Feeling Proud, Feeling Embarrassed: Experiences of Low-income Women with Crowd Work

Abstract

Women’s economic empowerment is central to gender equality. However, work opportunities available to low-income women in patriarchal societies are infrequent. While crowd work has the potential to increase labor participation of such women, much remains unknown about their engagement with crowd work and the resultant opportunities and tensions. To fill this gap, we critically examined the adoption and use of a crowd work platform by low-income women in India. Through a qualitative study, we found that women faced tremendous challenges, for example, in seeking permission from family members to do crowd work, lack of family support and encouragement, and often working in unfavorable environments where they had to hide their work lives. While crowd work took a toll on their physical and emotional wellbeing, it also led to increased confidence, agency, and autonomy. We discuss ways to reduce frictions and tensions in participation of low-income women on crowd work platforms.