Tracing a Timeline for Work and Family Research in India

This paper examines four time phases beginning with the period after independence up to mid-2000 in order to trace a timeline for work and family research in the Indian context. As compared to work-family research in Europe and the US that has evolved in to a distinct sub-area of cross-disciplinary study, in India it has followed two separate and disconnected paths. One is the route charted out by women’s studies centres with a focus on underprivileged women that looks at structures of patriarchy and their contribution to subordination of women at work and home. The other path of psychosocial research conducted largely from a role theory perspective, has examined work family relations within urban settings. There has been little cross-pollination between these two streams and limited focus on organisational levels of analysis.