Moulya Subbaramaiah Week 7

The Lace Makers of Narsapur: Indian Housewives Produce for the World Market

Maria Mies

Mies’s paper studies in detail the involvement of women in the lace making industry of Narsapur. This case study discusses the historical development of the lace industry in India and also analyses the production relations within the industry and their effects on women. Mies iterates that the lack of official data like census etc on women depicts the nature of their work as being part of the informal sector or as Mies says that it makes up the ‘shadow economy.’ More often than not, women’s work is not considered as work that is contributing to the economy but merely housework. Mies terms this phenomena as ‘housewifization’ of labor. This phenomena results in women’s labor to be viewed and deemed as natural or subsistence work and is not thought to be a part of the production of capital. Mies highlights the clash between ideological views and economic principles through the example of the lace making industry. She elaborates how in Naraspur, women are considered to belong to a high caste if the women of the family stay at home instead of going out to work, implying that they are not required to bring in income to the household. This is an established status symbol. As a result, the poorer women took to lace making. While they thought it would bring them a higher sense of status as they were bringing capital into the house, it was not considered as productive work and was looked at something that women did in the confines of their homes in their spare time. Therefore, even if society is profiting economically from women’s labour, the ideological views that are present prevent their roles from being viewed as work. The women lace-workers of Naraspur are defined socially as housewives. This ideology that rejects them as breadwinners, allows for these women to be subjected to extremely high levels of exploitation.