On Wednesday 28 Mar 2012 8:39:47 am Radhika, Y. wrote: > interest concept: women of leisure. in my experience i have only found men > to be leisurely.
Not surprising. Given a society where man gets a weekend off from work, he gets "leisure" compared to the woman who works all day every day at home. But if we stick to India this story is true only of a narrow band of educated Indian couples among whom the husband has a salaried job and gets time off. "Time off" and the concept that man must get one day off in a week has come down to us (in India) from a Christian ethos. After all God rested on one day after creating the Universe and finally man in his own image and man has no business to do something that God did not do - and that is to work on Sabbath day But regular time off once a week is alien in India, cruel as it may sound. If you look at Indian businessmen, traders, farmers and priests there is no concept of taking one day off in a week. Oh yes people take time off regularly every day. Maybe they sleep every afternoon, and take time off for festivals. On the street outside my house street vendors, male or female are there every day of the week. but during some festivals - notably Pongal or Dussehra they vanish for several weeks at a stretch. This is the very complaint Indian employers have about unskilled Indian labor. If you are constructing a house in India, work will come to a standstill during some festivals, even if it goes on day in and day out 7 days a week. Gujarati businessmen in the UK who opened "Corner shops" developed a reputation for hard work because they were open every day till late - even on weekends. And as anyone who has been to such a shop will know, the womenfolk were right there helping out with the business. This made it convenient for shoppers who got free time on weekends but found shops closed because "Sunday Trading Laws" forbade the keeping open of businesses on Sundays. This did not apply to the non-Christian Gujarati shipowners. That law has now been repealed I am told. So the complaint that men have leisure and women don't is one of social class and of specific cultural origin. In the ideal family of ancient India , man was busting his butt trying to feed his family while the woman was constantly producing and looking after children, often dying in the effort, and the man would marry again. Once India came under British influence "educated, employed" people discovered the "day off". But I think the focus will have to shift outside India to find out who thought up the idea of a 40 hour week. I recall that when I was a boy, most developed western nations had only Sunday off and maybe half day Saturday. I vaguely recall the time that work week was reduced to 5 days a week and 8 hours a day. 5 days a week 8 hours a day is unnatural. It is unnatural for the police, doctors, firemen and a whole lot of others. It is unnatural for farmers and soldiers. Unnatural for seamen and fishermen. It seems normal only for employees working for someone. This time I did a spell check. Not my fault any more. shiv
