IT Industry and Women's Agency: Explorations in Bangalore and Delhi, India

Abstract

This article examines women's agency in the Information Technology (IT) industry and is based on field research in two cities in India: Bangalore and Delhi. We looked at both the software industry and IT-enabled services, particularly through the perceptions of women and men workers and managers within the IT industry. While a large number of women continue to work in gendered homes and work sites, balancing work and domestic responsibilities with little help from the men, they do, however, carry on an ongoing struggle to challenge embedded patriarchal relations within the family and in the industry. Conceding that there are socially sanctioned gender inequalities in the market, women prefer to work outside the home in an attempt to improve their social position and construct greater scope to enhance their agency, than be subject to family-based dependency and coercion.