by Laila Abu-Er-Rub, postdoctoral researcher
The creative industries in India have witnessed a significant growth in the last years. Recent studies show that corresponding to this growth, an increasing number of women work in this sector. In 2010, women made up almost half of the workforce in the creative industries, despite the fact that India still has the lowest percentage of women employees (23%) worldwide. Although the creative industries are considered to belong to the liberal work environments, state-of-the-art literature suggests that women are clearly disadvantaged at their workplace in comparison to their male counterparts, even more so if they are single. Women face discrimination in terms of wages, respectability, and credibility.
My research on women in the creative industries will have two main foci:
Firstly, this investigation seeks to answer the followings questions: What are the strategies of professional Indian women to exercise agency and autonomy in the workplace? In which creative industry professions are single women accepted and in which not? Does being single restrict a women’s career and their acceptance in leading positions?
Secondly, this project entails a media analysis that traces the discourses on single women in different Indian media: in movies, in the weekly news magazines Outlook and Tehelka and in women’s magazines such as Marie Claire and Femina.
The HERA SINGLE project is funded by the European Union.
