Author : Anweshaa Ghosh
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (139 download)
Book Synopsis 'Women Workers in the Gig Economy in India - An Exploratory Study' by : Anweshaa Ghosh
Download or read book 'Women Workers in the Gig Economy in India - An Exploratory Study' written by Anweshaa Ghosh and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The report highlights the precarious nature of gig work and dismantles the idea of 'flexibility' which has often been touted as the reason for popularity of the gig economy for workers across the globe and especially considered suitable for women workers. Workers continue to be deprived of any social or legal protection in these new work arrangements. Trade unions and scholars argue that it is difficult to unionize against an employer which is governed by algorithms and technology. Besides, owing to their inability to understand the play of the algorithms, most women grappled by the ability to earn more in the incentive-model because of their care responsibilities, gender norms and safety and security concerns. Women's ability to acquire new skills or upgrade their skills was also restricted owing to these determinants. In fact, given the same reasons, trade unions found it difficult to mobilize few women on the various platforms as they were mostly found to be highly masculine in nature. Shockingly, unions led or formed by women workers were non-existent, even in highly feminized sectors such as domestic and beauty work. In most cases, women tended to negotiate on one-to-one basis with the platforms and companies and rarely approached any trade union; informal networks such as Whatsapp groups were the only forms of network building and peer support that women workers had access to. Further, women workers also complained that in mixed unions, the men were hesitant in involving them and as a result, women's voices were woefully under-represented in the gig economy of India.