India Social Development Report 2023

Abstract This volume argues that two formidable structures, namely, patriarchy and exclusion of unpaid work (which form our present understanding of macroeconomics), are at the root of gender inequalities and women’s subordination. Both these structures reinforce each other and limit women’s empowerment. While patriarchy imposes a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic services and unpaid care work on women, the existing macroeconomic structure compounds this problem by relegating such work to the social rather than viewing it as subsidizing the economy at the cost of women. The other structures like race, religion, and caste cut across the main structures. The authors interrogate the very framing of development concerns in the first place and the manner in which gender insensitivity is built into the conceptualization of policies aimed ostensibly at empowering women in society, such as in ownership of land or in resolving violence against women, where policies fail to directly confront inimical social and cultural norms, and assess how understanding of care and care work has developed but institutions or practices of care remain gendered, with little or no attempt to institute comprehensive strategies that would recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid work. Through examination of women’s sectoral work participation, such as in agriculture, the book highlights the nuanced ways in which the seminal contribution of women to food and nutrition is not only devalued or invisibilized, but compromises their health in myriad ways. The authors discuss pathways to strengthen the achievement of gender equality through enhancing budgetary allocations to ensure quality healthcare and education while also emphasizing the need to integrate the unrecognized and unpaid work with the macroeconomy in a manner that patriarchy declines. In the absence of such integration to confront directly the structures of patriarchy and unpaid work, it is the contention of the book that the resolution to the problem of gender inequality will remain poorly addressed.