How does patriarchy impact the position of a middle class working woman in India ?

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Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Patriarchy lets the middle-class woman work but burdens her with a double shift at home, limited control over her earnings, unequal pay and promotion, and harassment risks. The World Inequality Report 2022 estimated that women earn only about 18% of India's labour income.

**Introduction**

India ranked 131 of 148 in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025, and the Time Use Survey 2024 found women doing over three times the unpaid domestic work of men. The middle-class working woman has entered the office, but patriarchy follows her there and waits for her at home.

**Patriarchy at Home: The Double Shift**

1. **Second shift**: A salary rarely reduces her share of cooking, child care and in-law expectations, so she works Arlie Hochschild's "second shift", which breeds fatigue and career breaks.
2. **Career as secondary**: Her job is treated as supplementary income and she is expected to relocate for her husband's transfer.
3. **Earning without control**: Salary, property and investment decisions often stay with the husband or elders, so income does not ensure bargaining power.

**Patriarchy at the Workplace and in Public Space**

SKETCH: flow | The Leaky Pipeline
- Gendered subject choices
- Marriage expectations
- Motherhood penalty
- Part-time or break
- Glass ceiling

1. **Unequal pay and rise**: Women earn only about 18% of India's labour income (World Inequality Report 2022), and the Companies Act 2013 had to mandate a woman director on listed boards.
2. **Protection that backfires**: The 26-week leave under the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 makes some employers see young married women as a hiring risk.
3. **Harassment and safety**: Despite Vishaka (1997) and the POSH Act 2013, internal committees are weak and late commutes remain unsafe.

**Conclusion**

Patriarchy no longer keeps her out of work; it makes her work harder for less reward and less freedom. Shared care, enforced equal pay under the Code on Wages 2019 and safe cities would turn Article 15(3) into lived equality.

How does patriarchy impact the position of a middle class working woman in India ?

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