Impact of technology and enviornment degradation on agriculture and women’s work

Technological innovation and environmental degradation have been prime agents for the existence and altering of social systems, historically world over. If latter provides basic resources for survival and sustenance and builds essential link between man and nature for human existence; the other provides tools (machines, industries etc) with which to exploit resources for the same by earning livelihood (central to work). These are the changes seen and experienced not only in material world in terms of change in economic production from agriculture to industry, but also in terms of social- material relationship of production formed among various social actors, especially gender relations, with respect to women and work; when their work has been considered predominantly as parochially exploitative, informal, soft menial household. Various feminist theorists, environmental conservationist have conceived to understand this relationship between women and work (especially in the context of rural agriculture and allied activities), by framing an essential link between technological innovations – environmental degradation as having an important impact to analyse the changing nature of work in relation to women participation in agriculture, as central to development practice. Till date most of the debates, discussion and concerns have surrounded around men’s workforce and his labour, even though originally women have been actively involved in these sectors whose contributions though is supplementary but it is equally significant for sustaining agricultural growth as well as preserving wider social- environmental concerns, which has been largely ignored. It is this relationship that this paper seeks to explore holistically by first, a) building a theoretical framework of understanding the relevance between women and work and its changing relationship; b) with regard to technological innovations and environmental degradation altering the economic production system of agriculture and hence, women’s relation to work – given social, cultural, economic context of a society, which so far has not been given much attention.