Women in the Informal Economy: Psychological Well-being and the Empowerment Trap

Abstract

The increased participation of women in the post-globalisation expansion of the informal economy has brought forth the debate on the women being empowered or impoverished in the bargain. Economists view the informal economy as an income opportunity. In contrast, feminists and political economists see the economy as a poverty trap, leading to impoverishment. This article empirically explores the ongoing debate using a survey of 1,276 female domestic workers, from Karnataka, surveyed during 2014–2015. Predictor models are built based on two categories of experiences, namely, workplace conditions and employer–employee relationship, and two categories of processes, namely, social empowerment and economic empowerment. The findings reveal employee–employer relationship factors superseding the workplace factors. Further, in the socially unequal relationship between the domestic worker and the employer, the empowerment processes are liberating as well as incapacitating. While they strengthen the economic and occupational support dynamics, the effects on psychological well-being are negative. Deconstructing the result from the Asian developing country perspective, feudal orientations are seen. The results are discussed taking help from the social support theory.