Gender, Technology and Work Relations: Case of Women Employees in Food Processing Industries in Manipur, India

This paper explores the problems faced by women workers and supervisors in the selected food processing industries in Manipur. Feminist studies of technology constitute broad theoretical perspective that has been applied to analyze the linkages of gender, technology and work in the industries. Not only, women employees play submissive role, but also their status remain inferior in comparison with men counterparts. Lack of educational qualification, technical training and physical capacity of the women employees has determined their submissiveness and subjugation. Women are mostly assigned in unskilled and manual tasks while men in skilled and technical tasks. Eight industries have been selected as an empirical case and supplemented by in-depth interviews and personal communication to the workers and supervisors of the industries. The paper concludes that feminist studies of technology significantly explain the empirical case of women in the industries. Practically, not only, men control heavy machineries that possessed masculine character, but also lack of educational qualification and technical training provided to the women employees,  exclude women from the mainstream work setting in the units thereby declining their status and role.