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Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy

Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy

Naila Kabeer | Ratna Sudarshan | Kirsty Milward

(2013)

Abstract

Women as a group have often been divided by a number of intersecting inequalities: class, race, ethnicity, caste. As individuals - often isolated in reproductive or other home-based work - their weapons of resistance have tended to be restricted to the traditional weapons of the weak: hidden subversions and individualised struggles. Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy explores the emergence of an alternative repertoire among women working in the growing informal sectors of the global South: the weapons of organization and mobilization. This crucial book offers vibrant accounts of how women working as farm workers, sex workers, domestic workers, waste pickers, fisheries workers and migrant factory workers have organized for collective action. What gives these precarious workers the impetus and courage to take up these steps? What resources do they draw on in order to transcend their structurally disadvantaged position within the economy? And what continues to hamper their efforts to gain social recognition for themselves as women, as workers and as citizens? With first-hand accounts from authors closely involved in emerging organizations, this collection documents how women workers have come together to carve out new identities for themselves, define what matters to them, and develop collective strategies of resistance and struggle.
Naila Kabeer is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. She has extensive experience in research, teaching and advisory work on gender, poverty, labour markets, livelihoods, social protection and grassroots citizenship. Her publications include Reversed Realities: Gender hierarchies in Development Thought; The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and Dhaka; and more recently, Gender and Social Protection in the Informal Economy. She has also edited a number of books, including Inclusive Citizenship: Meanings and Expressions and Institutions, Relations and Outcomes: Methodologies for Planning and Case Studies from the Indian Context, both published by Zed Books. Ratna Sudarshan is Advisor (Research and Projects) at the Institute of Social Studies Trust, New Delhi, where she was Director from 2003 to 2011. She has researched and published on women in the informal economy, with a special focus on home-based work, social protection and local economic development; gender and education; research and policy linkage; and gender and evaluation. Other recent publications include a co-edited special issue (on 'Evaluating gender and equity') of the Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 19, 2 (June 2012). Kirsty Milward founded and co-manages Suchana Uttor Chandipur Society, an organization offering education focused on social and gender equality amongst the Adivasi communities where she lives in West Bengal, India. She is also a freelance consultant providing writing, editing and evaluation services and specializing in gender and rural development. She has a particular interest in various organizational formations inspiring action to advance social and economic equality. Kirsty has an MA in gender and development from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.
'This book gets to the heart of the development challenge: by focusing on women workers, the informal economy, and organizing. With an insightful overview by the editors, illustrative case studies from several countries and an inspiring endnote by Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association, the largest organization of women workers in the informal economy, this book is a must for anyone interested in the power of organization and the intersection of employment, poverty, and gender.' Marty Chen, Harvard Kennedy School 'While many talk about women's empowerment, this book offers concrete and inspiring examples of how it is done! The lessons and insights from these cases are relevant to all of those concerned with how to build "people power" from the bottom-up in a global world.' John Gaventa, University of Sussex 'Women are exerting themselves across the world in wonderful ways. This is about more than combating vulnerability and oppression, although that is important enough. It is also about forging ways of living in which the human condition is enhanced. Women's organisations are reviving a sense of solidarity and rescuing the meaning of equality, while giving new meaning to the ethos of freedom. This book speaks to that agenda, and should be widely read.' Guy Standing, SOAS 'While acknowledging the organisational challenges faced and overcome, the essays in this important book mount a concerted challenge to the popular notion that certain kinds of informal workers are too isolated and invisible to be organised successfully. A must read for all looking to understand the organisational strategies which transform powerless labourers into worker citizens.' Dzodzi Tsikata, University of Ghana

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Feminisms and Development i
About the editors ii
Title page iii
Copyright iv
Table of contents v
Acknowledgements vii
Preface by Andrea Cornwall viii
References xii
Introduction | Beyond the Weapons of the Weak: Organizing Women Workers in the Informal Economy 1
The organizational challenge of the informal economy 3
The strategic choice of organizational models 8
Building a shared identity 13
The resources of ‘soft power’ 16
Everyday practical support 24
The struggle for social security 27
Participating in politics 30
Dealing with inequalities 31
Building alliances: global and local 36
Conclusion: some broad lessons 40
Notes 46
References 47
1 | Women and Rural Trade Unions in North-East Brazil 49
Methodology 51
Women in Brazilian agriculture: the broader context 52
Women workers in the São Francisco Valley grape sector 55
Rural trade unions and women workers 57
Conclusions 68
Notes 69
References 70
2 | Understanding the Dynamics of an NGO/MBO Partnership: Organizing and Working with Farm Women in South Africa 73
Overview of WFP 74
Circumstances giving rise to the formation of Sikhula Sonke 76
Stages in the relationship between WFP and Sikhula Sonke 79
Box 2.1 Strategic complementarities: a case study 89
Conclusions 97
Notes 98
References 99
3 | Organizing for Life and Livelihoods in the Mountains of Uttarakhand: The Experience of Uttarakhand Mahila Parishad 100
The organization 103
Organizing women 104
Uttarakhand Mahila Parishad 107
Redefining needs, widening space 108
The political construction of livelihoods 111
UMP’s approach 113
Ethics of creating ecological wealth in villages 118
Valuing each WVG as a unique collective 120
Activities 121
Political activism 121
Box 3.1 Activities supported by UMP 122
Challenges 125
Conclusion 126
Notes 127
References 127
4 | Negotiating Patriarchies: Women Fisheries Workers Build SNEHA in Tamil Nadu 128
Patriarchy and power in the fishing communities 129
The gender division of labour within fishing communities 131
SNEHA’s approach and strategies 134
Current concerns, broader challenges 144
Conclusion 146
Notes 147
References 148
5 | ‘If You Don’t See a Light in the Darkness, You Must Light a Fire’: Brazilian Domestic Workers’ Struggle for Rights 149
The struggle for domestic workers’ rights in Brazil 151
Organizing for change 153
Conclusion 172
Acknowledgement 176
Notes 177
References 178
6 | The Challenge of Organizing Domestic Workers in Bangalore: Caste, Gender and Employer—Employee Relations in the Informal Economy 181
The context: domestic work and gradual commercialization 182
Initiating the Karnataka Domestic Workers’ Union 187
Building up the KDWU 189
Involving the community 197
Looking to the future 200
Notes 203
7 | Power at the Bottom of the Heap: Organizing Waste Pickers in Pune 205
Strategies and approach 208
The role of national and international networks and alliances 222
Addressing inequalities within and beyond KKPKP 224
Conclusion – and future challenges 229
Notes 230
References 230
8 | Sex, Work and Citizenship: The VAMP Sex Workers’ Collective in Maharashtra 232
Sex and sex workers 233
Strategies of resistance: collectivization 235
Asymmetries of power 245
The challenge of identity 249
Notes 251
9 | Gender, Ethnicity and the Illegal ‘Other’: Women from Burma Organizing Women across Borders 252
Introduction: the insecure work of the migrant worker 252
Migration from Burma into Thailand: a brief account 253
The inception and aims of MAP 257
Imposed identities: migrant women as aliens and victims 258
Organizing as migrant women 260
Organizing as migrant workers 262
Turning to the law: women factory workers lead the way 264
Building a membership organization 268
The case of domestic workers 270
Allying with the trade unions 272
Conclusion 273
Notes 274
Endnote | Looking Back on Four Decades of Organizing: The Experience of SEWA 276
Putting women at the heart of development planning 276
Work and the tyranny of classification 278
Organization is power 281
About the contributors 284
Index 288