International Journal of Social Science : Vol. 3. No. 4, 391-402, Dec 2014

DOI No. 10.5958/2321-5771.2014.00013.1

Working and earning status versus

domestic responsibilities:

A reverse ratio for women

Nikhila Bhagwat 1 and Hemant Rajguru 2

1 S.M.R.K. - B.K. - A.K. Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Nashik, India.

2 Academic Services Division, Y.C.M.O.U., Nashik, India.

Corresponding author: nikhilabhagwat@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The present study examines the impact of the working and earning status of

women on their everyday domestic responsibilities from the experiences of a

sample of 112 working women from Nashik city ranging in 23 to 56 years of

age. A questionnaire with the basic demographic information, some close ended

questions and a checklist of forty-two family chores were administered to the

sample as research tools. Main findings reveal that in spite of the working and

earning status of women the everyday domestic responsibilities of family living

are not shared on fair basis by men and women. Some of the backbreaking

‘everyday family chores’ are not at all done by men in the sample population. This

inequality in work distribution and shouldering responsibility could be an outcome

of the prevalent patriarchal or male dominant family system in India. Nashik being

a religious town seems to follow the traditional role-patterns of women and men

even though due to the economic reasons women have taken up the additional

function of earning for the family. The data were analyzed and mean, standard

deviation and t-value were estimated. The present study was confined to the urban

working women in the city of Nashik in Maharashtra, India.

Keywords: Working women, Earning status, Family chores, Domestic

responsibility

Introduction

With globalization and changing trends of economy, women in cities have to work

outside home in order to earn extra income and to have better resources for the

family. Their working status has offered an economic relief to their families. It

has also given women a sense of autonomy and some purchasing power at their

disposal, as they have became economically independent. Most of the middle class

women work because their families need the money they earn. Hence, women