In fact, a key theory explaining the decline in female employment in India centres on how economic growth has made it possible for millions of families to practise conservative values by withdrawing women from paid jobs. Sociologists call this the ‘Sanskritization’ effect. Higher incomes allow family members to perform puritanical upper-caste social rituals where women’s bodily honour is guarded strictly within the home. As incomes increase, families no longer need more members to work in order to stay afloat and women are discouraged from working outside.
