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This creates a dilemma in patriarchal Caste and class heavily influence that daughters-in-law from ‘upper
households that feel pressured to accept practices such as marriage, divorce, caste’ households (known as ‘General’
educated brides for their sons, but inheritance, and asset ownership in castes in India) do more unpaid work
are not ready to accommodate their India. These institutions also shape a and less paid work per day as compared
terms. An educated daughter-in-law is woman’s options outside the home and to daughters-in-laws from ‘lower caste’
subjected to coercion and violence to her bargaining power inside it. households. Among these marginalized
mold her according to the norms of the Graphs 3 and 4 show the time spent per ‘lower caste’ groups exist two specific
patriarchal marital home. These norms day on different work activities (paid & categories of communities that the
aim to confine her to unpaid work in unpaid) by daughters-in-law based on Indian constitution lists as Scheduled
the household and to restrict her mobil- caste and class identities. Graph 3 shows Caste (SC), and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
ity outside the household. A woman’s
mobility outside the household is seen
as an opportunity for romantic or GRAPH 3: Time spent on different work activities (paid & unpaid) by daughter-
sexual encounters out of wedlock, and in-law in hours per day based on caste.
hence fiercely regulated in patriarchal
households. An educated bride does
not automatically consent to these 4.34
restrictions and so she is seen by her ST 5.48
marital family as a threat. Thus, a patri- 1.10 10.92
archal household considers non-partic-
ipation in market work by women as a SC 3.28
proxy for sexual fidelity and a marker 1.11 5.79
of family honor. 10.19
Since the son is usually employed and 2.47
away from the home during the day, the General 1.17 6.36
task of confining an educated daughter- 10.01
in-law falls on the mother-in-law. She
6
makes sure that the daughter-in-law is 0 2 4 mean hours of: 8 10
completely devoted to her household
duties. When a daughter-in-law is more paid work unpaid unpaid total work
educated and assertive, her bargaining per day housework care work paid + unpaid
power challenges the mother-in-law’s per day per day per day
authority. Thus the mother-in-law
exerts more power on the daughter-in-
law by giving her even more household GRAPH 4: Time spent on different work activities (paid & unpaid) by daughter-in-
work. Within this patriarchal context, law in hours per day based on class.
daughters-in-law rarely rebel. Instead
they are more likely to internalize these
norms and do more housework in order 3.35
to prove themselves to be compliant Lower Class 5.98
members of the household. In cases 1.10 10.4
where the daughter-in-law rebels,
violence is used. This is evident from 2.10
the thousands of reported cases of domes- 6.42
tic violence in India. Upper Class 1.23
9.75
Role of Caste and Class
0 2 4 6 8 10
While PBT helps explain the unex- mean hours of:
pected results of our time use patterns
among educated daughters-in-law, paid work unpaid unpaid total work
these patterns vary based on the caste per day housework care work paid + unpaid
and class position of the households. per day per day per day

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