Tag: gender

Living in-between professional and caregiving identities – The experience of women working in rural development nonprofits in India

Poonam Barhoi1, Manan Pathak2 and Ranjeet Nambudiri3

1Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad, 2 UPES Dehradun, 3 Indian Institute of Management Indore

Within rural development nonprofits in India, women professionals find themselves navigating the complex intersection of professional identity and traditional caregiving roles. While the unique socioeconomic conditions of the Global South have created opportunities for women to work in rural development nonprofits in India, obstacles exist in the form of gendered social expectations. Our recent study in NVSQ examines the experiences of such women professionals, who live in the liminality between ‘ideal professional identity’ and ‘traditional caregiving identity’. The study, which involved in-depth interviews with 21 women professionals working in rural development nonprofits across seven states in India, revealed that this liminal state is a source of significant identity conflicts. Our findings suggest that women professionals experience constant guilt due to the conflicting obligations of caregiving and professional worker identities and their inability to justify both roles to themselves.

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