COVER STORY Women in Bank Unions: The Breaking of a Male Bastion?
Sindhu Menon is Special Correspondent,Labour File. Email: pksindhumenon@gmail.com. (Sindhu Menon)
“Sure God created Man before Woman
But then you always make a rough draft before the Masterpiece.”
(Anonymous)
A glance through the Human Development Report 1995, which focused on the theme of gender, establishes that in our society women are neither secure nor treated as equal to men. The report emphasises that “personal insecurity shadows them from cradle to grave, [and] from childhood through adulthood they are abused because of their gender." According to the Census document issued by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of
Additionally, only 13 per cent of women in
The survey also reveals that slightly well-off families, in both rural and urban
Remunerative women`s work in the early 1970s was largely concentrated in cotton and jute mills, mines and tea gardens. Agriculture, pottery, handloom and other cottage industries also had a large share of women workers, but proper data are not available on the numbers or their contribution since these come under family labour. Educated women from the middle class preferred jobs such as teaching, government/private clerical jobs, nursing, etc.
Looking more closely at women`s work in the banking sector reveals a number of class, gender and power dynamics at work in the effort by trade unions and women to assert and protect their labour rights.
Women in Banks - A General Overview
There are a number of factors that could account for the qualitative and quantitative changes concerning women`s employment in the banking sector-changes in perceptions in society of the concept of women`s education and employment, various policies and reforms introduced by the government, and the visible attitudinal changes of the management are some of the reasons for an increase in women working in banks. The major reason, however, was the nationalisation process, initiated in 1969, in which 14 major commercial banks in the country were nationalised. Later, in the year 1980, seven more banks with deposits of over Rs 200 crores were also nationalised, bringing 80 per cent of the banking segment in
“The banking industry was almost forbidden for women till the 1960s. It opened its doors to women employees in 1969 after the nationalization when a common process of recruitment through competitive tests was introduced. In the 80s, the number of women working in banks reached up to one lakh, which was around 15 per cent of the total workforce in the industry.” (Jasodhara Bagchi, The Changing Status of Women in West Bengal, 1970-2000: The Challenge Ahead, Sage, New Delhi, 2005, pp. 93). “The Banking Service Recruitment Board and the selection process through competitive exams, gave women more chance to get into banking jobs,” notes Vahidha Nizam of Chennai, who is a General Council member of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).
After nationalisation, `mass banking` became a slogan and banking entered an expansionary phase. “Women joined the service in large numbers. Several features combined to make it a woman friendly occupation. These were: (i) it did not involve manual labour; (ii) it had a relatively easy entry point qualification and skill requirements; (iii) it offered job security; (iv) it involved little or no touring; (v) working hours and holidays were fixed and suited to a woman`s domestic schedule; (vi) the working environment was not competitive and relatively tension free; and (viii) the job offered status and middle class respectability.” (Nisha Srivastava, `Striving for a Toe-Hold: Women in the Organised Sector`; Gender & Employment in India, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1999. pp 193)
There was also a change in attitude about the attractiveness of women as workers. As Sujata Gothoskar points out, “Earlier, the policy of the multinational banks was not to recruit women employees. But over the last few years, they have changed. Management realised that women are more submissive, overworked, and have less time for union work. Besides, because of general socio-economic development, women do much better, especially in cities like
The statistics of women workers in 2001 was as follows:
| Women in Select Scheduled Banks as on 31 December 2001 | |||||||
| BANK | Clerks | Officers | Sub-staff | ||||
| TOTAL | WOMEN | TOTAL | WOMEN | TOTAL | WOMEN | ||
| Allahabad Bank | 9,979 | 1,166 | 5,771 | 285 | 4,219 | 315 | |
| Andhra Bank | 5,105 | 1,284 | 5,502 | 537 | 3,141 | 827 | |
| Bank of | 19,043 | 3,954 | 11,481 | 620 | 8,564 | 791 | |
| Bank of | 22,237 | 4,930 | 10,818 | 501 | 9,470 | 792 | |
| Bank of | 7,173 | 2,363 | 3,782 | 308 | 4,448 | 243 | |
| Canara Bank | 21,918 | 7,301 | 13,948 | 1,181 | 11,861 | 1,468 | |
| Corporation Bank | 5,308 | 1,892 | 3,532 | 340 | 1,966 | 458 | |
| Dena Bank | 5,122 | 1,086 | 2,743 | 137 | 2,928 | 270 | |
| Indian Bank | 11,757 | 3,186 | 1,726 | 389 | 4,885 | 848 | |
Indian Overseas Bank | 12,690 | 2,660 | 1,641 | 406 | 4,909 | 937 | |
Oriental Bank of Commerce | 5,802 | 1,017 | 4,683 | 466 | 3,119 | 195 | |
| Punjab & Sindh | 4,127 | 614 |
Author Name: Sindhu Menon
Title of the Article: Women in Bank Unions: The Breaking of a Male Bastion? Name of the Journal: Labour File Volume & Issue: 5 , 6 Year of Publication: 2007 Month of Publication: September - December Page numbers in Printed version: Labour File, Vol.5-No.5&6, Women in Unions: Breaking the Male Bastion? (Cover Story - Women in Bank Unions: The Breaking of a Male Bastion? - pp 6 - 15) Weblink : https://labourfile.com:443/section-detail.php?aid=569 Current Labour NewsRecent Issues
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