The 'Women In Labour' Podcast: Dr Deepa Narayan on unlearning deference to men, breaking the cycle of silence

Since 2005, the percentage of Indian women in paid work has dropped from 35 percent to less than 24 percent come, but no one is talking about why. Till we did, and Women in Labour was born (pun intended).

A comedic take on a serious issue, the Women In Labour podcast explores topics related to women, work, family, power, and everything in between. Why do Indian women do the most unpaid work in the world? What’s stopping us from finding our inner boss? Why do we preface our work emails with “I was just wondering…”? And the big one — what’s keeping us away from India’s workplaces?

We — Aditi Mittal and Christina MacGillivray — converse with a roster of guests on our podcast in an attempt to answer these questions.

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Episode 9 | ‘Breaking the Cycle of Silence’

Former Senior Adviser to the World Bank, recipient of multiple awards, author of Chup and founder of Chup Circles, Dr Deepa Narayan explores women’s learned habits, pleasing behaviours and deference to men, which feed a vicious cycle of silence. She argues that, despite the veneer of gender equality that middle and upper-middle-class women wear, we’re still only trying to unlearn these habits. And that our stories are more similar to each other’s than we’d like to believe.

In this episode, Dr Narayan encourages women to make themselves heard, even in the face of a society that constantly yells “Chup!”

Listen to the episode here.