Tawashi Br

Tawashi Brush Coir ProductionSri Lanka

jvillanueva

I understand this is the Diagram of Women's work in Household, Community and the new Business. Please show where the new business opportunity figures in this diagram, including the work involved. Please see the diagram prepare

EthiopiaWomen’s work in the household, community and the (new) business

Women ♀

Women ♀

Unpaid caring work in the household

Unpaid caring work in the household

Community work

Unpaid productive work

for the cash market

Unpaid productive work

for the cash market

Unpaid productive

work for household

consumption

Community work 4 h/week

Unpaid productive workUnpaid productive work

Cooking cleaning, washing

clothes 20 h/week

Taking care of children and

elderly 10h/week Looking

after cows and goats,

home gardening.

Approx 6h/week

Producing brooms,

drying fish, sewing Approx. 5h/week

Community activities 2h /week

Paid productive work for the enterprise

Approx 24

h/week

Total hours worked in an average week: 71 hours

Household Economy : Division of LaborNature of Work Women Men

Care Work Child care , elderly care , - Bathing, feeding, supervising children’s homework, listening and talking to children

Child care – Picking and dropping children from school, playing with children.

Household work Cooking, washing clothes, home gardening, tending cattle

Cleaning house, Shopping,

Productive Work Women are working in the coir production centres. (Hayleys and Alliance Five have forward sales contracts with the production centres)

Fishing, and in some instances daily wage labour.

Community Work

Being members in different societies, Shramadana –Voluntary work for the village such as building roads, clearing common areas for health reasons etc.

Shramadana – Voluntary work for the village such as building roads, clearing common areas for health reasons etc.

Obligatory Social Network

Assistance during community social affairs (wedding, funerals); visitation of the sick and newborn; attending temple festivals and providing food for the monks in the temple once a week.

Attend selected occasions only

Recreation Watching TV and gossiping Watching TV, listening to radio,reading newspaper and magazines, card playing and drinking with friends.

Sleep and Rest Sleep when the day /work is over (usually after 10pm). Women’s day begins two hours before men’s day at 5am.

Sleep in the afternoon and nights. (around 8pm)

Areas for women to negotiate

Actual stories on women’s agency: Sri Lanka

“‘We become efficient because we work at the production centres and we also work at home. We enjoy the feeling that weare being productive and not just carers of children and husband. Time is not such a problem when you are efficient.However, we do not have the free time as we had before. We have to plan our work and time more efficiently.”

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• Some quotes from women• ‘We become efficient because we work at the production centres and we also work at home. We enjoy the feeling that we

are being productive and not just as carers of children and husband. Time is not such a problem when you are efficient, however we do not have the free time we had before. We have to plan our work and time more efficiently’.

• ‘Because of the group dynamics and friendship between the women working in the production centre we feel that the relaxing time we had at home is replaced by the relaxing times and chats we have with the others in the production centres. My husband and I work as a team together sharing the workload and ensuring the housework is all done’.

• • • Some interesting outcomes of joining the production centres• Our children are no longer lazy and do their own work• Our children learn that they can’t always order us around and they have become independent• We have become independent of our family and can make decisions for ourselves since we have our own income.• At first we felt guilt for not doing our household chores but we no longer feel that because everyone in the house has

become independent and is taking responsibility for the jobs.• The village people respect us more because we are earning an income.• In some instances because we have increased our efficiency we have the ability to do more and therefore we are helping

more at the village than before.• Earlier my husband did not do any work in the household but now he has started helping out. He helps out because he

knows that I can’t do two jobs. He would like to keep the child at home but she is attached to me so I have to bring her to the production centre.

• We pay for the child’s preschool but the State has free education and health for older children. The State does not give us any other help.

The product - Tawashi brushes made from coir

• There are 13 production centers that are located walking distance from the women producer’s houses in the village. The centers are either housed at community centres or within the land of a village woman producer. Women work flexible hours in the production centres and are expected to produce 300 brushes a day. The centres are open all day so women can come to work at anytime. Some women bring their children to work and the children play in the workplace. If women have other commitments they may come at a later part of the day to finish their work.

• Each production centre has approximately 13-15 women engaged in producing brushes for two private sector companies. (Alliance five and Hayleys). Women who work in the centre are able to produce the 300 brushes by working three or four hours a day. However they are expected to work each day of the week with the exception of Sunday. Since they are earning approximately Rs. 8000-15000 a month most women are keen to complete their target. The leader of the group usually liaises with the private sector company and make the arrangements about targets and payment. The woman leader would pay her team according to the brushes they produce per month.

Gendered market map

• Please see separate document