Urban Working-class Women: The Need for Autonomy

Abstract

Women workers are women, and they are workers; in theory, it should be possible for all their rights as women workers to be fought for through the women’s liberation movement and the trade union movement. Yet if we look at the case of Bombay, India, where both movements have been very vital and active, it appears that the interests of women workers have been, ultimately, passed by. More specifically, in the organised industrial sector, where most of the better employment for women is to be found, thousands of women’s jobs have been lost. If there is any expansion in industrial employment for women, it is in the unorganised sector, under very inferior terms and conditions. In other words, women remain a cheap and disposable part of the labour force, despite struggles for women’s rights by both the trade union movement and the women’s movement. This chapter examines the reasons for the continued marginalisation of women workers, on the basis of case studies of the pharmaceutical and food industries in Bombay.