Authors: Harshdeep Kaur, Anand Raj

ABSTRACT

Despite progress in education and health, India continues to have one of the world’s lowest rates of women
participating in paid work. “This paper explores how women’s economic engagement influences their
bargaining power within households and how social and structural barriers shape that relationship. The study
is grounded in the Naila Kabeer (1999) framework of “resources–agency–achievements” and builds on a
flow of concerns: limited participation, safety and mobility restrictions, earnings without decision-making
control, concentration in informal work, the invisibility of unpaid care, restrictions despite education, and the
resulting economic loss for the nation. Using secondary data from the National Family Health Survey
(NFHS-5), the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), and the Time-Use Survey (2019), supplemented with
international reports and recent literature, the paper examines multiple hypotheses, including: (1) whether
women’s income contributions strengthen their role in household decision-making; (2) the influence of job
type and social respectability on bargaining outcomes; (3) the impact of unpaid care work on participation
and agency; and (4–7) the roles of household wealth, social identity, demographic factors, and the exclusion
of educated women in shaping bargaining power and national growth potential. A descriptive and analytical
design is applied, combining statistical trends with contextual interpretation. Findings suggest that while
income is important, social norms, job quality, and caregiving burdens critically mediate women’s bargaining
power. The study concludes that enhancing women’s economic agency is not only central to gender equity
but also to India’s long-term growth, as undervaluing women’s work leads to both social and economic costs.