India has one of the smallest percentages of females in the workforce of any country. One simple way to drop the poverty rate in India would be to get more Indian women paid jobs. In 2010, 29 percent of women in India were employed. Last year, that was down to 24 percent. However in a country like China, the employment rate for women is at about 60 percent.
One of India’s issues in terms of growing its economy is the fact that India has a huge priority on family honor. Having the daughter of the family working, interacting with strange men on a daily basis, and not devoting herself to solely spending time at home with her family can cause problems for a traditional Indian family’s reputation, especially in small, rural villages.
India’s patriarchal society means that some families are curious and possibly willing to send their daughters off to jobs in the city, but they don’t want to be the first ones to do it. Fear of ruining the family reputation or just simply fear of things that are new to them are preventing them from bettering India’s economy and having more females in the workforce.
Alice Evans, a London King’s College lecturer calls this the “patrilineal trap”. When more women enter the workforce, this trap starts to dissolve, and sending off a daughter to work in the city is less strange and/or risky. Bangladesh has already experienced this effect.
However, should a hopeful young woman not land a job, these girls can often not escape violent and abusive arranged marriages. Thousands of wives are killed by their husbands or in-laws every year.
India is starting to catch up with the rest of the world, however, and gradually, more women are escaping this patrilineal trap and moving to the city to find good paying jobs rather than getting an arranged marriage right away. More women are questioning the patriarchal norms and landing good jobs rather than staying in her house as a housewife.
Cites
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/briefing/india-economy-gender-inequality.html#:~:text=There%20is%20one%20change%2C%20so,participation%20has%20propelled%20economic%20growth.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.timesofindia.com%2Flife-style%2Frelationships%2Flove-sex%2F5-reasons-why-arranged-marriages-are-still-successful-in-india%2Fphotostory%2F69309141.cms&psig=AOvVaw0i0e5rx_FrS4nLyfqQYbx
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