title: Work and empowerment: women and agriculture in South India.
abstract: This article explores the implications of women's work in agriculture in Telangana, a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. I suggest that higher capital costs for cultivators' post-liberalisation increased the pressure to contain wage costs in a region where women form the majority of the agricultural wage labour force. Under such conditions, when women perform both own-cultivation as well as agricultural wage work in the fields of others, they face pressure to restrict bargaining for higher wages, contributing to a widening gender wage gap. To the extent that wages shape intra-household bargaining power, the empowering effect of workforce participation for such women would thus be blunted. From available NSS data I provide some preliminary evidence in support of this argument.
authors.affiliation: Assumption College.
authors.forename: Smriti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007194:India / Q000208:ethnology; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012423:Rural Health / Q000266:history; D012424:Rural Population / Q000266:history; D012924:Social Conditions / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors / Q000266:history; D014930:Women / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history; D014933:Women's Rights / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence