Towards Career Sustainability: Issues of Women in India

Abstract

This paper seeks to discuss what makes a sustainable career for a woman in India, how social structures can limit sustainable careers and how the process of socialisation and internalization of social role expectations impact career sustainability. It seeks to highlight ways in which women could have sustainable careers, also called professional growth. This study is based on secondary sources of data collated from a host of research papers and literature published on the subject.India’s statistics on gender equity reflect stark biases. The country’s female labour force participation (LFPR) rate is less than half the world average; Indian women earn only about 65% of what their male counterparts earn (compared to 77% world average). Only a minute fraction of listed companies has women leaders. What creates this skew? What factors influence how careers are shaped and sustained? Using data and findings from diverse sources, including seven India-specific papers, we explore the concept of career sustainability as it relates to Indian women. We examine the effect of social structures such as the primary family unit and the organisation as a gendered construct. We argue that these and other social structures, coupled with women’s internalization of their social role expectations are factors that directly impact the sustainability of women’s careers. Finally, we identify initiatives that can build positive social identities and can mitigate the gendered nature of organizations and society at large.