Work and Family: Conversations About Identity with Middle-class Women

Abstract

‘Personal identity’ is a composite of several intersecting roles and performances, not a starting point but the net outcome of ascribed and achieved statuses. With the myriad transformations underway in India, are gendered identities also changing? We seek to throw light on the construction of educated middle-class women’s identity in the light of newer norms and to find out why so many educated women are giving up their careers and adjusting to being homemakers. In search of answers, we interviewed educated middle-class urban women from Delhi/NCR in the age group of 30–50 years who had given up or taken breaks from their careers. However, although our interviewees’ identities tended to be tied up with their families, they did not give up searching for spaces outside of family to find room for a degree of autonomy, agency and new opportunities to build more meaningful selves and economic independence.