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Karma and the Myth of the New Indian Super Woman: Missing Women in the Indian Workforce

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Bhavani Arabandi at Urban Institute
Bhavani Arabandi
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Abstract

Women’s education and employment are considered fundamental to the development of national economic growth, empowerment and maximization of human potential. And yet the latest reports from India indicate that while women’s educational opportunities are expanding, curiously, their labour force participation is declining. What explains this gap between women’s educational attainment and their labour force participation? Where are the missing women? This ethnographic study of women who were once employed in high status careers illuminates how class, gender and notions of motherhood mutually shape the meanings and economic value of women’s work at the intersection of the family and labour market such that women in India ‘choose’ to withdraw from the workforce.
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177© The Author(s) 2016
B. Fernandez et al., Land, Labour and Livelihoods,
Gender, Development and Social Change,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-40865-1_9
Karma andtheMyth oftheNew Indian
Super Woman: Missing Women
intheIndian Workforce
BhavaniArabandi
I had been working with the organization for 12 years [when] I was offered
a managerial post. I refused it atly. I said I do not want to become a man-
ager [because] I don’t know what it means to be a manager. I felt like I
could barely manage my own time with family and work, so how would
I manage other people? I’m not a Super Woman! But they [the manage-
ment]said, ‘No, you cannot be here so long in the organization and say no
to [an opportunity] like this.’ They asked me to try it for a year. I tried and
I failed [matter-of-factly]… because I did not go to my manager with my
problems. There was some kind of a disconnect. I wanted to be mentored
but I did not know what or how to ask.
Ria, 36 years, worked as a software developer for 14 years before she quit to
become a full-time mother.
What would tech gurus who are advocating that women can ‘have it all’
make of the narrative above? In October 2014 Satya Nadella, Indian-
American CEO of Microsoft, was asked in an interview about his advice
to women when negotiating a raise or a promotion. In response, Nadella
claimed that women do not need to ask for a raise; if women work hard
karma will take care of the rest. The irony of his statement was not lost
B. Arabandi ()
Chao Center for Asian Studies, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
e-mail: bhavani.arabandi@rice.edu
... Section 5 of the Act Stipulates that an employer covered under the act cannot discriminate against women in recruitment or any condition of service after recruitment, such as promotions, training, or transfer. Section 10 (2) of the same act lays down the penalty for the contravention of Section 5 (Arabandi, 2016). ...
... Laying down a provision like section 5 of Equal Remuneration Act is just lip service. The absence of grievance redressal procedure, evidence in such matters, the system to be BESTUUR ISSN 2722-4708 Vol. 9, No. 1, August 2021 Utkarsh K. Mishra, et.al (Transgender and the Right to Employment in India…) followed by employers while recruiting has made this provision almost dysfunctional (Arabandi, 2016). ...
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