Role of gender in decision-making: a study of women attached in handloom weaving

Abstract

This research attempts to examine the decision-making power of women engaged in handloom weaving at Varanasi in the Northern Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. The handloom weaving is labour intensive and needs indispensable and sizeable contribution of women of the weavers' families. Decision-making power is a significant tool to examine the position, inequality, empowerment and autonomy of the women within the household and in the society at large. The data on making decision regarding household works (cooking), purchase of goods, mobility, childrens education, access to money, contraceptive behaviour, number children and sexual initiative were collected from 500 married Muslim women of the weaver families of Varanasi. The selected narratives of qualitative data are presented to support of the findings of quantitative analysis. Chi-square test illustrated that significantly the husbands take major decisions independently and women's decision, if at all, is subject to consent of their husbands.