Abstract
The integration of the Indian economy with the global economic system from the 1990s created substantial employment opportunities at the high ends of the formal sector. The Information Technology (IT) sector was one of the fastest growing of these sectors.
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Notes
- 1.
Reported in Economic Times (13 May 2009).
- 2.
The work is disaggregated into specific components which are allocated to individual members of the project team.
- 3.
In contrast, male workers come from more diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
- 4.
A high proportion of the respondents (about 66 %) had studied in English-medium schools. Only in the BPO sector is this proportion low—about half of the respondents (mostly working in smaller firms) were not from English-medium schools.
- 5.
The perception that one’s well-being is important in the family welfare function.
- 6.
The perception that one is making a significant contribution to family welfare.
- 7.
Commitment toward parents is quite high, with about 90 % respondents reporting that they spent time with their parents (in-laws) regularly or on their off-days.
- 8.
“Social altruism” refers to the norm that assigns women greater responsibility for the care of dependents (Badgett et al. 2001).
- 9.
The emergence of “Centers” has also facilitated this process. Such centers hire out domestic workers on a per hour basis. This permits working women to hire such help for 10–12 h to perform the needed tasks. Affiliation of the helpers to centers guarantees their reliability and honesty. Further, as a helper becomes ‘fixed’ to a household, she becomes acquainted with its patterns and requirements.
- 10.
For instance, this study found that in about 44 % households’ cases there were no elderly persons within the family; only 14 % of the households had two elderly members. The family size is quite small (as shown in Table 13.2), with 74 % of the families having less than five members.
- 11.
Such emergencies arise when sudden visitors come, domestic helps’ absentee themselves, and so on. In such situations, the introduction of electrical appliances facilitating household work becomes important in involving the husband in household chores. For instance, the husband can wash clothes when the maidservant has absented, or heat food simply by turning some knobs.
- 12.
Male workers, on the other hand, are not handicapped in this way. Their responsibility in child care activities is limited to looking after the child when there is an emergency.
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Acknowledgments
The survey was part of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation-Institute of Development Studies Kolkata project, ‘Women, Work and Education’. We are grateful to Achin Chakraborty (IDSK) and Uttam Bhattacharya (IDSK) for their suggestions.
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Dutta, M., Husain, Z. (2013). Nabadiganta: A New Horizon? Patriarchy, Globalization, and Women’s Agency in the IT Sector. In: Banerjee, S., Chakrabarti, A. (eds) Development and Sustainability. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1124-2_13
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