Unpaid care and domestic burden among female teachers in Bangalore

Abstract

This qualitative study attempts to understand the unpaid care and domestic burden among female private school teachers in Bangalore, Karnataka. Through semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, commonly occurring codes are generated, which then are clustered together into sub-themes and themes. The thematic findings from the semi-structured interviews suggest that the onus of domestic and care responsibilities often fell on female teachers alone within their households. The female teachers also indicated that they experience a lack of support from both family, and school to navigate their dual roles of being a teacher and also a mother and wife, leading to stress, lack of leisure, and time-poverty, recurringly. The female teachers who received support indicated they were able to better balance their work and family. Using the Recognize, Reduce, and Redistribute of care framework, this study also reveals that there is a lack of policy instruments for female teachers teaching in private schools, which can enable their well-being. In order to improve formal and informal support for these female teachers, relevant global care models from low- and middle-income countries are recommended, specifically pertaining to care infrastructure provisioning and social norms change. This research hopes to contribute to the knowledge on unpaid care burden, teacher well-being and work-life balance, and on transformative care policies.