Recent National Sample Survey(NSS) data released by the government recognises “distinct gender differentials” in the Indian workforce — stark in urban areas where 54 per cent of every 1000 males report working, while only 14 per cent women work.

Academics and activists often cite cultural norms which view women as home-makers and men as breadwinners at the root of such a male-female gap. Hence, our culture mandates that women stay at home and take care of their families, while men find employment and contribute to the economic sustenance of the household. But is ‘culture’ a policy scapegoat?

A survey commissioned by the International Labour Organisation and conducted by the

Institute of Social Studies Trust unpacks the ways in which socially constructed barriers manifest in women’s work and life-choices — that is, decisions about how much time women choose to spend working outside the home vis-à-vis the time spent at home taking care of family.

The conventional statistical lens can underestimate women’s work. The ISST study reports 21 percent female workforce participation, which is much higher than the NSS female worker population ratio (7.5 per cent) for urban Delhi. Such magnification can be attributed to the smaller scale and focus of the study which allowed intensive probing. The variation also highlights difficulties in disentangling women’s economic role from their domestic duties. Several women were engaged in paid informal work which was part-time or home-based like providing tuitions, tailoring garments or domestic work. Such employment patterns are often not reported or perceived as “work” by enumerators or women themselves. Further, women assisting their family members in clinics, shops and enterprises did not immediately report themselves as workers. Close to 56 percent of the women surveyed, when explicitly asked by ISST investigators, stated they helped their family members with businesses and jobs.

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