(IN)VISIBLE WORK: GENDER, LABOUR, AND AGRICULTURAL MARKETS IN INDIA

Date of Award

5-11-2025

Date Published

June 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Social Science

Advisor(s)

Rebecca Schewe

Keywords

Agricultural Policy Analysis;Causal Inference;Economic Sociology;Feminist Political Economy;Mixed Methods;Rural Sociology

Subject Categories

Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

In this dissertation, I examine how the transformation of state-market relations under economic liberalization reshapes gendered institutions like households and labor markets. The research critically interrogates the complex interplay between agricultural policy changes and women’s work, challenging dominant narratives about economic liberalization and the transformation of power structures and resource distribution in agricultural contexts. Through a convergent parallel mixed-methods research design, I investigate the historical and contemporary entrenchment of agricultural markets in social, political, and economic structures, the impacts of specific policy changes on women’s labor force participation, and the emergence of new institutional forms that simultaneously create opportunities and reinforce existing gender hierarchies. Economic liberalization has been a dominant paradigm in global economic policy since the 1980s, with profound implications for gendered institutions across the Global South. Agricultural sectors have been particularly affected by trade liberalization policies, creating contexts where women’s labor, often unrecognized and undervalued, becomes increasingly marginalized as agricultural practices and labor dynamics respond to new market forces. Gendered institutions like households and labor markets serve as critical sites where economic policies manifest in daily life, yet liberalization approaches frequently overlook the distinct ways men and women engage with markets and the structures that perpetuate gender inequalities. My dissertation draws from and contributes to research across economic sociology, feminist political economy, and feminist political ecology. It extends theoretical frameworks regarding market embeddedness by incorporating critiques that highlight the gendered dimensions of economic transformations. The analysis bridges perspectives on market regulation with theories of social reproduction, demonstrating how changes in agricultural policies affect women’s unpaid and paid labor, with economic liberalization reshaping the boundaries between productive and reproductive labor. I apply analysis at the state, labor market, household, and individual levels to understand how global economic processes manifest and affect women’s relationship with agricultural resources. This interdisciplinary approach offers new insights into how economic liberalization processes in agriculture are deeply embedded in social structures, often reinforcing existing gender inequalities while simultaneously creating new spaces for women to redefine their roles and identities. India, particularly the state of Maharashtra, provides an ideal setting for investigating these dynamics due to its complex socio-economic landscape shaped by historical legacies of colonialism, post-colonial state interventionism, and more recent liberalization reforms. Maharashtra’s early adoption of agricultural market reforms, including amendments to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act and the withdrawal of the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme (MCPS), exemplifies the duality of economic liberalization in dismantling state protections and creation of new governance forms. The promotion of Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs), especially women-focused ones, represents an institutional innovation with the potential to reshape women’s engagement in agricultural markets. Maharashtra’s higher-than-average female labor force participation in agriculture, combined with significant income inequality and agrarian distress, makes it particularly relevant for examining how liberalization policies intersect with gendered labor dynamics. I employ three interconnected empirical investigations. First, I analyze historical newspaper coverage of agricultural protests in Maharashtra from 1960-2000 to understand how different actors framed their roles and interests in response to changing agricultural policies, revealing the social, economic, and political embeddedness of state-market relations. Second, I use a difference-in-difference estimation to examine whether and how the 2006 withdrawal of the MCPS affected women’s labor force participation across different socioeconomic backgrounds and age cohorts. Third, I contextualize the emergence of women-focused FPCs by analyzing how these new institutional forms influence women’s agricultural roles and decision-making power. My findings reveal that economic liberalization processes in agriculture are not uniform in their effects but are mediated through existing social structures and norms. The historical analysis demonstrates the persistent embeddedness of agricultural markets in social, political, economic and legal relations. The quantitative analysis shows limited impacts of policy changes on women’s labor force participation across demographic groups, with some women from self-employed agricultural households experiencing decreased participation while older women from agricultural labor households modestly increasing their participation. The qualitative investigation reveals how new institutional frameworks like women’s FPCs can simultaneously create opportunities for women to redefine their identities as farmers while reinforcing existing gender norms, often increasing women’s unpaid labor without corresponding gains in access to productive resources or formal decision-making power. My dissertation makes contributions to understanding the gendered implications of agricultural policy reforms. It demonstrates how liberalization operates through both “roll back” strategies and “roll out” approaches that have complex and sometimes contradictory effects on women’s work. It also highlights the limitations of official statistics in capturing the full spectrum of women’s agricultural contributions and emphasizes the importance of mixed methods approaches in understanding the nuanced dynamics of women’s work. Through its interdisciplinary approach, my dissertation offers insights that can inform more equitable and effective policy approaches. It demonstrates that any meaningful analysis of economic liberalization must account for the complex ways in which markets are embedded in social structures and how these structures shape and are shaped by gender relations across multiple scales and contexts.

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