Is financial independence equivalent to a sense of empowerment?

According to the UN and many other surveys, it has been found that unpaid domestic and caregiving work would constitute almost 7.2% of India’s GDP. Unfortunately, this issue prevails not only in India and other developed countries but also in some of the most developed nations in the world. Much has been researched, spoken and written about this for decades. So, I am not going to deep dive into this area further. But I am going to touch on another aspect of this same topic. Let’s assume areas where women have been given due recognition and pay for their labour. Now what? Did it automatically empower women in all other aspects of life? Let us see!

I have been using a household services app for over five years now. Regularly, I book their salon services. This article will name the app just “App A.” When beauticians interact with the same clients over a long period, they tend to open up; at least, that happened with me. Again, we will not use the actual names of the employees here. Back in 2020, when the pandemic had just begun, and the financial struggles of the working class in India kept growing, one day, Ms. X suddenly told me about how scared she felt for the future with no financial savings, etc. A disclaimer here – Ms. X’s spouse also worked in this same company in the men’s salon department. I naturally asked her, “App A lent all employees money for the pandemic period, right? Also, you and your spouse both received it; you are getting some client bookings too! Then why are you so worried?” This opened a pandora’s box. The spouse spent all of his money from his earnings on alcohol and was financially dependent on Ms. X when his money was over. Ms. X had to support their two daughters, save money to pay their dowries when they grew up and married, and support her spouse despite earning the same as him. The sorrows don’t end here. Naturally, I asked what would happen if she refused to lend him money and why she was saving for her daughters’ dowries. Instead of the expected answer of alcohol-induced domestic violence, the torture would be emotional blackmailing for the first question. For the second question, her answer was I come from a different, much-liberated community. In her caste and community, her daughters would be unable to get married despite higher qualifications if there were no dowry!

Months after giving birth to her second daughter, Ms. X couldn’t tolerate the taunts and jibes from her parents-in-law and decided to move out from her in-laws’ place and rent a space. All of this nonsense, but why? The reason was she had again given birth to a daughter, which is looked down upon in our patriarchal society. At that time, the spouse supported Ms. X and left his parents’ home to live with his wife and daughters. So today, he demands that she needs to fulfill his whims and fancies as he chose her over his own parents. To top it all, despite all the domestic and financial struggles, the pressure from the in-laws to get pregnant again, hoping to give birth to a son the third time, hasn’t ended and is increasing with every passing day! In a way, Ms. X is empowered. She knows that what she is going through daily is wrong. But she doesn’t know how to use her agency and fight this misogynist vicious cycle. So, financial independence didn’t make her empowered automatically.

Moving forward to 2022, I met beautician Ms. Y, who interestingly always asked me to transfer some amount of her service in one account while some money in another. Naturally, I asked her one day why. The answer was quite amusing. Her spouse didn’t know of the second account, where she used to take a minimal portion of the money. She use this account to transfer money to her mother. Her spouse disapproved of the same. His point was, why would a married woman still support her parents financially? In this case, Ms. Y’s logic was on point. She smartly explained to me how her spouse’s mindset was regressive. She is a new mother, out at work. Her mother supports this by caring for the grandson when his parents are out at work. While Ms. Y’s mother-in-law is not involved in the unpaid care work, her own mother is. And she deserved to be financially empowered for the same reason. Now, there are some obvious ifs and buts in this case. What if Ms. Y had given birth to a daughter? Would her mother still rejoice in the care work? How will her spouse react if and when he finds out about this and so on? But one thing is clear: Ms. Y is using her financial empowerment in the correct direction, although in hiding.

It’s time for our third and last case study! I met Ms. Z in 2023 itself. Once she got comfortable, she asked me about my marriage, lifestyle, etc. Then, one day, she just said, “It’s nice in your class and community; you can get married, choose to live separately from in-laws, wear anything you like and so on. It’s not like this in my village. One has to live with their in-laws after they are married; otherwise, people treat you as an outcast. I honestly only miss home for that delicious food, nothing else. I am supposed to get married within a few months, and I know it will be the end of my career and freedom.” This last story, somehow, made me the saddest, hopeless, and dejected! Ms. Z is younger than Ms. X and Y. She knows what empowerment and freedom look like and what not having those in your life looks like. But she doesn’t make a bold choice to fight. She chose to succumb to the pressures of our sexist society. So, did financial independence positively impact her life apart from being more aware? My answer would be No!

Drawing from the above case studies, I can strongly conclude that organizations striving to recognize women’s unpaid labour are great. But we also need to think about the consequences of paid labour strongly. I am sure no feminist leader would envision a woman being forced to pay for her spouse’s alcohol after becoming financially independent. Careful and meticulous planning is required to ensure financial independence results in women’s empowerment. It’s undoubtedly a difficult area to touch upon. But we can start with small steps. I remember some years back, Uber started having these gender sensitization workshop certifications for their drivers. This made the female customers safer while boarding the cabs at odd hours. Similar gender sensitization workshops that enable women and their families to choose and channel their agencies through financial empowerment would end the woes of millions of women in this country. After all, society is not any alien entity. It is formed by people like you and me only! If we change, so does the society!