ABSTRACT
Urbanization, a natural corollary of development, is accompanied by an increase in production per worker and in levels of income generally, and a shift from subsistence and precapitalist production to commercialized, surplus-producing production. The effects of these changes, however, are not felt uniformly by different groups in the population and work force. The opportunities that result from urbanization are rather unequally shared between the urban-born and better-educated and -trained residents, on the one hand, and the illiterate and unskilled rural migrants, on the other. One of the most serious inequities generated by urbanization in developing countries is in the difference of its impact on men and women. In India, at least, the first effect that can be seen is a change in the sex ratio in urban areas; the number of females relative to males declines as male migrants swell the ranks of the urban population and women are left behind in the villages. Because the urban labour market discriminates against women much more than the rural labour market, the participation of women in economic activity declines. Finally, the limited opportunities available to women are mostly in low-paid, low-status jobs in the unorganized sector, jobs that do not offer any opportunity for advancement or for the training that could give them a chance to enter the organized sector at a later stage.
