What Do You Mean By Economic Activities? The activities in this sector result in the production of goods and services. These activities add value to the national income. These activities are called economic activities. Economic activities have two parts, market activities, and non-market activities.

Market activities involve remuneration to anyone who performs i.e., activity performed for pay or profit. These include the production of goods or services including government service.

Non-market activities are the production for self-consumption. These can be the consumption and processing of primary products and the own-account production of fixed assets.

People engage in various different activities. Some sell fish, some work in fields so some work in offices. The various activities have been classified into three main sectors i.e.,

1. Primary
2. Secondary
3. Tertiary

Primary sector: The primary sector includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, poultry farming, mining, and quarrying.

Secondary sector: Manufacturing is included in the secondary sector.

Tertiary sector: Trade, transport, communication, banking, education, health, tourism, services, insurance, etc. are included in the tertiary sector.

Economic Activities By Men and Women

Due to historical and cultural reasons, there is a division of labor between men and women in the family. Women generally look after domestic chores and men work in the fields. Women generally cook food, cleans utensils, washes clothes, cleans the house, and look after their children.

Male cultivates the field, sells the produce in the market, and earns money for the family. Women are not paid for the services Delivered for the upbringing of the family. Male earns money, which he spends on rearing his family. Women are not paid for their service delivered in the family.

The household work done by women is not recognized in the National Income. Here, this lady Gaeta earns income by selling fish. Thus women are paid for their work when they enter the labor market. Their earning like that of their male counterpart is determined on the basis of education and skill.

Education helps individuals to make better use of the economic opportunities available before them. Education and skill are the major determinants of the earning of any individual in the market. A majority of women have meager education and low skill formation.

Women are paid low compared to men. Most women work where job security is not there. Various activities relating to legal protection are meager. Employment in this sector is characterized by irregular and low income.

In this sector, there is an absence of basic facilities like maternity leave, childcare, and other social security systems. However, women with high education and skill formation are paid at par with the men. Among the organized sector, teaching and medicine attract them the most.

Some women have entered administrative and other services including jobs, that need high levels of scientific and technological competence.

Read More: Production of Goods and Services: Land, Labor, Physical & Human Capital