ABSTRACT
Low rates of work participation for women tend to depress urban family incomes in many developing countries. This problem, which we identified in the preceding chapter, is felt most acutely among immigrants to towns in countries where women contribute most to family incomes in the rural setting, by their participation in agricultural production and by their domestic activities. Such a combination, we saw, is frequently found on the African continent. Indeed, sociological literature on Africa abounds in descriptions of the strains and stresses created by the change in men’s and women’s roles after migration to town. But the problem is no less important in India where the low-caste women’s activity rates contrast sharply in the village and in town.
