Misogyny in the matrimonial market: Data shows Indian men prefer wives without jobs

Source– The post is based on the article “Misogyny in the matrimonial market: Data shows Indian men prefer wives without jobs” published in “The Indian Express” on 1st April 2023.

Syllabus: GS1- Social empowerment. GS2- Vulnerable sections of the population

Relevance– Issues related to women empowerment

News– A recent study we carried out on a large matrimonial website to understand the marital preferences of men.

What are the main findings of a survey of the matrimonial websites?

Female profiles who were employed received nearly 15% fewer responses from male relative to those who were not working. The preference for non-working female partners holds across all education groups of female profiles.

Moreover, women employed in “masculine” occupations were 3% less likely to receive responses compared to women employed in “feminine” occupations.

A woman in a “masculine” job who stated a preference to continue to work after marriage was less likely to generate male interest, relative to a woman in a “feminine” job who preferred to continue working.

Profiles of working women generated less interest from men even when their caste, education levels and family incomes matched those of the men.

Further, the level of discrimination against working women was higher by malewith lower education levels.

How does the working status of a married woman have an impact on domestic work performed by women?

In urban India, married women spend almost 7.5 times more time on domestic work as compared to married men. As per Time Use Survey 2019; women in north India spend more time on domestic work relative to women in the south.

Women who are not working spend much more time on domestic work. It is more than women in “feminine” occupations and much more than those in “masculine” fields. These findings suggest that male-dominated occupations may be characterised by more inflexible working schedules.

Other evidence suggests that women in male-dominated occupations may even be considered “sexually impure” due to greater interactions with men at work.

What are the socio-economic impacts of marriage preferences?

The marriage preferences are likely to contribute to India’s persistently low female labour force participation and high levels of occupational segregation by gender.

This segregation may also perpetuate the gender gap in earnings, because “feminine” occupations pay 30% lower daily wages on average than  “masculine” occupations.