In my last post, I had talked about the "informal contract" in traditional families ; the husband peforms the "paid work" ( work , for which there is monetary compensation, such as work done in a office, shop, or factory ) , while the wife does the "unpaid work"--work , for which there is no monetary compensation, yet, which is necessary for the paid work to be done properly. Such unpaid work includes the traditional "duties of the wife" such as cooking, looking after children, and household chores. If such work is not done properly, the husband's performance in the paid work is bound to suffer.

This system might sound very effective-this has been the almost-universal norm for centuries. Yet, this is a very INEFFICIENT and WASTEFUL system ; it "uses" its "intellectual resources" in a very inefficient and wasteful manner.

Why? Simply because, men and women do not differ on the average scores of intelligence. If men and women are endowed with equal ( although not identical ) intelligence, they also ought to utilize their intelligence equally or nearly equally. After all, the human brain is the masterpiece of evolution, and the "hard work and labour" done by nature in building the superior human brain ( in comparison to other species ) should not go waste, but should be effectively utilised.

Yet traditional societies do not utilise the woman's intellectual abilities effectively. For example, a woman , whether she has IQ of 90 or an IQ of 130 ("genius") , has to perform the same household chores of washing the dishes in the sink, cleaning the house, cooking etc. A woman of IQ 130 would not differ very substantially in her ability to wash dishes than a woman of IQ 90. Put another way, her "extra" 40 IQ points are simply being wasted.

On the other hand , there would be a stark contrast in the vocational destinies of a man with IQ 130 and another man with IQ 90. While the man with IQ 130 would go on to land a plum professional job ( a scientist, IIT engineer or IAS officer ) , the man with IQ 90 would have to be content with the job of a junior clerk or a petty shopkeeper.

In contrast, a modern egalatarian society/family , which distributes the paid work and the unpaid work among the husband and wife far more equally and fairly, is FAR MORE EFFICIENT in utilising the intellectual capabilities of the two genders. In an egalatarian family, work is assigned to the husband and wife on the basis of interests and capabilities , not on the rigid basis of traditional gender roles. Hence, both husband and wife would work outside home , and both would cook and contribute to childcare.

Years ago, when I was in college, I was extremely impressed with the superior mental abilities of one of my female friends. She probably belonged to the category psychologists refer to as "gifted"- she could emerge first ranker in an exam after having studied for only a few days- I was left spellbound on seeing her ability to acquire massive quantities of complicated information in a very short span of time, and then retain and reproduce it. She would top in the college exam after having studied for only a few nights before the exam, leaving behind ordinary mortals who spent countless hours on the study table for the entire year. I bet her IQ was no lesser than 130.

But she belonged to a very traditional ( and perhaps backward ) family background , and I often feared that all her superior mental abilities would simply go waste one day, in washing the dishes in the sink. All the "labour" and "hard work" nature had done in making her superior neurons and "grey matter" would be simply go waste.

Thankfully , those fears have long been proved wrong. Appropriate to her level of intelligence , she is now a research scholar in Cambridge University.

The issue of " unpaid work by women " which has no " dollar value" or rupee value has been a topic of study for years. Such work, including taking care of the home , looking after children and elders has no immediate dollar/rupee value but is necessary to ensure that the " paid work " ( work for which there is remuneration, such as office or factory work ) is done properly.

Historically, it has been a informal contract between husbands and wives that husbands would do the paid work while wives would do the unpaid work, which is necessary to ensure that the paid work is done properly.

"Having accepted the notion of marriage as her meal ticket, a women's domestic labour clearly reflected its economic imperative. The wife's primary responsibility was to ensure her husband was able to work in order to earn the wages for her own, as well as his, survival."
-Mary Kinnear

Today , of course the situation has changed considerably . because of greater flexibility in gender roles. Both men and women do paid work as well as unpaid work. but even in developed countries, women do more unpaid work than men.

"Women and men in Canada have similar total workloads but men spend most of their time, 4.5 hours a day, in paid work and 2.7 hours in unpaid work. For women, the statistics are reversed with 2.8 hours in paid work and 4.4 hours in unpaid work. Women perform 2/3 of the 25 billion hours of unpaid work Canadians perform every year and on average women spend twice as much time (2/3) on unpaid work as on paid work (1/3). "

Though working women are more likely to face stress and as a result, be at a higher risk for stress-related disorders like hypertension, working women also benefit from a higher self-esteem and greater self efficacy and confidence, which can increase immunity to mental disorders and stress.

Its also necessary to understand that , historically , almost all socieities have attached greater prestige to paid work ( mostly men's work ) than unpaid work (mostly women's ). this is one reason why manhood has been considerd more " prestigious " than womanhood. Of course, such concepts are no longer valid in many modern families.

Finally, its necessary to understand that money is not always the best measurement of reward for work. " For many women, unpaid caregiving work gives them an opportunity to directly experience the results of their labour; the love of their family is more satisfying than money."

One of my theories is that by the year 2100, many Indian languages,particularly hindi would be in danger of becoming extinct, like sanskrit, particularly in the cities. And this would be unavoidable.

Reason for this ? --the debate of hindi vs regional languages is a useless one. In reality, it was always English that was the real official language of India. The only reason it has not gained the prominence deserving of an official language is that till now , very few people had access to good education.

But as India's economy develops rapidly, the number of people who can afford good ( read english medium ) education would increase rapidly. infact ,thats already happening. As more people become affluent and join the ranks of the middle class, they would dump regional langauge-medium education for english medium. ( I have seen many upper middle class mothers talking to their kids in english ).

for a live demonstration of this effect, just travel aboard any train. You would see almost all people in the AC compartments reading english magazines and newspapers, and people in non-ac compartments reading hindi/local language newspapers. As the economy grows ,and people's income grows, more people would travel by AC compartment. Already we have new trains that have only AC coaches .

With the passage of time, more people would join the ranks of the AC-compartment " class " . they would be carrying English, not tamil, telegu or hindi magazines.

I went to a school where a student could be punished if found speaking in " any language other than English " . ( although this rule was rarely enforced ) . In the 1990s, attending such schools was the privelege of few, the creamy layer of urban indian society. But as India's economy grows at a rapid rate , more and more parents would send their kids to such schools. ( India's Real per capita income grew by 50 % from 2000-01 to 2007-08 ) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Indias-per-capita-income-doubled-in-last-7-years/articleshow/4053216.cms