The 'Women In Labour' Podcast: Dr Ritu Dewan on maneuvering through patriarchal structures at the workplace

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 5 | ‘A woman’s work is never done’

Indian women do more unpaid work at home than anywhere else in the world — and, of course, more than men.

Episode 5 of Women in Labour tackles questions of methodology, division of labour, and nomenclature. Are institutions reproducing patriarchal structures in the world of work? And what in the world can we do about it? The hilarious and brilliant Dr Ritu Dewan tells us.

Dr Ritu Dewan is the Vice President of the Indian Society of Labour Economics, and President of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (2014-17). She was, till her retirement, the first-ever woman Director of the Department of Economics, University of Mumbai, and the founder-member of the first Centre for Gender Economics in Asia.

Listen to the episode here.