Employment Shifts by Women Workers and Underlying Intersectionality: A Case of Cuttack, India

Abstract

A review of literature related to use of intersectionality for social analysis reveals the dearth of studies on intersectional processes across time and space. This paper presents the nature, causes and micro-level intersectional processes underlying employment shifts made by women construction and domestic workers, including shifting between these occupations and withdrawal from work. The study uses mixed methods of survey and case studies. A total of 498 women were surveyed and 33 case studies were explored in 12 slums of Cuttack city, Odisha state, in India. Cleaned and complete data of reasons cited for employment change and respondents’ age, work hours and work days from survey sample have been used for analysis. 4 representative case studies of the 33 have been used in this paper. Interactive processes of trade-off between paid and unpaid work, changes in the family, age and the woman’s identity, ageing and physical/mental health issues were found to be an integral part of the women’s lives and the causes behind employment shifts or withdrawal from work. Work-related decisions of respondents were taken amidst intersecting occurrences of care burden, unpaid domestic work, family debt, family support, ageing and health issues over time. Analysis of women’s past and present shows that their work decisions were influenced by their intersectional position of gender, class, age and family support. Intersectionality of gender and class was found to imply similar experiences among women workers, whereas age and family support made differences in these experiences through interactive processes spread out over time, as in everyday life and in particular situations of illness, birth, marriage, death and others.

Keywords: Mixed methods, micro-level intersectional processes, family support, unpaid work