Gender Norms and Patriarchal Influences on Career Aspirations of Married Backward Class Women

Abstract

The study examined how gender roles and male dominance affect the career aspirations of married women belonging to the backward classes (SCs, STs, and OBCs) in the districts of Wardha and Nagpur in Maharashtra, India. Data were collected based on a mixed-methodological approach from 100 participants, aged 25-58, across professions including teaching, medicine, police, legal practice, and government service. The quantitative surveys measured career limitation, patriarchal influence, work stress, and family support, and the study found moderate to high scores for constraints on career options (M = 3.43 for aspiration limitation; M = 3.80 for patriarchal influence on a 5-point scale). The qualitative interviews, while furthering the understanding of their predicament, bring to light themes of expectations from family, domestic burdens, and societal stigma, working together as stressors from within that aggravate professional stress. According to the findings, patriarchal norms have positioned themselves as primary agents in stifling upward mobility as well as aggravating stress-inducing factors, especially in areas lying between rural and urban, such as Wardha. Further recommendations were prepared for interventions concerning gender sensitization and policy changes towards greater empowerment of women. This research strengthens the understanding of the Indian patriarchal matrix, which supports intersectional barriers, thereby laying emphasis on the urgent need for empowerment strategies emerging from within the ground realities