Feminist Sociological Research & Economic Sustainability: Local, National & Global Insights

This session brought together feminist scholars in sociology to explore theory driven research in feminism, policy and development.  They explored the theme of women’s economic empowerment by examining different types of work and what that work means for the empowerment of women. Ultimately the findings supported the idea that all work is not created equal and that women can be disempowered through employment.  This is in contrast to the idea that simply bringing women into the workforce will result in empowerment.  While they might earn an income, the type of work done could lead to exploitation and can contribute to a gender gap in pay and unequal treatment.  This is not to say that women should not work, rather that women’s empowerment is multi-faceted and must be deeply explored through research and advocacy.  This aligns with many of the sessions at the CSW61, which assert that economic empowerment is more than simply women in the workforce.   

Home-based work and babysitting jobs in adolescents highlighted that work can actually exploit women and girls.  Home-based work in India required that women provide their own supplies and work during times when they were not doing traditional domestic duties.  The fact that they were still responsible for domestic work and participated in paid work when they had extra time signaled that these women were not necessarily more empowered by economic participation, but instead ended up working long hours and were doing traditional women’s work such as sewing for pay.  The fact that they had to buy their supplies often meant that they did large amounts of work for menial pay.  This requires consideration of how we define economic empowerment for women. 

Work on pay and babysitting shows that girls start working for less pay at young ages with equal pay between male and female babysitters ending around 12 to 13 years old.  At this point male babysitters begin making more money and are not required to do additional chores such as cleaning and cooking.  When parents were asked to separately rate babysitters based on a vignette about a male and female babysitters, if “Mary” in the vignette was described as not having a close emotional bond with the child, she was rated poorly.  The same was not true for the male babysitter who received higher ratings if he played outside with the children.  It is the nuances in work, which need to be considered when looking at women’s economic empowerment.  This was an interesting example of where the gender pay gap begins, how early it begins and the way that such biases in pay and expectations can be easily overlooked.   A job that is intended to build character and provide pocket money can actually be starting point for the acceptance of employment inequality.  This session highlighted the important concept that simply working does not ensure empowerment for women and that there are a myriad of ways to explore the economic empowerment of women.