Women’s income can counter patriarchy

This article is authored by Pooja Goyal, CEO, The Udaiti Foundation.

In Rehana’s corner of Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, life followed an unforgiving script: Women stayed at home, men brought home earnings, and respect was something women fought for daily—often literally. She could not imagine even in her wildest dreams that she would become a catalyst for change.

When I asked her and her friends whether their husbands had ever hit them, they erupted in bitter laughter. "You're asking the wrong question," one said. "Don't ask if we've been hit. Ask if we were hit today?"

But something shifted for Rehana.

At her son's school, founder Sandhya Puchalapalli offered Rehana tailoring lessons during class hours. Rehana discovered a knack for it and soon earned a small income from her work.

Initially, her family resisted. Her earnings were meagre, her household role unchanged. But as her income grew, resistance weakened. One evening, after returning from work, Rehana began her usual chores. Her mother-in-law stopped her.

"She told me, ‘Why don't you sit down and have tea? I'll handle the work,'" Rehana recalled with amazement. That moment marked a power shift in how she was treated at home.

Rehana's story illustrates a crucial economic reality: Across India, women's workforce participation faces resistance not because their labour lacks value, but because their earnings are perceived as supplementary. However, when a woman's income crosses a threshold where it significantly contributes to household welfare, financial pragmatism overtakes traditional constraints. Women gain agency both at home and in society.

The honour-income trade-off is real, and it has a tipping point.

Economic independence is the cornerstone of women’s empowerment

The economic cost of a woman stepping out for work is far greater than that for a man. It isn’t just the job search or the commute—it’s the emotional toll of constant resistance from family and community. Women already do an enormous amount of unpaid labour at home. So, for a family to consider sending them out to earn, the economic return has to be significant. The World Inequality Report 2022 estimates that men have 82% of labour income in India, while women have only 18%. According to India’s labour statistics, the average salaried man earns ₹20,666 per month, whereas the average woman earns ₹15,722. The gap is still wider in the Manufacturing sector, where women earn a mere 40% of what their male counterparts earn. But anecdotally, we have seen a pattern: When a woman’s income crosses a certain income threshold, depending on region/state/ town, her treatment at home changes. The resistance softens, and family members begin to recognise the practical benefits of her work. At this point, honour yields to economic pragmatism.

According to Urban Company’s Partner Earnings Index for 2023 women working as service partners earned an average monthly income of ₹33,469, which is significantly higher than the national female average. Notably, female workers on the platform earned 23% more per hour than their male counterparts ( ₹363 vs. ₹294 per hour).

"I used to carry heavy cement and other material on construction sites for ₹280 a day. But after joining Urban Company, I now earn over INR 30,000 a month — and I do it with pride, wearing a uniform that makes people see me, not just pass by. I built this life for myself”, says Anita Santosh Pandit, Urban Company service professional.

With one-third of Urban Company’s workforce being women, this model is breaking barriers by proving that flexible, well-paying jobs for women can shift gender dynamics at home.

Flexi-staffing, particularly through firms like Quess, provides another entry point into formal employment. Quess, India’s largest staffing company, employs over 500,000 associates, with 20% of them being women. Many of these women enter the workforce through community-based recruitment, where companies engage with local elders and panchayats to secure family buy-in.

Crucially, retention data from Quess, which were studied by the Udaiti Foundation over the course of one year, shows that women who cross the 90-day employment threshold are far more likely to stay employed long-term. This suggests that even if there is initial resistance to women’s employment, families eventually relent when they see stable earnings.

Quess offers associates salary advances and interest-free loans through DASH, their finance platform. This is especially helpful for Indian women, who struggle to access credit, despite typically having better repayment rates and credit profiles. We saw that women who accessed DASH had lower turnover rates than those who didn’t, which suggests that financial agency can positively impact familial acceptance.

Many women associates use these funds for education fees, health care, and small investments in household improvements, demonstrating their increasing financial agency. Over time, this visible contribution to household welfare helps shift attitudes, as families recognise the tangible benefits of women’s earnings.

India is at a critical inflection point. More women than men now graduate from university. Yet, women’s labour force participation remains dismally low. And this window of opportunity won’t last forever—India’s fertility rate is approaching replacement levels (2.1), meaning the country has just one generation’s time to maximise its talent pool before population growth plateaus.

So, what must be done? We need concrete interventions to push more women past the income threshold that makes their work indisputable. Companies can take the lead by actively hiring women and ensuring transparent pay structures so families can see the value of women’s work. Governments can accelerate this shift. Through policies that address the gender wage gap and incentivise industries that employ more women and level the playing field for a woman candidate seeking work. We’ve seen this change happen before. In Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, decades of employment growth have turned a once-restrictive region into one where women are now treasured employees. Over the past decade, Krishnagiri’s female labour force participation rate has nearly doubled, with women now comprising over 40% of workers in certain manufacturing and electronics sectors.

A major catalyst in this transformation was the growth of the electronics manufacturing sector, which actively sought to hire women for assembly-line work due to their precision and attention to detail. This shift was driven by a combination of vocational training programs, employer outreach, and strong community engagement. As more women entered these jobs, their incomes rose significantly, with many earning above ₹15,000 per month, further strengthening their financial position within their households. Families that once resisted their daughters and wives working outside the home gradually saw the economic benefits and became more supportive.

The same can happen elsewhere. Patriarchy isn’t an unbreakable wall. It’s a structure that crumbles when the economic contribution of women becomes undeniable.

So, the question isn’t whether we can smash patriarchy. The question is: How can we get more and more women past the income threshold that will make it happen?