Putting in the Work: How does Employment Shape Women’s Political Participation?

My book project examines the political consequences of women joining a country’s workforce. I investigate how social resources acquired through employment spill over into the political sphere, fostering greater mobilization and collective action. I partner with SEWA Bharat, one of India’s largest unions of informal workers to conduct in-depth qualitative interviews and original surveys of women informal workers in urban north India.

Informal employment comprises 70% of the women’s workforce in the Global South, home to 85% of the world’s population. These jobs are unregulated, low paying, have contingent tenures, and uncertain payment schedules. Such features fuel expectations that informal jobs may not alter women’s intra-household bargaining power and subsequently, their political autonomy. And yet, certain types of informal jobs can foster political capacity, albeit through non-material mechanisms. Informal jobs offer women valuable resources, social networks and mobility beyond the household, which enable political action.

My findings highlight the limitations to increasing opportunities for women to work from home, a frequent policy recommendation of recent research on the subject. While such jobs lower the barriers to entering the labor force and may provide financial autonomy, they are unlikely to equip women with the broader resources and capabilities necessary to achieve meaningful agency and welfare gains.