Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Gender and development theory helps guide and shape our intersectional analyses of both rural and urban employment. In recent years, men’s roles have widened so much that we propose to modify gender and development theory to allow more for a gender-balanced view of gender divisions of labour. This proves a challenge. I unpack the problem at the fundamental level first, ie ontology. Then I explore the rules, stereotypes, norms, attitudes and patterns we can expect. I aim for a globally applicable but locally adaptable theory. Lastly, I develop an example which invokes both dialectical and explanatory approaches, to illustrate the theory and enable case-study testing. Here, in describing certain aspects of both north Indian and Bangladeshi work arrangements, I examine three surprising phenomena in detail. Men do domestic work, to varying degrees (this becomes an explanand); women lie about their work status but can be teased into revealing their work which is an open secret; and dialectically the open secrets offer us insights into the pressures, movements and future trends of employment in the rural areas. The theory that results is useful in a variety of contexts such as widening access to self-employment, women in manufacturing, and bringing men and elites into a closer awareness of the value of women’s work. Overall this paper is a theory paper rooted in a critical assessment of reality (hence based on field observations) with mixed mode data. All the data were translated and are available in an online data archive.