(In)visibility, care and cultural barriers: the size and shape of women’s work in India

Ashwini Deshpande and Naila Kabeer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Based on primary data from a large household survey in seven districts in West Bengal in India, this paper analyses the reasons underlying low labor force participation of women. In particular, we try to disentangle the intertwined strands of choice, constraints posed by domestic work and care responsibilities, and the predominant understanding of cultural norms as factors explaining the low labor force participation as measured by involvement in paid work. We document the fuzziness of the boundary between domestic work and unpaid (and therefore invisible) economic work that leads to mis-measurement of women’s work and suggest methods to improve measurement. We find that being primarily responsible for domestic chores lower the probability of “working”, after accounting for all the conventional factors. We also document how, for women, being out of paid work is not synonymous with care or domestic work, as they are involved in expenditure saving activities. We also find that religion and visible markers such as veiling are not significant determinants of the probability of working. Our data shows substantial unmet demand for work. Given that women are primarily responsible for domestic chores, we also document that women express a demand for work that would be compatible with household chores.

Keywords: women; gender; labor force participation; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B54 J16 J21 J40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2019-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-hme and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/100992/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: (In)Visibility, Care and Cultural Barriers: The Size and Shape of Women's Work in India (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:100992

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