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

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  • Ashwini Deshpande
  • Naila Kabeer

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.

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  • Ashwini Deshpande & Naila Kabeer, 2021. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women's work between income generation, expenditure-saving, and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-130, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-130
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sarkar, Sudipa & Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2019. "Employment transitions of women in India: A panel analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 291-309.
    2. Ashwini Deshpande, 2002. "Assets versus Autonomy? The Changing Face of the Gender-Caste Overlap in India," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 19-35.
    3. Ashwini Deshpande, 2007. "Overlapping Identities under Liberalization: Gender and Caste in India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(4), pages 735-760, July.
    4. Neff, Daniel & Sen, Kunal & Kling, Veronika, 2012. "The Puzzling Decline in Rural Women's Labor Force Participation in India: A Reexamination," GIGA Working Papers 196, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    5. Kapsos, Steven. & Bourmpoula, Evangelia. & Silberman, Andrea., 2014. "Why is female labour force participation declining so sharply in India?," ILO Working Papers 994949190702676, International Labour Organization.
    6. Amaresh Dubey & Wendy Olsen & Kunal Sen, 2017. "The Decline in the Labour Force Participation of Rural Women in India: Taking a Long-Run View," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(4), pages 589-612, December.
    7. Wendy Olsen & University of Manchester & Smita Mehta & Cambridge University, 2006. "A Pluralist Account of Labour Participation in India," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-042, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Afridi, Farzana & Bishnu, Monisankar & Mahajan, Kanika, 2020. "Gendering Technological Change: Evidence from Agricultural Mechanization," IZA Discussion Papers 13712, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Chatterjee,Urmila & Murgai,Rinku & Rama,Martin G., 2015. "Job opportunities along the rural-urban gradation and female labor force participation in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7412, The World Bank.
    10. Sonali Das & Ms. Sonali Jain-Chandra & Ms. Kalpana Kochhar & Naresh Kumar, 2015. "Women Workers in India: Why So Few Among So Many?," IMF Working Papers 2015/055, International Monetary Fund.
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    Cited by:

    1. Deshpande, Ashwini & Singh, Jitendra, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can’t Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," IZA Discussion Papers 14639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jajati Keshari Parida & Shiba Shankar Pattayat & Sher Verick, 2023. "Why is the size of discouraged labour force increasing in India?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3601-3630, October.
    3. Jafarov, Jafar & Singh, Tejendra P. & Sahoo, Soham, 2023. "Air Pollution and Time Use: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 16552, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Ashwini Deshpande & Jitendra Singh, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed out or Can't Get In? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," Working Papers 65, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.

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    Keywords

    Female labour force participation; India; Social norms; Unpaid labour;
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