1TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN IN INDIA With Special Reference to the Rural Sector XIV International Economic History Congress

Economic growth and technological advancement in India in the current decade is very impressive. Technology, market and development are considered gender-neutral. But there is pronounced urban bias and rural neglect in the development process of India. Modernization of the economy or advancement of the society is a semi-myth for village women. The gender division of labour within the rural household has remained culturally stubborn. Women as a class are oppressed and subdued by the hegemony of social patriarchy. Economic growth has failed to improve the situation either. Rather technology and labour market imperfections have accentuated the concentration of women in domestic works with non-market roles and activities, generating a new process of ‘housewifisation’, not ‘feminization of jobs ’ in the rural sector. Although gender empowerment has been a buzzword in development circles, the concept remains ambiguous. Gender concerns and discourses survive within the development bureaucracies dominated by men. It is easier for them to ring-fence gender issues as a problem of poverty and to argue against ‘feminization of poverty ’ than to admit the gender disadvantage which crosses the boundaries of class and ethnicity. Since the beginning of planned development, women have been viewed as a deprived section requiring welfare measures. Most studies and reports on wome