Norms that matter: exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India

Deshpande, Ashwini and Kabeer, Naila ORCID: 0000-0001-7769-9540 (2021) Norms that matter: exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India. . United Nations University. (In Press)

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Abstract

Based on primary data from India, this paper analyses the reasons underlying women’s low labour force participation. In developing countries, women engaged in unpaid economic work in family enterprises are often not counted as workers. Women are involved in expenditure-saving activities, i.e. productive work within the family, over and above domestic chores and care work. We document the fuzziness of the boundary between domestic and unpaid (and therefore invisible) productive work which leads to mismeasurement of women’s work. Religion and visible markers such as veiling are not significant determinants of the probability of being in paid work, but the social norm that matters as a major constraint is that of being primarily responsible for domestic chores. We demonstrate the existence of ‘virtuous cycles’ within families: a history of working women in the family increases the probability of being in paid work by between 18 and 21 percentage points.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information:	© 2021 UNU-WIDER
Divisions:	International Development
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J40 - General B - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B54 - Feminist Economics
Date Deposited:	17 Jul 2025 14:06
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2025 14:45
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128874

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