“If not work, then what?”: work, ambition, and satisfaction among young women in urban India

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores aspirations among the youth in India by seeing connections to two themes – ambition and satisfaction. While aspirations can call on a range of values, what is it that drives people as they deal with aspirations? Is dissatisfaction a driver of ambition, or a hurdle for future progress? How does one look at ambition and satisfaction in the larger field of aspirations as sociological phenomena? Using macro-data to establish a broader context, along with in-depth interviews with working women from a range of occupations in Delhi, and a detailed case-study of one woman , this paper studies the role ambition and satisfaction play in women’s lives in urban India. It underscores the barriers and risks young women face in the labour market, which vary by their occupation, socio-economic status, and level of education. These barriers constrain and, at times, motivate women to be ambitious, to aspire, and to achieve.