In a move that not only echoes but intensifies the uproar sparked by INFOSYS chairman Narayana Murthy’s controversial suggestion of a 70-hour work week, L&T Chairman S.N. Subrahmanyan has taken the discourse to a troubling new low.
Advocating for a 90-hour work week, Subrahmanyan’s remarks glorify excessive labour and normalise gendered division of labour, rendering women’s unpaid care work invisible.
In an undated video circulating on social media, Subrahmanyan is heard saying, “What do you do sitting at home? How long can you stare at your wife? How long can the wives stare at their husbands? Come on, get to the office and start working.”
His comment is steeped in the age-old gender stereotype that positions men as the primary breadwinners, responsible for working outside the home, while women are the primary caregivers, confined to domestic spaces.
However, what husbands should be doing at home is not just sitting idly but participating in household chores, caring for aging parents and raising children. The strict and conservative division of work between men and women places the latter in a disadvantageous position where her freedom, agency and mobility are restricted by the burden of the household.
This disproportionate burden of care work placed on women not only adds to their unpaid labour but also significantly hinders their ability to enter and sustain paid employment.
Women and unpaid care work
According to an International Labour Organization (ILO) report – ‘Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work’ (2018) – women in Asia and the Pacific spend 4.1 times more time on unpaid care work than men.
Globally, women perform a staggering 76.2% of all unpaid care work, dedicating an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes per day, compared to men’s 1 hour and 23 minutes. This disparity translates into approximately 201 working days per year for women, as opposed to just 63 for men.
In Asia and the Pacific, this burden rises to an overwhelming 80%. The report highlights that unpaid care work is one of the most significant barriers preventing women from entering, remaining in, and progressing within the labour force.
A 2022 report by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), ‘Building India’s Economy on the Backs of Women’s Unpaid Work: A Gendered Analysis of Time-Use Data’, reveals a stark gender divide in how time is allocated in both rural and urban areas.
Among working-age individuals (15–59 years), women spend the majority of their waking hours on unpaid work, while men primarily engage in paid employment.
In rural areas, women spend 8.2 times more time on unpaid work than men, a disparity that is even more pronounced in urban areas, where women’s time spent on unpaid care work is 9.6 times higher than men’s.
This disproportionate burden places India among the worst-performing countries globally, trailing only behind China (72%) and South Africa (71%).
As Dipa Sinha, assistant professor at Ambedkar University Delhi, aptly noted on X, “As if the wives are sitting at home, waiting to be stared at! Women who have a paid full-time ‘job’ are already working 90 hours a week.”
When stereotypes lead to violence
Burdening women with unpaid care work often leaves them economically vulnerable and dependent on their husbands for basic needs. This economic dependency creates a vicious cycle that severely limits their autonomy and decision-making power.
In situations where intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs, this dependency becomes even more dangerous. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2018 report ‘Global Study On Homicide: Gender-Related Killing Of Women And Girls’, ‘home’ is the most dangerous place for women, with the majority of female homicide victims being killed by partners or family.
Another report by UN Women 2024, ‘Femicides In 2023: Global Estimates Of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides’, reiterated that the most dangerous place for a woman to be was in her home while adding that the majority of women die at the hands of men.
The lack of economic support often forces women facing abuse to remain trapped in violent relationships, as they are unable to afford housing, healthcare or even basic necessities for themselves and their children.
Additionally, those who do attempt to leave frequently face increased risks of returning to the abusive environment due to the absence of sustainable alternatives. This economic insecurity, driven by the gendered division of labour perpetuates cycles of violence and disempowerment for women.
Equitable redistribution of care work
Subrahmanyan’s remarks not only trivialise the labour that goes into maintaining households but also perpetuate harmful stereotypes that underpin gendered division of labour. To challenge these entrenched norms, there must be a collective effort to value and redistribute care work more equitably, with both the partners co-creating their households.
This needs to be complemented through workplace policies like flexible hours, better childcare support, or state-led initiatives that recognise and compensate unpaid labour.
Dismantling patriarchal narratives requires holding public figures accountable for normalising regressive ideas. Women’s unpaid care work is not an endless reservoir to be exploited. It is time that care work is seen as a shared societal responsibility and that economic and social systems actively enable women’s empowerment and independence, rather than perpetuate their oppression.
Anjali Chauhan is a PhD research scholar at the department of political science, University of Delhi.
