Determinants of Empowerment: An Insight from the Study of the Female Domestic Workers

Socio-Demographic Profile of Female Domestic Workers

To understand the empowerment situation of the part-time female domestic workers, we have presented their socio-demographic profile in Table 2. The age group of the sample ranges between 22 and 60 years.

Classifying our sample into four age groups, we find 41.6 per cent of the workers are in the age-group of 30–40 years, 23.8 per cent are aged between 20–30 years and 40–50 years and only 10.8 per cent are older than 50 years. So, we observe predominance of middle-aged women amongst sample part-time domestic workers. The level of literacy indicates that 21.3 per cent of the female domestic workers are illiterate and 19.3 per cent can recognize alphabets and do minor mathematical calculations without ever attending school. Only 20 per cent of the workers have gone to primary schools. Women with education above secondary level are just 2 per cent. So, most domestic workers in the study are either illiterate or just literate. The lack of education is negatively associated with household decision-making. This is in line with El-Halawany’s (2009) results. He showed that education supplements women’s autonomy, empowerment and gender equality and that is visible through their participation in the social and economic decision for the welfare of their household.

Like education, media exposure strongly equips women with information and prepares them to adjust to the changing modern world. Kishore and Gupta (2004) consider media exposure as a proxy for education. Mass-media (television, cinema and so on) can sensitize illiterate women on gender issues. Electronic media also plays a pro-active role in raising awareness with advertisements, focussing a positive image of women. In our study, 53 per cent of the workers have television sets (in most cases, it is second hand and sometimes even purchased from their employers); 99 per cent of the workers have a mobile phone. Also, by interacting with employers they experience positive changes.

In India, caste is central to the division of tasks amongst female domestic workers. Women from subordinate castes are largely confined in ‘dirty work’ that involves cleaning utensils, washing clothes, mopping and sweeping the floor and so on, while upper-caste women get an easy entry into the kitchen. In our sample, 36.33 per cent of the female domestic workers belong to general category, 38.34 per cent belong to the category of scheduled castes and 9 per cent belongs to the category of other backward castes. It is, therefore, observed that over 47 per cent of the sample respondents belong to a lower social category. However, in recent years, given the social transformation of urban centres and ever-increasing demand for domestic workers, young professional couples employ women workers from all sections irrespective of religion, caste and social category.

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Table 2.

Socio-Demographic Conditions of the Domestic Workers

Sector:	Part-time domestic work
Age:	22–60 years
Education:	Illiterate (40.67), primary education (20.00) and middle (4.00)
Religion:	Hindu (83.67) and Muslim (16.33)
Social category:	General (36.33), SC (38.34), OBC (9.00) and ST (0.00)
Location:	Locals (35.03), commuters (25.15), slum-dwellers (22.75) and unlawful settlers (17.07)
Status under PDS:	Respondents below poverty line—83.00 per cent
Family size:	1–3 (16.77), 4–5 (76.05), 6 and above (7.17)
Occupation of male Casual wage labourers, rickshaw pullers, security personnel, worker in small household heads:	shops, hawkers and vegetable/fish/fruit vendors
Reasons for Economic obligation, protection against unemployment, no skill required, choice of work:	easy to get and active informal social network (kin/area/agency-based)
Working hour:	1–8
Priority issues:	Employment prospect, recognition as a worker, economic uplift, child education, health care and work available in the surrounding area
Wages:	Negotiable (Availability of alternative work within the area makes the bargaining power relatively high)
Challenges:	Unseen in private homes, unrestricted hours of work, no holidays, provocation (verbal/physical), dismissal from work, wage cuts and outside purview of Labour Laws
Outcomes:	Array of work, varying wages as per locality and type of work, escape from regular mundane household work and abuse at home

Note: Figures in parenthesis denote percentages.

Sources: (a) Bhattacharjee and Goswami (2019) and (b) field survey (2016).

Therefore, we see that women with flexible working hours, low level of education or meagre assets of very low skills, finds easy entry into this sector. The priority issues of the workers in this sector are to supplement family income, provide education to their children and avail health care facilities for family members.

Findings Across Empowerment Indicators

Results from the sample give us the percentage distribution of responses of female domestic workers across indicators, as shown in Table 3. Under the social dimension, freedom of mobility refers to visiting friends and relatives or being a member of the social body. Since our respondents are domestic workers, mobility by default is associated with their type of job. This seemed to be in tune with literature pointing out free mobility to be high for the poorest women who have to indulge in travelling to join the labour force for sustaining a livelihood. Opposite views on poor labour market outcomes of Jordanian young women have been provided by Miles (2002). She found that cultural and family factors significantly restrict the mobility of women, thereby limiting their job search and job opportunities in turn. She also addressed that family opposition stemmed from the lengthy commutes that extended the working hours in private sector jobs.

Although there are no restrictions on work, 43 per cent of female domestic workers in our sample said that they had to seek permission from their spouse or family to go outside for social visits. The percentage is calculated from the outcomes that is assigned a value one, if the woman admits of no such permission and zero if she does. In our sample, only 21 women are members of self-help groups as more than 90 per cent of workers are sub-urban or urban settlers where there is meagre provision to join self-help groups.

When some of the answers are very positive indicators of empowerment, others give miserable results. In the fifth indicator of the second dimension (the decision of the household to send their daughters to school), the negative response of 32 per cent is applicable for two categories of children: girls above 15 years who have already completed their education at middle or secondary level and children who have not yet reached school age. The data reflects that most of the domestic workers do not want their children, especially daughters to pursue the same profession. They always encourage their children to go to school with a positive awareness of educating their daughters. About 12 per cent of the local domestic workers hire women for their domestic work. These two indicators under household decision may be directly related to their economic independence. As far as family expenditure is concerned, it is important to note that the remittances generated by a poor working woman are used for consumption, in educating children, well-being, upgrading household nutrition, etc. This way the income earned by the female domestic worker is an important source of survival strategy for the receiving household.

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Table 3.

Workers’ Response Across Indicators (in Percentages)

Sl. No.	Items/Dimensions	Response in Percentage		Remarks
		Yes	No
	Social Decision
1	Visiting friends/relatives	57%	43%
2	Member of local bodies/groups	7%	91%
	Household Decision-making
3	Hiring service of someone to do household chores	12%	88%
4	Family expenditure	69%	31%
5	Sending daughter to school	68%	32%	All boys are sent to school
	Financial Decision
6	Operating bank account	72%	28%	Nine workers do not have an account
7	Husband seeking money	85%	15%	This question does not arise for widows. There are eight such families
8	Ownership of house	3%	97%
9	Ownership of durable assets	39%	61%
10	Primary insurance holder	5%	95%	With the help of employers
	Domestic Violence
11	Restrict social life	67%	33%
12	Physical assault by husband	69%	31%	Not applicable for eight workers

Source: The authors.

Despite women’s considerable contribution to family income and survival, social control largely rests with the household head. Violence against women is common even when husbands are unemployed. About 69 per cent of female domestic workers report incidences of PA at home. Accepting, experiencing and allowing violence on themselves is an expression of low self-confidence in women. There is an evidence of husband seeking money (85 per cent), and for many, this is true against physical violence. If women try to rationalize/justify violence against them, this empowerment scenario becomes disturbing. Under any condition, 31 per cent of women do not adhere to PA. Of these, 7 per cent are widows and 15 (5 per cent) are primary bread earners. About 19 per cent of the female domestic workers with medium to high economic contribution in households recorded no PA whatsoever.

In the financial aspect, 72 per cent of the respondents have a bank account. This can be attributed to Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojna, ³ which applies to all in the 18–65 years age-group. Ownership and control of property demonstrate the women’s economic status within the household. The respondents were asked about ownership of a house, agricultural land, durable assets, etc. A value one was assigned if a woman has control over the assets and income and zero if she does not. Just 3 per cent of the respondents own a house and 39 per cent have ownership of durable assets like television, mobile, refrigerator, etc. About 5 per cent of the respondents are primary life insurance holders and accept their employers’ initiative in this regard.

CEI: Dependent Variable

The extent of a domestic worker’s empowerment is portrayed in Table 4. This reveals that 42 per cent of the respondents have low empowerment, 31 per cent have moderate empowerment, 22 per cent have average empowerment and only 6 per cent are highly empowered. Nevertheless, it is clear from our study that more than 70 per cent of female domestic workers are concentrated in the low to moderate end of the distribution of empowerment, thereby revealing their insecurity and subjection within the household and society.

Determinants of Empowerment: Independent Variable

A multiple linear regression analysis is conducted to identify the effects of five determinants: wage, year of schooling (YOS), sex of child (SEX_CH), hiring domestic workers and PA on the CEI. The econometric model, explanatory variables and hypothesis are given below:

Model 1: CEI = a₀ + a₁Wage + a₂ YOS + a₃ Age+ a₄ SEX_CH + a₅ HDH + a₆ PA

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Table 4.

Classifying Domestic Workers on the Basis of CEI

Classification	Number	Frequency
High empowerment (9–12) Average empowerment (6–9) Moderate empowerment (3–6) Low empowerment (0–3)	176512692	6223142
Total	334	100

Source: The authors.

Explanatory variables and hypothesis:

Wage: Wage rates vary with specificities of work. By managing time devoted to work in respective households, a female domestic worker tries to maximize the number of houses serviced. That way, she can increase her share in family income to that required level that helps her sustain a livelihood. Therefore, wage earned by the female domestic worker is a positive indicator of her empowerment.

Year of schooling: Years spent on schooling of the worker is inversely related to her years of work as a domestic worker. Domestic work is labour intensive and physically demanding. With the absence of any legal contract, wages are decided on the basis of the prevailing wage rate in the area as well as bargaining between the employer and the employee. It does not depend much on the education level of the workers. Therefore, it is hypothesized that years of schooling hampers her years of work, thereby reducing her income over the span of her work-life thus having a negative effect on empowerment.

Sex of the child: Sex of children is positive and significant only when one gives birth to a son. It is a common observation that a male child is an asset who will make an economic contribution to the household and look after parents in old age.

Hiring domestic help (HDH): HDH is an important indicator of empowerment for a female domestic worker. The increased decision-making role is definitely an outcome of the dependence of the family on the income of the domestic workers. Therefore, it is hypothesized that keeping a domestic worker is a positive indicator of empowerment.

Physical assault: Being physically assaulted is a negative indicator of empowerment. This empowerment scenario becomes alarming when women attempt to rationalize or justify violence against them.

Results of Linear Regression Analysis

Table 5 shows the results of the multiple linear regression analysis. It shows positive and significant effects of the wage of the domestic worker, sex of children and hiring services of workers on CEI.

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Table 5.

Effects of Factors on Women’s Empowerment

Independent Variables	Dependent Variable: Cumulative Empowerment Index
	Estimated Coefficients
	Equation 1	Equation 2
Wage	0.001(35.898*)	0.001(36.310*)
Years of schooling of the FDW	0.024(0.776)
Sex of children	0.549(4.341*)	0.549(4.340*)
Hiring domestic help	0.548(3.471*)	0.554(3.515*)
Physical assault	–0.321(–2.839*)	–0.316(–2.804*)
Constant	0.184(1.016)	0.265(1.797)
Adjusted R2	86.8	86.8
F-statistics	394.9*	494.3*
N	334	334

Source: Field survey.

Notes: p* < 1%. Figures in parenthesis denote t-statistic.

PA, on the other hand, is negatively related to the CEI. This provides a very significant result that indicates a negative relationship between wife-beating and empowerment.

Sex of children is positive and significant only when one gives birth to a son. It is a common observation that a male child is an asset who will make an economic contribution to the household and look after parents in old age. On the other hand, daughters who are required to play a wife, mother or caregiver’s position are considered economic liability. Yet, the presence of girl child in the household helps female workers to increase salaries by increasing the number of houses serviced. Here, the daughter bears the responsibility of unpaid household work.

Insignificant p-values of years of schooling can be interpreted in the following way. Domestic work as a profession does not require much of education or technical skill. These tasks are more labour intensive or physically demanding. As we have seen, 40.67 per cent of our workers are illiterate. A cook is the most skilled worker in the broad category of part-time domestic workers. Other part-time female domestic workers do work on piece rate, that is, different work at different rates. For example, mopping in one house and washing utensils in the other, where the payment varies with specificities of work. By managing time devoted to work in respective households, the worker tries to maximize the number of houses serviced. That way, she can increase her share in family income to that required level that helps her sustain livelihood. The increased decision-making role is definitely an outcome of the dependence of the family on the income of the domestics.

Hiring domestic help is an important indicator of empowerment. The regression coefficient is significant at 1 per cent level. This is actually interesting because not all workers hire a maid. Workers who are able to manage work outside their neighbourhood, especially in the housing estates, may redefine their bargaining power by employing domestic workers for household chores. They have an advantage of higher wage (data show that wages are higher in housing estates) and in effect operate an informal ‘closed-shop’ ⁴ mechanism in their workplace, thereby barring entry and restricting competition.

Such factors alone, however, do not justify the gamut of women’s empowerment. There are several other quantitative and qualitative factors that shape empowerment. Qualitative attributes like religious belief, social category and husband’s attitude, etc., contribute to the process of women empowerment. The regression analysis, therefore, indicates the need to apply all-inclusive approaches for female domestic workers to improve the status and quality of life under enormously disabled circumstances.