Exploring Gender Dynamics in Idol Making: Visualising Approach to Identity Formation Among Female Idolmakers of Kumartuli Through Intersection of Sexual Division of Labor and Emotional Labor

The aroma of wet clay from Hooghly River, the crackling of dried straws beneath your feet, the crisscrossed patterns of bamboos laid out within the narrow confined ramshackle, along with processes of eight-by-eight studios blend seamlessly to create the traditional homes of artisans where goddess Durga takes birth. The neighborhood of Kumartuli, famed for its processes of idol making, has been traditionally a caste-homogenous, male-dominated industry where females of this cluster were mainly assigned roles of ‘supportive character’ in the processual of idol making at varied workshops within the neighborhood.This paper tries to explore the gender dynamics among the idol making community of Kumartuli. Drawing on concepts of ‘emotional labor’ alongside ‘cultural capital’, this paper aims to explore the dimension of ‘sexual division of labor’ among the aforementioned community and how the female idol makers navigate their way towards unique individuality, through the intersection of emotional labor and sexual division of labor amidst intermingling of numerous dynamic realities. This paper through certain cases recorded through qualitative proposition of unstructured interactions, tries to understand how female idol makers steer their roles within traditional male-dominated craft by projecting varied cases of lived in experiences on aspectual of spatial organization related to workspace contiguous with household and social capital derived from caste homogeneity, thus ultimately exploring the proposition of identity formation among female idol makers in the neighborhood. The research finally highlights how, in order to create their identities and claim their cultural legitimacy in a profession dominated by men, female idol makers in Kumartuli must negotiate the confluence of sexual division of labor, and emotional labor amidst the unique spatial dynamics determined by the processes of caste homogeneity.