In average Indian families, are women allowed to work?

Question

I do have Indian female co-workers although most of my co-workers wives stay at home. Does custom dictate for an Indian woman to stay at home?

Answer 1

Traditionally Indian women did not go out of the house and work. But with the change in customs, high cost of living, economic independence and eagerness to provide the best for their children, women started going for work so that what they earn can be spent for a good purpose. Men slowly started encouraging this too. Meanwhile, girls started attending professional colleges and passing out with high grades. This helped them to get good jobs in reputed firms with good salaries. Nowadays, boys and girls both enjoy working and earning.

Answer 2

In AVERAGE Indian families you will find all women are stay-at-home and some unemployed adult males as well.

India is only as big as the state of Texas in USA and has been supporting substantial human settlements for the last 10,000 yrs and supports about one fifth of the 6 billion human beings on this earth at present. That is why you will find unemployed adults and women in AVERAGE Indian homes.

That being said lets take AVERAGE Indian middle class homes where both men and woman have enough education and opportunity to get a job. In such cases you will find both men and women employed.

That being said lets take the percentage of Indian homes where both men and woman have enough education and opportunity to get an outside job BUT the women stay-at-home because of cultural factors (customs). It will be about 20 to 30%.

I am sure if you enquire your co-workers from India and do your math, you will find this is the case for Indians in USA also. You don’t expect people to change their culture entirely once they leave the home land right? :)

Answer 3

It is not true that Indian women are not allowed to work , even in remote villages of Indian , women work in their own fields . Though there does exist a barrier for Indian women to go out and work for others , specially so in the un educated families ,but these restrictions are slowly vanishing and most women in India who u see unemployed in cities are at home by choice , than by customs.

Answer 4

I want to add that there are many poor Indian women working as well, not just the educated middle class women work/allowed to work. I've seen plentiful women at construction sites doing hard manual labor, holding up bricks and cement. And as someone else mentioned, in the agricultural sector, many women work and plot their lands. There are women cleaning the streets and many other jobs that poor women do.

But back to the point on the educated middle class women, I would agree that in the "olden" days, it was more of a custom for women to stay at home, but more and more women are now working.

Answer 5

I am Pakistani probably an even more conservative version of Indian women, in our culture being a home make and a house wife is the most important job. A lot of women do work but just as many women quit their jobs and become an extremely dedicated wife.

Answer 6

After reading out most of the postings, I couldn't stop but mentioning couple of points.

Indian Women were outbound from ages, our history, mythology supports this comment. May be ancient Indian women were not the bread earner, but they used to take part in many activities like men.

Then in Medieval India, the country was invaded by Muslims, and for obvious reason, women were not safe outside home. Even the Muslim culture endorse keeping women under the Veil.


For modern India, the Census report of 2001 is like this:

Main Worker:
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Agri,Hunting & Forestry, Fishing M63% F37%
Mining and Quarrying M86% F14%
Manufacturing M62% F38%
Repairs M85% F15%
Electricity, Gas and Water Supply M96% F4%
Construction; M91% F9%
Wholesale and Retail Trade M93% F7%
Hotels and Restaurants M91% F9%
Transport, Storage and
Communication M97% F3%
Financial Intermediation; Real Estate,
Renting and Business Activities M88% F12%
Public Administration and Defence
and other govt jobs M75% F25%
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It clearly indicates, couple of trades are less chosen path by women, while there are other trades where women are the main worker @ 35% or higher level.

Your co-workers wives who stay at home, they are lazy and being at home was their sole objective in life.

Answer 7

Still woman from cultured and good family background doesn't go to work in India. They are still living in their traditional way of living which is I recon best in the world. But in the city, People are running too much after the money that they don't care about their tradition and culture so either male or female both are running after the money.
Have you watch the movie called "Metro"? I recommend you to watch that movie. There you can see the clear picture of today's so called modern Indian culture.
I have seen that Indian's living outside the India are following their culture than the one living in India (mainly in cities).

Answer 8

It was long ago women used to stay at home especially in villages. Now that trend has changed and after completion of studies girls take up employment and there is absolutely no restriction for ladies going to work.

Answer 9

indian women usually don't work unless they need the money ......especially if they have kids....it is thought 2 b "wrong" for an indian woman 2 go out and work and not b home for her kids............sumtimes the husbands don't allow it...the husband is considered the "man" of the family and makes all the decisions usually

Answer 10

i am an Indian myself, however, back in the olden days it wasn't the "right" thing for an Indian woman to be working outside the home...Now things are different....Indian women are not "housebound" anymore...they have the flexibility to work etc....I guess it also depends on the husband too, whether or not he allows his wife to work or not...