ABSTRACT
The generally low level of participation in the labour force in India by urban women and the highly uneven geographical pattern of that participation have been the objects of considerable discussion lately. The tendency in the existing literature on the theme has been either to base the analyses on grossly aggregated data at state levels (D'Souza 1959, 1969; Nath 1970; Mukerjee 1971; Gulati 1975a and 1975b) which tend to obscure sub-regional variations resulting from highly localised historical and cultural conditions, or to study special cases, with little attempt to coordinate these two approaches. 2 In addition, one of the unfortunate practices is to treat the pattern of female employment as existing independently of the male conditions, so that women are portrayed as a separate homogeneous body rather than as an integral part of a larger societal structure. This approach has marred the usefulness of the report on the status of women (Government of India 1974), an otherwise pioneering treatment of the subject which remains to date a baseline reference point for all future discussion on women in India.
