Family structure, women's education and work : re-examining the high status of women in Kerala

Abstract

Literacy, together with non-domestic employment, which gave
\nwomen access to independent sources of income, have been regarded as
\nimportant indicators of women’s ‘status’, which affected fertility and
\nmortality outcomes. Since women in Kerala have on average, been the
\nmost literate when compared with women in other states of India (though
\nthe same could not be said of female work-participation rates), much has
\nbeen written about their ‘high status’ and their central role, historically,
\nin social development. However, there is a growing uneasiness with
\nKerala’s social development outcomes linked to non conventional
\nindicators as in the rising visibility of gender based violence, mental illhealth
\namong women, and the rapid growth and spread of dowry and
\nrelated crimes. We suggest that engagement with socio-cultural
\ninstitutions such as families, which mediate micro level decisions
\nregarding education, health or employment, could reveal the continuities
\nrather than disjunctures between conventional social development
\noutcomes and non conventional indicators of ill health and violence.
\nChanges in the structure and practices of families in Kerala in the past
\ncentury have had wide-ranging implications for gender relations.
\nAlterations in marriage, inheritance and succession practices have
\nchanged dramatically the practices of erstwhile matrilineal groups as
\nwell as weakened women’s access to and control over inherited resources.
\nAlongside, women’s education and employment have not played the
\ntransformative role so generally expected of them. Changing levels of
\nfemale employment and the persistence of a gendered work structure
\nhave limited women’s claims to “self-acquired” or independent sources
\nof wealth. Underlying these changes are conceptions of masculinity
\nand femininity, which privilege the male working subject and female
\ndomesticity.
\nKey words: family, gender relations, women’s status, empowerment,
\neducation, employment.
\nJEL Classification : D1, J12, J21, K11