Home is Where the Job Is: How Remote Work Can Rewrite Gender Norms
The rise of remote work has become a transformative force, particularly for women in underserved communities. The flexibility offered by work-from-home models addresses longstanding challenges related to childcare, domestic responsibilities, and limited access to employment opportunities. This article explores how remote work fosters women's empowerment, especially for those who cannot afford childcare and shoulder the majority of domestic tasks.
Traditional employment structures often fail to account for the 'second shift' women experience: the unpaid care work at home. Journalist Nilanjana Bhowmick, in Lies Our Mothers Told Us: The Indian Women's Burden, highlights that Indian women are among the most overworked globally, spending 299 minutes daily on housework and 134 minutes on caregiving, shouldering 82% of domestic responsibilities even while holding full-time jobs. This burden often forces women to choose between career growth and family obligations, a reality that most workplaces continue to ignore.
In communities where childcare remains unaffordable, this burden is heavier. As per the IWWAGE 2023 report, while India’s female labour force participation rate improved—from 36.6% to 41.5% in rural areas and 23.8% to 25.4% in urban areas between 2021-22 and 2022-23, the quality of employment remains a concern. Many women are pushed into self-employment or informal work, with limited access to secure, salaried jobs.
Remote work offers critical advantages:
Saving on childcare and commuting costs.
Balancing caregiving with paid employment, reducing dropout rates post-marriage or childbirth.
Accessing global job markets from home.
Findings from the State of Working India Survey 2023 reveal that in rural Karnataka and Rajasthan, women's workforce participation increased from 26% before marriage to about 49% within five years after marriage. However, much of this increase stems from self-employment rather than formal jobs. Meanwhile, urban female youth unemployment remains high at 21.7% in 2022-23.
Remote work opportunities that pay fairly and build skills can bridge these gaps, providing better income prospects without forcing women to exit caregiving roles. However, remote work alone is not a silver bullet. Without fair wages, skill development opportunities, and social protections, remote work risks reinforcing precarious, low-value work for women rather than empowering them.
During India's G20 presidency, there was a renewed emphasis on integrating care work into economic structures: highlighting flexible work arrangements, social protection, and accessible digital infrastructure as key priorities. Remote work directly supports this vision by enabling women to contribute economically without having to abandon traditional caregiving responsibilities.
Yet a broader shift in the gendered division of care work is necessary. This shift hinges on women's economic and political empowerment. Independent income strengthens women's bargaining power at home, enabling them to negotiate a more equitable share of domestic duties. Remote work models can catalyze this transformation by offering accessible income streams, allowing women to sustain careers and challenge entrenched gender norms. Over time, financial autonomy can ripple outward, driving women into leadership roles in their communities and public life, and ultimately creating a more gender-equal society.
Kalaa, a social enterprise working at the intersection of gender and craft exemplifies how flexible work structures promote empowerment. By collaborating with women artisans from rural and underserved backgrounds, Kalaa’s livelihood project Kalaa Sakhi Skilling Program offers decentralized, work-from-home opportunities that align with domestic responsibilities. They also provide the women in their program access to their storefront, The Kalaa Store. This model removes barriers like commuting and rigid work hours, allowing women to earn without leaving their familial environments. In doing so, they not only create livelihoods but also reshape traditional gender norms by valuing skills historically overlooked by formal economies.
However, widening the adoption of remote work demands bridging the digital divide. According to GSMA's Mobile Gender Gap Report, Indian women are 12% less likely to own a mobile phone and 30% less likely to use mobile internet compared to men. Without investments in digital access and literacy, the transformative potential of remote work will remain out of reach for many women.
Remote work is not merely a convenience, it is a powerful driver of women’s economic empowerment. Flexible work models, when designed with inclusion in mind, can align professional opportunities with women’s lived realities, particularly for the underserved. Public policy can also play a crucial role by supporting digital skilling initiatives, offering tax incentives for companies employing remote women workers, and investing in care infrastructure to free up women's time for paid work. By strengthening remote work pathways, investing in digital infrastructure, and valuing women's unpaid work, we can build a future where women are not just participants in the economy but leaders shaping it.