Thanks so much for writing back, Rachel! :) This is such a pertinent question, and we've been asking this ourselves - based on my understanding, I definitely don't think that women who engage in the informal sector (by way of their socio-economic class) have the luxury of thinking of a motherhood penalty as something that just stagnates their career progression or creates a wage gap. It often has life and death implications, such as a loss of livelihood or going into debt. Perhaps formalisation could add the layer of career aspirations as well, provided basic needs are met? 🤷🏾♀️ At any rate, in India the government does provide creche services (called "anganwadi" services), as do civil society and NGOs like SEWA, Chintan, Sampark and Mobile Creches. But given our population, this is a drop in the bucket. There's so much more to be done, and IMO unpaid work alleviation needs to be part of a larger social safety net made available to these women.
Hello from another corner of the globe! :) Absolutely love reading your newsletters, and this one particularly resonated with me since I work on gender in India and unpaid work, primarily that which is gender segregated, and its impact on women's access to economic opportunities is a particular interest area of mine. I absolutely agree with you that these are conversations everyone should ideally be having, but a trend I have seen in my own country is that so many of these questions are asked only of women working in the formal sector. With most Indian women being in the informal sector, they don't even have the luxury of seeing if they are indeed paying a motherhood penalty at all. Subsidising child care is important for all (I don't want to reduce it to just women even if they bear the brunt of it, but hopefully not always), but makes most sense to this bracket if that helps formalise their jobs at all. Apologies for this rambling message but honestly I always get excited to see research in this area! :)
I'm so sorry for my delayed response, I *loved* this comment and was so excited to receive it. Thank you! That perspective from India is so fascinating and makes a lot of sense that we don't even properly talk about the penalties in the informal sector. Do you find that women talk about the idea of motherhood penalties in India but refer to it differently? Or does the idea of taking an income/career hit not resonate in the same way due to the informal economy structure?
Thanks so much for writing back, Rachel! :) This is such a pertinent question, and we've been asking this ourselves - based on my understanding, I definitely don't think that women who engage in the informal sector (by way of their socio-economic class) have the luxury of thinking of a motherhood penalty as something that just stagnates their career progression or creates a wage gap. It often has life and death implications, such as a loss of livelihood or going into debt. Perhaps formalisation could add the layer of career aspirations as well, provided basic needs are met? 🤷🏾♀️ At any rate, in India the government does provide creche services (called "anganwadi" services), as do civil society and NGOs like SEWA, Chintan, Sampark and Mobile Creches. But given our population, this is a drop in the bucket. There's so much more to be done, and IMO unpaid work alleviation needs to be part of a larger social safety net made available to these women.
Hello from another corner of the globe! :) Absolutely love reading your newsletters, and this one particularly resonated with me since I work on gender in India and unpaid work, primarily that which is gender segregated, and its impact on women's access to economic opportunities is a particular interest area of mine. I absolutely agree with you that these are conversations everyone should ideally be having, but a trend I have seen in my own country is that so many of these questions are asked only of women working in the formal sector. With most Indian women being in the informal sector, they don't even have the luxury of seeing if they are indeed paying a motherhood penalty at all. Subsidising child care is important for all (I don't want to reduce it to just women even if they bear the brunt of it, but hopefully not always), but makes most sense to this bracket if that helps formalise their jobs at all. Apologies for this rambling message but honestly I always get excited to see research in this area! :)
I'm so sorry for my delayed response, I *loved* this comment and was so excited to receive it. Thank you! That perspective from India is so fascinating and makes a lot of sense that we don't even properly talk about the penalties in the informal sector. Do you find that women talk about the idea of motherhood penalties in India but refer to it differently? Or does the idea of taking an income/career hit not resonate in the same way due to the informal economy structure?