Tata Institute of Social Sciences
A Deemed to be University and Grant-in Aid Institute under Ministry of Education,GoI
SINCE
1936

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International Conference on Changing Contours of Women's Paid and Unpaid Work

Archived


July 12, 2018 9:00AM - July 13, 2018 6:00PM

Venue: Library Conference Hall, TISS Main Campus, Mumbai

Organised by School of Management and Labour Studies and School of Development Studies

February 6, 2018 marked a century of women’s suffrage for which the first generation of women’s rights activists fought relentlessly making great personal sacrifice in the face of tremendous patriarchal resistance. Though the suffragist movement began with striving for adult franchise for women as a fundamental right as a citizen; it snowballed into struggle for rights of the women as paid and unpaid workers. During the last century, in spite of sustained collective actions in several parts of the North and the South, discrimination against women in the world of work still persists due to caste/race/ethnicity/sexuality/gender based segmentation in the labour market and non-recognition of unpaid care economy.

Overarching concerns with respect to work force participation of women in the 21st century have been changing labour processes, labour/employment relations and labour standards in different sector of the economy. Only minuscule proportion of women in the world economy is in the organised sector with relatively better standards of social security and social protection. The rest face back-breaking, long hours of dead-end work without any chances of upward social and economic mobility, mostly in the precarious working situation. There is south in the North and north in the South. Thus it is not only in Africa, Latin America and Asia, that women workers face inhuman work condition and below subsistence wages, but non-white women in the workforce in the industrialized world also face the same predicament as footloose pricariates in the informal economy. The world capitalism has found coloured women as “the last colony” for capitalist accumulation. In the poverty groups, self-employed women end up self-exploiting as the returns for their hard work are deplorably low.

Even in sunrise industries such as information technology- business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, medical transcription and transliteration women are in lowest rung of hierarchy without any chances of promotion. Couple of women as CEOs of financial sector or fortune 500 companies, are showcased as symbols of empowerment of women but large majority of professionally qualified women are stuck as middle to lower level cadre in the corporate sector. Presence of women in the board rooms across the Industries worldwide is negligible. Apparently they are better placed, but are not getting level playing field due to patriarchal biases.

Segmentation factor market and product market does not allow self employed women and women entrepreneurs’ to upscale their ventures. Masculinity of capital is inclined towards investing resources among 'old boys club' that also operates on caste, religion and ethnic identities.

In spite of such adversities, networks such as Women Working Worldwide, Homenet, Committee of Asian Women, rural and urban working class women’s united front such as Gabriela in the Philippines, Greenbelt movement of women farmers in Africa, Domestic Workers Unions in several countries, women's cooperatives such as Annapurna Mahila Mandal and women's trade union such as Self Employed Women's Association, Women's Bank such as Mandesh Mahila Sahakari Bank in India have served as role models for individual women and women's collectives to challenge the status quo. Experiments have been made with WID, WAD and GAD perspectives. How to survive in the neo-liberal, neo-conservative economic eco-system has been a mind boggling issue confronting labour economists, trade union activists, development thinkers, gender studies scholars and International Labour Organisation of the UN .

With this perspective, The School of Management and Labour Studies, Centre for Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai would like to host International Conference during July 12-13, 2018.

The objectives of this conference are:

  • to deliberate upon the issues and experiences of women across organised and unorganised sector to excavate the contour that women are struggling to create as their own in the contemporary world.
  • to identify the varied forms of strategies and tactics evolved by women to meet the challenges thrown up by neoliberal ecosystem.
  • To critically evaluate various theories of labour studies to search for a gender responsive answer

The thematic areas would be as follows:

  • Women in Corporate: as Workers, Staff and Management cadre
  • Women in Profession
  • Women in Urban formal and informal labour
  • Women in Agriculture and Allied Activities
  • Women and Public Sector Undertaking
  • Women in Education
  • Women in Service Sector: Conventional and Modern
  • (Hospitality, transport, care economy)
  • Women's Cooperatives
  • Women in Sunrise Industries
  • Women in Financial Sector
  • Women in Administration and Governance
  • Women in the Workforce and Criminal Justice system

Participants

Researchers, Scholars, Practitioners, Corporate and Government Representatives who have made contributions in abovementioned thematic areas will be invited.

Programme Schedule

Location: Library Conference Hall, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, VN Purav Marg ,Opposite Deonar Bus Depot, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400088

TISS board number: +912225525000 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Important information to note:

Weather conditions and essentials to carry: July is a month of heavy monsoon in Mumbai. Travelling becomes little cumbersome, therefore it is advisable to keep sufficient time before hand in order to reach the venue on time.

It is advisable to carry a heavy duty umbrella as it sometimes get windy and it may cause the umbrella to turn inside. Alternatively, a knee length raincoat can also work. Suitable wet weather shoes, such as rubber sandals/ flip-flops to be carried. Gumboots/rubber boots are very useful, although they can be cumbersome to carry in your luggage. It can get hot wearing them too. Don't wear canvas shoes or sneakers, as they'll quickly get ruined.

Medical advice: We have in- house doctors on campus during office hours. However it is advisable to carry adequate supply of basic medicines whatever you may need. There is also a medical store named Tulsi Medicine adjacent to TISS campus.

Tulsi medicine contact number: 022 25552006

Location map to reach the destination

Prof. Vibhuti Patel, Convener
Dr. Nandita Mondal, Co-convener

People to contact: (any one)

  1. Mr. Binit Lakra- 7718023724
  2. Ms. Ayatakshee Sarkar-9686662851
  3. Dr. Nandita Mondal-9869087934
  4. Ms. Manali Patil-7208128212

Organizing Committee members

Prof. Christoph Scherrer, Executive Director, International Centre for Development and Decent Work, University of Kassel, Germany

School of Management and Labour Studies

Prof. Sasmita Palo (Dean)
Prof. Bino Paul
Dr. Sharad T. Sawant
Prof. Samapti Guha
Dr. Sarala Rao
Dr. Varsha Ayyar
Dr. Unmesh Patnaik
Dr Aman Jageshwar Borkar
Dr. Johnson Minz
Zafar Khan Pathan

School of Development Studies

Prof Ritambhara Hebbar (Dean)
Prof R. Ramakumar
Prof Nishi Mitra
Prof. Meena Gopal
Dr. Sandya Iyer
Dr Bindhulakshmi P
Dr Aardra Surendran
Dr Gopinath P
Dr. Sujatha Devarapalli
Dr Sujata Chavan
Dr Asha Achuthan
MS. Sangita Thosar
Sashikala Mudgal
Laxmi Banjan

 

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