupations. Perception towards their own work can be different

"for instance those who are in low status and low paid jobs, such as clerks, nurses and

school teachers, are more likely to be working because of fmancial necessity and are

also more likely to view their work as a job and not as a career"(Chanana, 2001 :357).

Linkages between the public institutions like education and organizations in

the sphere of work on the one hand and the private and personal institutions of

marriage and family on the other hand have been highlighted in the existing literature

on women. Rowbotham (1973) argues that the traditional roles of women are

perceived as inferior and the private world of home is regarded as feminine. Hence

the integration of women into the public world of work is only partial. Oakley ( 197 4)

observes that the position of women in the family is reflected in the employment

sector. Women's roles are often the same in jobs outside home and at home which

involve caring for, waiting on, serving, etc. Oakley argues that the major reason for

the subordination of women in the labour market is the institutionalization of 'the

mother-housewife role as the primary role for all women' (Oakley, 1974:78).

Caplow (1954) gives a more elaborate explanation for the relegation of

women to the bottom of the occupational structure. He dwells on the adverse impact

of bearing and rearing of children on women's career. The discontinuous career of

women due to child-care and their primary status as mothers and wives affect their

career negatively. In addition, due to the 'mother-housewife role' women are less

geographically mobile than men. This often reduces their productivity at work

measured often by the time spent at the workplace. Moreover, women are considered

only as secondary breadwinners. They only supplement their husbands' income. So,

women's career is not seen 'as important as men's career'. The family is much more

likely to move house to follow the husband's career rather than that of the wife.

Elgquist- Saltzman (1992) fmds that men's career paths are different from women's.

Men's careers are 'straight roads' without any obstacles on the way while women's

careers are 'winding paths'.

10

One of the reasons suggested for the clustering of women in low-level

occupations is the relatively large reserve of employable women. Caplow, in this

context, argues that employers do not have to offer high wages, career opportunities

and improved working conditions to women. This, according to him, explains the link

between women and low status jobs. Another reason cited by Caplow (1954) for

women's concentration in certain kinds of jobs is the differential socialization given

to men and womeiL Socialization of male members does not allow them to accept

women at higher positions of authority. Moreover, there are a number of mles and

regulations that are designed to limit the hours of work for women and to bar them

from working in more strenuous occupations. Some of the statutes at the workplace

that are designed ostensibly to protect women's interests tend to reduce women's

effectiveness as competitors (GOI, 1974:49). In addition, many of these mles and

statutes are shaped and built into the system as practices by male superiors creating

traditions and norms that are male centred. For example it has been observed that

professional careers are not designed for women with families but for men who are

free offamily obligations.

GENDERINGOF WORK

Perceptions of certain tasks as masculine and some others as feminine are

universal and these perceptions often act as obstacles. In an excellent discussion on

clerical work Glenn and Feldberg (1984) say that the number and percentage of

women working as clerks reinforced the image of clerical work as feminine in

America. "The segregation of jobs by sex is so universal that the office structure is

frequently viewed as a 'natural' situation .... requirements for clerical and managerial

jobs fit the stereotyped notions for feminine and masculine. Women are said to make

good clerks because they are conscientious about details, have nimble hands for

operating office machines, and are sufficiently submissive to take orders well. In

contrast, managerial traits-- rationality, decisiveness, objectivity, and assertiveness-­

are seen as exclusively masculine qualities." (Glenn and Feldberg, 1984:318).

Kaufman also refers to Epstein ( 1970b) who found that not only have the professions

been segregated by sex but have also been greatly affected by the even more invidious

II

process of sex_ typing. When a rru.Yority of those in_ a profession is of one sex, the

"normative expectation" develops that this is how it should be.

Perceptions of hierarchical dualism - masculine and feminine with 'judgments

of worthiness'- in other subjects like economics have been testified by researchers

(Nelson, 1996:06). To apply Nelson's arguments on economics to engineering, the

relationship between cultural conceptions of gender and value and the central defining

features of contemporary engineering are directly related. "Even when women do the

same work as men, they are not perceived to be as competent as men nor is the work

perceived to be as prestigious"(Kaufman, 1984:358).

The phenomenon of women getting concentrated in particular types of jobs

which are considered to be 'female jobs' has been categorized by Bullock (1994) in

two groups: 1) horizontal segregation and 2) vertical segregation. Clustering of

women in certain occupations and in a limited number of activities within these

occupations is called horizontal segregation. "Women's participation in industrial

sector is generally lower than men's and concentrated in a relatively narrow range of

labour intensive light industries. Where men and women work in the same industry,

even the same factory, there are clear-cut job boundaries, with women on the

assembly line and men repairing machines and supervising, for example"(Bullock,

1994:26).

Vertical segregation, on the other hand, refers to the process by which women

are relegated to the less responsible, less secure and less well-paid jobs. Ever._ "where

an occupation is predominantly female, men are still often found in the management

positions: the head of a primary school, for example, or the shop manager. Worldwide

the proportion of women in managerial and decision-making is low; nowhere does it

reflect the numbers of women in the labour force, and the higher you go up the job

hierarchy, the fewer the women. Women make up less than 5 per cent of the world's

heads of state, heads of major corporations and top executives in international

organisations"(Bullock, 1994:27).

This segregation of women in labour market is explained by many theories

such as the consequence of t.he extension of women's role at home. Occupations like

12

nursing,. primary school teaching,. and factory work involving packing and producing

domestic products and lower level clerical and secretarial jobs are some of the

examples of this extension of traditional roles of women. This is taken as one of the

reasons for a high drop out rate of women from non-traditional occupations.

WOMEN IN THE ORGANISATIONS

After the entry in the organisations too, many institutional processes and

mechanisms prevent women from enjoying equal status along with men. Such checks

and balances for women in non-traditional, male dominated workplaces are the rules,

regulations and work culture that are shaped by the traditions of a male career.

Bullock (1994) argues that overt harassment of women by male colleagues in such

situations and isolation of these women from other women has caused a high drop out

rate from non-traditional occupations. "In addition, women working in sectors or

occupations where women predominate or alternatively women working in traditional

male jobs are also particularly at risk because of the imbalance between the sexes at

the workplace. In some cases, sexual harassment appears to occur least in situations

where an equal number of women and men are employed in positions but more

frequently when the traditional roles of men and women are challenged by women

taking up employment in a traditionally male-dominated sector or when women are

employed in higher-level positions"(Wirth, 1997:137). A woman who works as a

supervisor or boss is often in a dilemma. Very few women are there in the

organisations in top position as her colleagues and, job hierarchy often keeps her

away from sharing her experiences with the women who work under her.

Three major reasons that have been identified by various studies for women's

under-representation in senior positions in organizations are enlisted by Bullock

(1994). "1) Women themselves: lack of education and training, lack of continuous

career as a result of breaks for child rearing and some preference for part-time

working and lack of confidence or drive to succeed. 2) Personal policies and

organisational career structures which are shaped by the traditions of .a male career,

lack of provision for career breaks and re-entry; lack of appropriate provision for

women's management development; and lack of provision for flexible contracts of

13

higher levels. 3) Organisational climate and the attitudes of senior management: lack

of awareness of the pervasiveness of masculine assumptions; lack of interest in the

need for strategic change to increase the utilization of female resources; and lack of

support for the few women who do succeed" (Bullock, 1994:28). The causes for the

restriction and what may be termed as feminization of particular occupations,

according to the C()mmittee on Status of Women in India (1974) lie in the "a)

prevailing social attitudes which tend to regard women as unfit for most occupations;

b) the resistance of employers, and in some cases, of male workers to appointment of

women at higher levels; c) denial of on-the job training opportunities in higher skills;

and d) the ignorance of most women regarding jobs outside the conventional

classifications. Absence of any clear policy or criteria by which jobs may be classified

as suitable or unsuitable for women helps to perpetuate this restrictive tendency"

(GOI, 1974:57). In the Indian context Chanana (2001) notes that marriage and

primary perception of themselves as housewives and mothers make women 'reluctant

to describe themselves in career terms'. "They do not want to drive single mindedly to

top jobs"(Chanana,2001:356). Their points strengthen the arguments for a perspective

linking education, work and family of women.

Bullock's arguments are in the context of managerial positions. Nevertheless,

they hold true for all the high status, professional jobs. Her arguments take into

account the structure of the workplace, roles of education, training, and family.

Bullock discusses the issues of career path and glass ceiling within the workplace.

Acknowledging the institutional processes is her main contribution. According to her

quite a substantial number of women find themselves on an equal level with male

colleagues at an early stage in their career, but ten years later the chances are that

most of these men will be in more senior positions than the women regardless of

initial qualification, ability or experience. "At some point around the middle of the

most career ladders, there appears to be a 'glass ceiling' that prevents all but a few

women from getting to the top" (Bullock, 1994:28). Bullock argues that the specific

mechanisms at the workplace mentioned above cause the concentratiot?- of women at

the lower levels of responsibility though the under representation of women in the

management is a symptom of women's subordination elsewhere.

14

The idea of 'filter' is elaborated by Estler (1975) while analyzing the state of

women as leaders in public education. She is of the opinion that though women

constitute the majority of employees in education, they are the minority of

administrators at all levels of education and their numbers decrease with each step up

the hierarchical ladder to near non-representation at the top. "In this pattern, there are

several filter points at each of which the number of women in tl1e educational system

declines. There is a filter at the promotion to assistant principal and principal, from

principal to district office and from district office to superintendent. Additional filters

occur in the credentialing process required for these positions, and the evidence of

these filters is found in the decreasing proportion of educational degrees granted to

women at each successive degree level" (Estler, 1975:364). She raises a number of

questions that, if taken up for further study, can bring out interesting findings about

the root of the 'filters'. It is essential to find out whether filters are workplace

phenomena or the results of wider socio-cultural processes. She asks tl1e following

interesting questions: "Do filters exist as a result of social norms that lead women

teachers to avoid administrative responsibilities? Are they a result of job definitions

that primarily qualify only men for leadership?" (Estler, 1975:364). Shakeshaft's

study (1987) on educational administration finds that filters exist at different levels­

recruiting, application and selection. At the level of selection too filters operate in the

forms of selection criteria, interviews and selection decision at the final level

(Shakeshaft, 1987:99).

"Organisational processes are central to the understanding of gender relations,

and concomitantly that organisations are gendered" (Witz and Savage, 1992). They

along with Crompton (1992) argue that organisations can only be understood by

considering their implicit, inforn1al ordering as well as their forn1al procedures.

Savage (1992) concludes that "the fact that increasing number of women are

employed in professional and managerial jobs does not mean that organisations are

any less patriarchal than they used to be; rather it testifies to the fact that organisations

themselves have restructured and that the types of areas into whic~ women have

moved are those which tend to be barred from effective organisational

power"(Savage, 1992: 12). Savage's study of changes in the employment pattern in

Lloyds Bank between 1880 and 1940 found that the introduction of women clerks in

15

the bank was the direct result of a policy decision of the directors to better systematize

the male career. They wanted to promote 'promising' male clerks more quickly to

'positions of authority' by employing women in subordinate jobs and by providing

these male clerks formal training to compensate the 'experiences' they would miss

subsequently. Women were put in some technical tasks where there are large amount

of routine tasks that do not contribute towards their experience in technically

'exclusive tasks'.

STEREOTYPING. TOKENISM AND BOUNDARY HEIGHTENING

Gendering of work and the stereotyping of women at the workplace are some

other major blocks in the self-realization of women as successful careerists. Women

who are contenders to the 'male occupations' are viewed as crossing the 'invisible but

well-defined boundary' and therefore treated as an anomaly. This gendering of work

and workplace acts as obstacles to the career success of women. Kanter's study

(1977) is of interest in this respect. She found that despite the hostile environment in

the corporation there were some women who were able to scale the male hierarchy

into managerial positions (Kanter, 1977:233). All such women in senior positions and

authority were stereotyped and their characteristics altered to fit the generalized

perceptions of what women are like. These women managers were expected to

perform in the corporation in any of the four stereotyped informal roles expected by

men from a woman. These four roles were-'mother, seductress, pet and iron maiden'.

Kanter (1977) found that usually junior men turned to the managers with a mother

image for help. They depended on these women for advice and encouragement. The

second types of women were found to have developed a single sponsor among other

male managers. These women often 'manage' to 'survive' in the organisation without '

any problem with male colleagues because of the influence of the sponsor rather than

their personal standing. The third types of women managers were considered as

precious and 'to be protected'. Men were found to emphasize their 'femininity' and

therefore their 'inability' to do certain things. These women often lack real authority

because they were made incapable of asserting their authority due to· their existing

image. Women who refused to be put in either of the above roles were the 'iron

maidens'. They were considered finicky, tough and unapproachable. They often are

16

isolated and are treated as very militant and aloof. However~ these women happen to

be more successful in the managerial role than the others. Stereotyping of women as

described by Kanter (1977) also can be seen as a refusal to acknowledge women in

roles other than their traditional ones.

Women who succeed in making themselves visible often break stereotypical

expectations of their role performance and are treated as tokens. Kanter's study

(1977), which is referred to earlier in the review, deals with this situation. Most often,

differences of 'superwomen' with other women were accentuated to such an extent

that they reflected ideal types rather than reality. Apart from these, they took an

importance as symbolic representatives of a group or class of persons that went

beyond their standing as individuals, which Kanter calls as 'tokens' (Kanter,

1977:210). This exaggeration of differences between the majority group and the

'tokens' is called 'boundary heightening' in the literature. [t is interesting to look at

women's responses to the images created within the organisations by others and the

strategies they adopt. Kanter found in her study on women managers that they

consciously or unconsciously responded to their stereotyped images in a way that

fulfilled the expectations imposed by others as over achievers or as socially invisible.

Visibility of women, tokenism and boundary heightening lead to performance

pressures and behavioural patterns that counter productivity in these women.

It is important to project 'appropriate professional image' to be accepted in the

male dominated world (Carter and Kirkup, 1990:79)."The image that the women

engineers were trying to project had to reflect femininity and yet be serviceable for

the number of different and sometimes duty tasks their work entitled. Women have to

try and dress professionally and have to convince the seniors" (Carter and Kirkup,

1990:79). One of the women engineers interviewed by Carter and Kirkup calls this

fom1al suit as 'power suit'. When they wear it, they are respected and have power.

Some women_ engineers of their study find that the communication gets harder over

telephone when their status is not 'seen' by the kind of dress they wear and often

people over the phone talk to them as if they are talking to the secretaries or technical

office staff.

17

"Because women are expected to behave generally "softer" way than men,

they may be perceived as unsuited for the combative style expected from many

professionals"(Kaufman, 1984:360). Kaufman reports about a 'Boston Globe' article

that warned women that smiling might be bad for women's business careers because

it is interpreted by male coworkers as a sign of submission. Kaufman also refers to

many studies that suggest that the way women talk, gesture, touch, smile, sit, walk

and use space communicates their dependent and inferior status in our society. Carter

and Kirkup (1990) also discuss some arguments against women entering engineering

that are propagated by men. Women's traditional formal dress and the dress that

engineers have to wear for certain tasks, which the profession demands, are different

(Carter and Kirkup, 1990:80). This study also found that some male colleagues of the

women engineers of the study often take this as an example to show that ~ngineering,

as a profession, does not suit women.

WOMEN'S WORK AND INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Many of the women engineers in Parikh and Sukhatme (1992)'s study

complained that they are not satisfied with the jobs they got and their skills as

engineers are not utilized in the work they do (Parikh and Sukhatme, 1992:149). For

example, some of the engineers in the study felt that they were preferred for teaching

posts. This, according to them, inhibits their career and they are not able to utilize

their skill as engineers. Apart from 'unsatisfactory work opportunities and

environment', lack of institutional supports like housing and hostel facilities also

cause an adverse impact on the career of women (Parikh and Sukhatme, 1992:199).

Studies of Kalpagam (1994) and Papola and Sharma (1999) discuss how

workplace is totally unsympathetic and insensitive about certain problems faced by

working women in the present system like childcare, attending to family, etc. These

are seen as women's duties. Women are expected to take care of them. Factors like

lack of institutionalized support for working mothers and society's differential

treatment of men and women regarding family responsibilities are_ conveniently

forgotten by the society (Subrahmanyan, 1998:144).

18

Any kind of adjustments to working mothers with young children in terms of

flexible working hours are seen as a favour by both male and female superiors.

Subrahmanyan (1998) emphasizes this point in her study of female university

scientists in Tamil Nadu. This applies to all types of jobs with fixed workffig hours.

Also failure by working women to spend extra time or to be present at the workplace

during regular working hours is seen as lack of 'commitment' on the part of women

(Krishnaraj, 1991:51). Commitment of women is defmed against the backdrop of their

traditional roles within family and home. Commonly held beliefs and prejudices

against women that they are not committed towards their work and that they give

more importance to family than to work are often used against women to deny them

promotions and upward career mobility (Krishnaraj, 1991:112-115; Subrahmanyan,

1998: 121). Many of the women scientists studied by Subrahmanyan (1998) regret that

they could not stay back and do extra work due to family responsibilities

(Subrahmanyan, 1998:141 ). However, research en Indian women scientists shows that

productivity of married women is not less than that of other women (Krishnar~i.

1991:165). Jaiswal (1988a; 1993) fmds that though 'dual burden' is a reality in

married women's lives, when family support and domestic help are available, their

professional commitment did not get affected in any negative way. He found no

difference on 'professional commitment scale' between never married women, on the

one hand, and the men, on the other. Marriage did not make a difference in the lives

of men.

These 'concessions' and 'favours' granted to women as discussed above

themselves are quoted to block their chances at later stages of their career when

compared to a male colleague. "A major mechanism for blocking ~omen from the

promotion ladder has been to exclude them from transfers to branch offices or posts

far away from their homes, which means they are unable to acquire the range of

experience needed for promotion to a senior position" (Buddhapriya, 1999:04).

FORMAL STRUCTURES AND INFORMAL PRACTICES

An analysis of the existing literature on woP'~n in high status jobs reveals that

formal and informal discriminatory practices against women rooted both in the

19

organisational context and general socio-cultural milieu affect women's productivity

and success at the workplace adversely. These informal practices are often seen as

concessions given to the women workers due to their roles as wives and mothers.

Informal interactions outside the time and formal settings of the offices contribute

towards strengthening the social solidarity and accessing information that is not

available in the formal arena of the workplace. "Interaction in professions, especially

in their top echelons is characterized by a high degree of informality, much of it

within an exclusive, club like context" (Epstein, 1970a: 968). Women in the present

social set up are totally excluded from such informal interactions outside work due to

traditional roles as wives and mothers and norms of social segregation. Hughes ( 1973)

mentions in the context of academics that if women are excluded from male networks,

they remain marginal and invisible when such important professional decisions as

selection for promotion, tenure, research grants, coeditorships, summer teaching, and

departmental privileges are under consideration. "It is within the collegial arena that

judgements are made and standards are set. It is within the collegial arena that the

ongoing dynamics of professional life are carried out. If women are denied access to

this arena (even if they have formed their own networks), they are left out of the

power centres of their professions. Moreover exclusion from male networks does not

permit the breakdown of myths about professional women"(Kaufman, 1984:365).

It is interesting at this point to look at aspects of male response to female

authority. A study done on small-group behaviour reveals that the male response to

female authority in the small groups was characterized by 'hostility' and I or

'dependency' (Mayes, 1979). The majority of the men in the study could not

cooperate as subordinates with the goal of the leader. "Fear of the female authorities

and overt anger preceded expressions of dependency on the women leaders. Men

occasionally identified the leader as a 'female-father' figure. They expressed doubt

about the 'real' sex of the leader. .. men insisted that women were supposed to be

'supportive', 'expressive' and loving; not 'cold and unfeeling' as the female leader

was described. . .. On the other side, a few males coped with the fe~aleness of the

leader by identifying her as mother, ignoring her 'coldness' and trying to gain her

approval by being 'good boys"'. (Mayes, 1979:561). Another band of men in these

groups were passive throughout the meetings. These men said they could not help

20

feeling dependent on the female leader and they decided not to fight iL They felt that

the female leaders do not possess the female closeness and they 'let' the women be

the leaders. After a while, nevertheless, these men expressed fears about their

masculinity and became more uncomfortable with their dependent postures.

Introduction of new technologies has made innovation in work organisation

possible. Modem firms experiment with new forms of work organisations like

telecommunicating, remote working and so on. These are termed as successful,

corporate strategies. The impact of these changes on the quality and quantity of

employment in the modem urban sector has been studied and welcomed by

academicians (Mitter, 1997). Increased flexibility offered by the new technologies

enabled firms especially in the information processing and engineering field, to

decentralize the preparation and entry part of their work. "Large companies are able to

utilize the flexibility offered by innovations in telecommunications, computers and;(;,:·~·-,_..-- ..

office technology to separate the physical location of labour - and space-intensiv¢'1 ~ (' , '( •.. ( '

operations - such as invoicing, pay rolling, stock control, sales records, marke't _r;;~ '. \"~I \·. .

analysis and routine accounting procedure - away from the headquarters of the ',: ··:

company to a location where the costs of labour and office accommodation are

considerably lower" (Mitter, 1997:110). Bureaucratically less impersonal and hence

less daunting working environment is unquestionably the most beneficial reward for

the employees. However, the impact of these changes on women and men has been

differential (Mitter, 1997:105). There have not been many detailed inquiries on this

differential impact.

Mitter ( 1997) finds that the hours of work of the successful women

entrepreneurs who made use of these technologies in developed countries were

extremely long and unpredictable. "Men consultants faced similar challenges, but

women's generally heavier commitment to home making made the routine especially

demanding. In addition, self-employed consultant - women and men- had to forego

the security provided by employers, such as superannuation rights, job tenure, sick

leave or holiday pay" (Mitter, 1997:111 ). She narrates the case of Brazil workers of a

large public administration agency at a decentralized branch complained of having no

say on questions of skills,. training decisions and job contenL This is due to the lack of

21

THESIS 305.43620095483 N1438 Ge

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll TH10760

contact with the head office. Apart from this lack of communication between the

management and the workers, there was also a 'deliberate minimization of

communication between workers'. This has a wider implication as far as the status of

the employees with regard to the union activities and collective bargaining. It is

increasingly difficult for women, in such situations~ to appeal against sexual

harassment at the workplace~ Mitter argues that the trade unions need to reorient their

traditional ways to face the challenges in the new work situations. Policy initiatives

with a view to consciously change the culture of the organisation 'enabling women to

combine their productive with their reproductive role' are the need of the hour (ibid).

Therefore, a blind advocacy of flexibility in time and place may not be in the interest

of those who work for a more equitable workplace for women.

Studies on engineering at both Indian and international level identify three

aspects of the issues related to women engineers - enrollment levels, employment

opportunities and career development. Most of the studies confirm low enrollment

levels, limited job opportunities and a slower pace of career growth for women

engineers. However only very tew studies actually discuss the 'career paths' and

'glass ceilings' of women engineers and even fewer studies analyze the linkages

between the three institutions of family, education and work in their life. In India, at

present, attention is concentrated on the effects of state policy on gender relations and

less on the gendered processes internal to the bureaucratic processes of the

organisations. Indian theories on gendered workplace still have to acknowledge that

"power is not a 'single- encompassing strategy"'(Foucault, 1984: 103) but works

through specific institutions and processes peculiar to each society.

Gender at the worksite and how the gendered organisation affects the external

environment -the public and private space where women and men live their lives- are

discussed by Rao, Stuart and Kelleher (1999). They argue that having more women

by positive gestures to participate in existing organisations as workers or even as

leaders while maintaining existing values and ways of working, will not equalize the

unequal influence of organisations on the lives of women and men clients .. "Looking

at gendered organisational impact without examining the embedded patriarchal values

22

and practices of organisations will not create sustainable change"(Rao, Stuart and

Kelleher, 1999: xv).

The Family, Education and Women's Work

The foregoing discussion clearly points to the family's role in women's

education and work. Sociological theories have analysed family in relation to

women's private and public roles.Most of these come w1der various frameworks--­

Biological, Functional, Marxist and Radical frameworks. For instance studies of

Anthropologists like Murdock (1949), Tiger (1972) and Fox (1972) stress biology and

biological differences between men and women as the basis of sexual division of

labour. Murdock, who wrote extensively on the institution of family, is of the opinion

that women are tied to the home base because of their biological function of child

bearing and nursing. Men are capable of strenuous tasks because of their 'superior'

physical strength and women undertake l~ss strenuous tasks because of their 'inferior'

physique. All of these theorists take the universality of family and the sexual division

of labour as the evidence of the advantages of the existing system. Mainstream

Sociology argues that it is sufficient to state that there are basic sexual divisions of

labour in all societies and hence gender roles are given and universal.

Functionalists argue that the sexual division of labour is universal to account

for the role of women in industrial society. Parsons (1959) sees family as essential for

the existence of modem industrial society. The family specializes in two basic

functions 1) the socialization of the young and 2) the stabilization of adult

personalities. For an effective socialization of young and adult, a close, wam1 and

supportive group called family is essential. Within the family woman is primarily

responsible for the bearing of children and their socialization. This is more complex

because of isolation of the nuclear family from its immediate conmmnities in modem

industrial society. Nuclear family focuses the responsibility of the mother role more

sharply on adult women. Absence of the men-husband, father- from the home for

work puts the responsibility on the shoulder of women in the household. Women's

role in the family is 'expressive' which means sh" provides warmth, security and

emotional support. This helps the socialization of children and stabilization of adult

23

personalities. The male adults work the whole day in a very competent and

achievement oriented society. This lea.ds to stress and anxiety. For the family to

operate efficiently as a social system, there must be a clear-cut sexual division of

labour in which women have 'expressive role and men have instrumental role'. They

complement each other. The woman in the family is like 'blotting paper' that takes off

all the tensions ofthe adult workingmen (Bernard, 1976).

Marxists have tended to give only secondary importance to family in their

preoccupation with social class. Engels was the first one to write about family from a

Marxian perspective. He considers the origin of private property and family as the

starting point of suppression of women. The institution of private property resulted in

the abolition of matrilocal families. This 'historical defeat of the female sex' is

explained by Engels as the loss of mother right and superiority of women within the

household. However, his analysis is limited to the h<'llsehold. His questioning of

women's status is restricted to the problem of the changing status of women in terms

of their position within the household because this is regarded as women's natural

sphere of labour.

Willmott and Young (1994) find families as 'androcentric' and transmitters of

sex inequalities, if not patriarchal. Through various ideals - like male breadwinner

and fulltime mother- family segregates women to their traditional roles. If married

women go to work, it is up to them to make alternative arrangements to cover

housework and childcare. This restricts their entry into employment.

The family's role in women's education and work is also becoming important

with more women coming out of their home to have a public life apart from their

traditional roles at home. The importance of family in women's education and

occupation is stressed in a number of studies on Indian workingwomen too

(Krishnaraj, 1991:160-168; Mukhopadhyay,1994:106; Subrahmanyan, 1998:79-93,).

Nevertheless, Mukhopadhyay (1994) finds in her study tl1at educational decision­

making is not left to the individuals; not just in the case of women but also in the

education of all the children, both boys and girls. These decisions are taken keeping in

mind the family's status. "Education is not simply the route to an individual's

24

economic security or interesting career; It often has a profound impact on the welfare

of the entire natal family - its economic welfare, its ability to secure 'good' marriages

for family members and its overall family status. Decisions about the education

potentially enhance or threaten the family's future status". .Hence educational

decisions, "like marriage decisions, are not left in the hands of individual students"

(Mukhopadhyay, 1994:106).

For girls, their reputation and their family's standing in the society are

important. Mukhopadhyay and Seymour (1994) in their study find that even the

highly educated unorthodox families interviewed by them for the study expressed

serious concern about girls' social reputation .. Although they supported their

daughters' higher education, they recognised that such an education- especially in

science and technology - requires stepping "outside the family space and entering a

predominantly male world, could be problematic for the girls and it would complicate

their daughters' marriage"(Mukhopadhyay and Seymour; 1994:14). While some

families value the prestige of a science and engineering degree, they realize that it will

complicate arranging their daughter's marriage. Complications arise because the

parents will have to look for grooms with better education and higher-ranking degree

to marry away their highly educated daughters. The belief that husbands should

outrank their wives is widespread. "Traditionally age, caste status and worldly

knowledge tended to constitute such criteria whereas today educational status has

become a major criterion of male authority and family rank"(Mukhopadhyay and

Seymour, 1994:14).

Another aspect of family that has received some attention from theni is the

differential treatment of children towards taking up science as a subject of study.

"Several expert consultants though professing support for women's entry into science

and engineering admitted that they viewed their sons' mathematical competence as

having significant family impact,. requiring investment in a tutor; in contrast, their

daughters' success was pleasant but relatively inconsequential". (Mu!chopadhyay,

1994:1 09). If daughters are good in Mathematics, it is pleasant and good but treated as

relatively inconsequential. Nevertheless, for boys it needs investment in a tutor. In the

case of a girl's education, questions about fmancial viability of a father supporting a

25

daughter's education arise because gender roles within a family are well differentiated

and only a son is expected to be provider in the future (Subrahmanyan, 1998:88).

Decisions about girl's fields of study are influenced by the perceived impact

on a girl's potential marriage prospects- Despite prestige and scope associated with

engineering degrees, it is precisely these fields that offer the greatest potential social

risks and 'marriage inabilities' (Krishanaraj, 1991: 120; Mukhopadhyay, 1994: 116). It

is found among the women scientists studied by Subrahmanya~ (1998) that even

when brothers had lesser education than sisters, brothers. had received Master's degree

in the more prestigious disciplines like engineering or business management whereas

the sisters are in the pure sciences that are less prestigious. Mathematics is more

popular than engineering among women. Having a higher degree in mathematics is

considered as an option for women whereas engineering is not due to their future

career possibilities. Teaching mathematics at the university is. considered to be a very

respectable career for women whereas working as an engineer in industry where they

would be in a 'male dominated environment' would not be accepted even if

engineering is more prestigious (Subrahmanyan, 1998:85). Overall, the picture that

emerges is that women's enrollments in science, engineering and other professional

and technical fields. are expanding and will continue to do so in the future (Krishnaraj,

1991; Subrahmanyan, 1998:88).

Yet, the 'patrilocal' structure of family and ideology will continue to play a

major role in the academic and professional choice. 'Patrilocal' structure of family

refers to the practices of residences that are centred on men. It is also found that some

families send daughters only to selected local, lower ranked institutions for higher

studies than prestigious institutions located in distant cities because the second option

is socially risky for girls (Mukhopadhyay, 1994:112; Subrahmanyan, 1998:85).

It is seen in the existing literature that expectations from men and women in

professional careers are different. Similarly, expectations of duties and responsibilities

from men and women having the same job are different in family. "For the

professional man, frequent absences from home, tardiness for dinner, and "overtime"

work are not only expected but also accepted as evidence that he is a good provider

26

and therefore a good parent and spouse. Such is not the case for professional

women"(Kaufman, 1984:359).

Power is an important aspect not only in public institutions but in private and

personal institutions like family too. Family cannot be considered as a purely private

and personal institution because of its linkages with other public institutions in terms

of the support and dependence it has vis-a-vis the wider society. Family is the main

area of exploitation of women." ... whereas race, class and gender oppression operate

on the social stmctural Level of institution, gender oppression seems better able to

annex the basic power of the erotic and intrude in personal relationships via family

dynamics and within individual consciousness"(Collins, 1991 :226). One important

issue of women's visibility and decision- making power both at home and outside is

the violence against women. Violence and harassment are realities of life for women

across ages and cultures. Reaction of the society towards this menace has been very

biased. Very few studies are available in the literature on this aspect. Horsman's

(2000) findings on the links between violence and literacy are to be discussed in this

connection. Though the discussion is on violence and literacy of women, it applies to

women, their education and work. Violence and harassment, both at domestic and

public spaces, affect women's education and their contribution to the public and

domestic arenas of work. "I will not retreat into simplistic arguments that violence

preserves patriarchy, ignoring the existence of violence against men or by women.

However, I do recognise that violence against girls and women diminishes women's

power and ability to focus on themselves. Some portion of our energy is always taken

up in vigilance and attention to the possibility of danger, to focus on the other - the

potential abuser - although that vigilance has been learned so young that we may

often be unaware of its existence". " ... the theoretical frameworks through which

violence is conceptualized support the process of minimizing and silencing evidence

of violence"(Horsman, 2000:318).

Educational institutionsy workplaces and the community at large are gripped

by power play- overt and subtle. However, conceptual clarity is needed· as to what we

mean by empowerment of women_ "We should not conceptualize our quest for

empowerment as one of replacing male authority with 'benevolent' female authority.

27

This would be in effect contrasting to our effort for equality. Genders are equal and so

the ultimate effect ofthe power which corrupts will be the same"(Collins. 1991 :224).

A number of important issues emerge from the foregoing review of the studies

of education, work and family of women. Firstly equal opportunities of access to

education and work are not enough to attain equality of men and women in public

lives. After men and women get into the institutions of education and work also there

are structures and processes that lead to unequal participation of women. Formal and

informal structures, processes and policies within the organisations and instihrtions

are important to understand this unequal participation. At the same time, wider socio­

cultural milieu has impact on the organisations and therefore analysis of organisations

without contextualising them is not sufficient to make sense of the stmctures and

processes within the organisations.

Women are denied possibilities of professional development within the

organisations citing their physical and social limitations. And later organizational

heads use these lack of professional skills and experiences as reasons for denying

them better positions when they are in competition with men. Nevertheless, women

are not mere passive observers within organizations. They respond to various

situations, protesting and strategising and negotiating. It is seen from the revie\v that

women in engineering are one of the least explored areas of study. The need to link

the issues connected to women in engineering to the wider social context has also

emerged in the review.

THE STUDY

This study 'Gender, Education and Work: A Study of Women Engineers in

Kerala' attempts to understand the interlinkages between education, work and family

with specific reference to women engineers. The study is situated in Kerala State

Electricity Board, a large government organisation that is engaged in the generation,

conduction and supply of electricity across Kerala. The organisation is located in a

state which is lauded for the progress in the sphere of social development measured in

terms of conventional indicators like literacy, high life expectancy and so on and the

high status of women. However, it is also a state which is known for its social

28

tradition of liberal position for women. Recent writings have also commented on the

rigid expectation of traditional roles of women. Against this setting, this study looks

at the experiences of women as students in the arena of engineering education and as

professional engineers in the organisation.

RATIONALE

As mentioned earlier, there is a dearth of studies on women professionals in

India, especially engineers. Hence it is important to focus the attention on them. This

study is done among the selected engineers of the State Electricity Board of Kerala.

The decision to locate the study in Kerala was taken as it would be interesting to

explore the experiences of women engineers in a state that is applauded for its high

human development indicators that include women's high literacy, health and

education. Kerala is at the top of the list of the Indian states with highest women's

literacy, education and health.

Within Kerala, Kerala State Electricity Board (K.S.E.B.) has been selected for

the study because tlris is one of the few organizations in Kerala where women

engineers with many years of work experience are employed. K.S.E.B. was of special

interest because it is an organization with legal frameworks and policies suited for an

egalitarian workplace. For these reasons it is also a much sought after workplace.

Seniority and one's rank at the entry point are the only criteria for the promotion of

engineers within the organisation. These policies are gender blind do not give any

consideration to the gender of the employees. So ideally the women engineers should

be working in the organization just like the men who have been there.

OBJECTIVES

To study the experiences of women engineers of the K.S.E.B. in order to

understand whether they receive unequal treatment relative tc men both in their

education as well as work within the organizational context.

More specifically to explore:

29

1) The nature of women's access. to professional education. Here the process of

decision-making, choice of subjects as well as the classroom processes will be

focused upon. ' '

2) Whether women and men engineers differ in relation to job entry and career path

within K.S.E.B.

3) To understand the dynamics of the workplace that is overtly egalitarian in terms of

seniority based promotion structure. To specifically look at the division of tasks

within the organization, especially in the office and the field.

4) To understand the women's strategies and the roles they undertake to succeed

within workplace.

~ To understand the· role: of family specifically in relation to the educational and

professional lives of women and their. roles and· responsibilities. Specifically to

look at family as support and constraint in professional education and jobs.

',

6) To explore the perceptions of women regarding specific aspects of professional

education, workplace and family

~·

7)- Perceptions of employers and male colleagues regarding women m the

organization.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND ~METHODOLOGY

This section presents the framework for the study of the experiences of women

engineers within the organisation i.e., K.S.E.B. Concepts that are important to explain

the structures and processes within the organization, such as stereotyping, tokenism.

boundary heightening will be explored here. The importance of structure and agency

of women is stressed in this study.

Our study begins with the premise that differential treatment of women in the

organizations is rooted in the institutional arrangements of organizations that are

inseparable from the society of which they are parts, which in tum produce gender­

inequitable outcomes. It is our contention that 'all is not well' even when well-framed

30

laws exist to ensure equal participation of women in public life - in educational

institutions and workrplaces. It is equally important to recognise the informal

practices, traditions and incidents associated with each field of activity in the

workplace. While one is not in a position, after looking at the' quantitative and

qualitative data in the study, to posit a uni-dimensional relationship between family

and women's education and work, it can be argued that family is a support as well as

a constraint for the career of women.

The study finds it important to go beyond the issues of equal opportunities and

access of women to attain egalitarian participation in educational institutions and

workplaces. Equal opportunity paradigm is not sufficient to explain the differential

experiences of women within institutions that work within the egalitarian framework.

This is because they exist within a society professing and practising patrifocal

structures and ideology. It is important to go beyond the visible structures and try to

look at the hidden and informal practices that happen at the ground level. This is the

gray area where the egalitarian laws and rules become ineffective. Informal practices

based on the existing traditions often nullify the expected effects of gender blind

policies. At the same time it is here that the symbiotic relation between constraining

structures and agency of individual woman comes in. Kanter (1977) argued that

women, even as secondary actors always engage in an active role by strategizing to

get ahead of the structural constraints. The intricate and ambiguous agency of women

overlooking, accommodating, resisting, and protesting the various structures and

practices as mentioned by Kabeer (2000) also becomes important. .

In spite of the barriers and disfavouring structures, some women are able to

get ahead and become visible within the predominantly 'male space'. These women

are stereotyped and they are called 'tokens' by Kanter (1977). The differences

between these women and the other women who 'tread the expected path' are often

exaggerated by men colleagues and higher authorities and this process is called

'boundary heightening' in the literature (Kanter, 1977).

It is important not to ignore any of the structural factors, but at the same time,

what happens at the grass-root level may not be visible through these approaches

31

because of the 'conclusive and deliberate' homogeneity seen from above. Hence

looking closer at each individual's experiences and narrating· them to see how they

constitute the collectivity and generality is attempted in the work.. The study, as a

result, tries a middle ground where both agency of individuals and the structure

converge. That made it necessary to move away from the frameworks looking at

opportunities as the all-important step towards making women's life chances better.

Statistical analysis,_ if not careful to consider the individual initiatives,_ would be

highly inadequate in interpreting the· events and decisions in their lives. Analysis of

agency of individuals - conscious. and deliberative actions. of individuals as well as

ambiguous and uncertain- is done to ask what actions of individuals reveal more

about their identities. It also reveals the strategies the individuals adopt to cope vvith

the limitations of structure. This gives. a clearer view of the mutual interdependence

between individuals and their social situations. Rather than relying too much on

statistical correlations to come to definite conclusions, the study focuses on in-depth

analysis of the institution of education, wor!c and family of the respondents. a~d the~r

agency. The discussion and the subsequent conclusion of the study are limited to that

extent

)1-v.~?. The study has relied on in-deptl1 interviews wi~1 women engineers..t to crllect

h 1 ·-~ . Ob . d . . . 1 l s+v~ 1 . t e most re evant 11uormauon: s~rvat10ns an mterv1ews Wit 1 emp ayers usmg an

interview guide are the other techniques used for data collection. Survey of literature

and collection of secondary material have contributed: to tl1e understanding of the

context and background of the organization and the issues involved in the study. . ~ <;+-_.._d,.pY'-1.!

Sample of the study contains 100 engtl:teers--50 men and 50 women. Stratified .... - ·-- - - - -- - ·- ~ - - - .....

rand<?m sampling was used to select the engineers in the study. Engineers from ,...- - -- -- -different designations and departments were selected in such a way tl1at women

engineers witli longer years of work experience and seniority would be part of tl1e

sample. Details of the sample and the basis· of selection of respondents are given in

the Appendix l. Distributions of engineers according to the designations are given in

tl1e fourth chapter .. Thus this study uses. composite. methods involving both qualitative

and quantitative techniques.

3'2

FIELDWORK

Observation took place at three levels,-- workplace; respondents' travel. from

home to workpLace and back and in some cases~ home~ fil§ng:up of_q~est~onnaire by

the researcher was, the method·, used to. obtain core data from the. respondents. First

step towards the drafting of the questionnaire: was to prepare a_ checklist. of issues that

contained broader~ free format This was. to ensure that it covered ali the relevant

i_:;sues after going through the· existing literature~ After discussions. with researchers

and scholars from various fields and a trip· to1 the- field in August-September 2000; the

present questionnaire was. made .. Questionnaire contained both open ended and dose­

ended questions and contained both. factual and opinion,..based questions.

Questionnaire had two parts .. First part was common for both men and women.

Second part was only for women engineers and sought to explore their perception on

family and the interlinkages with- education and work.. A pilot study was done on

women engineers who belonged. to Kerala. and were working in_ Delhi to see the

effectiveness of the questionnaire. Major part of the fretdwork was completed during

the period of May to September 2001. A thinl visit to the field was undertaken in

April 2003. At this stage in'-depth interviews with selected respondents were held.

Details of the interviewsandprocedures-oftheresearch.are: given. in the· Appendi.x: l.

CHAPTERISATION

This study started with a review of the literature· on. the· related areas. A section

on conceptual framework and methodology followed. The· section of review

emphasised that equal opportunities in access are not enough for women to attain

equality in public lives ..

It is against the background of the-literature on' women and! the- conceptual and

methodological issues discussed earlier that the- study presents an overview of women,

education_ and work in. Kerala in the· fonn:. of the second chapteL Third chapter

introduces the· Kerala: State· Electricity Board (K.S.E.B} where· the· engineers of the

study are employed. The chapter that follows tries to· -give an illuStration of the

baclq,rround of the- respondents .. This- chapter first introduces the· sample and then goes

on to give information on their socio-economic· background~. educational experiences

33

in school, parents' and siblings' and spouses' educational and occupational

background. Fifth chapter tries to throw light on the factors and persons that

influenced and perhaps decided the choices of the respondents. Sixth chapter deals

with women engineers and their work within K.S.E.B. Responses of women regarding

their education and work pointed towards family as a very important support system

for women. Hence the last chapter tries to analyse the relation between family and

education and work of women. Summary and conclusions follow as a separate

section.

The discussion that follows this chapter is on Kerala as mentioned earlier. This

chapter tries to provide an overall analysis of the geographical setting in which the

study is situated. An evaluation of the general situation and those of education and

work of women against that background is given in the chapter.

34