SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article attempts to understand how the feminisation of the labour force triggered by export-oriented policies has affected women's work burden in Mauritius. The article explores factors influencing women's labour supply (measured as hours worked in the productive economy) and women's hours of housework, and it further analyses how work burden experiences vary between women of different social backgrounds. The analysis is based on the use of mixed methods consisting of a quantitative survey in the industrial sector and a qualitative survey in the industrial and services sectors. The results show, among other things, that women and the social reproductive process are not only affected differently depending on women's socio-economic background, but also depending on a complex mixture of different socio-economic processes