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The cultural role of rice cultivation in female workforce participation in India

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  • Hazarika, Gautam

Abstract

Rice and wheat are India's staple cereal crops and there is significant regional variation in the suitability to the cultivation of each. Both are so-called ‘plough-positive’ crops, whose cultivation is benefited by ploughing. It has previously been argued that the ancient adoption of the plough, a heavy implement better suited to handling by men, was a factor in the evolution of cultural norms prescribing a domestic role for women in society (Boserup, 1970). This study contends that rice is an anomalous plough-positive crop in that its cultivation, highly labor-intensive, has traditionally required much female labor. This, it is argued, may have led to a local loosening of plough culture's strictures against work by Indian women proportional to the local relative, to wheat, suitability to rice cultivation.

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  • Hazarika, Gautam, 2024. "The cultural role of rice cultivation in female workforce participation in India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:226:y:2024:i:c:s0167268124003044
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106698
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