Agency or necessity? exploring women’s work motivations and job satisfaction in rural and urban India

The entry of women in the workforce in India has been long reconciled in a complicated tug of war of economic need, social customs, domestic obligations and personal wishes. Although more women are becoming educated and living in urban areas have provided them with new opportunities, the motivation of women to work and the degree of job satisfaction is still significantly different in rural and urban areas. The paper investigates the hypothesis of whether women work paid jobs as a form of individual agency or as a form of economic necessity and how these two factors affect job satisfaction. The research employs a comparative descriptive design and examines the data given by 200 working women (100 rural and 100 urban) in selected areas in India. The work motivations and the employment conditions and the level of job satisfaction were measured with structured questionnaires. The results indicate that there are considerable variations between the rural and urban women on the motivations to employment, independence in work, security of incomes, and the satisfaction. Instead, rural women tend to work due to financial necessity and familial pressure and tend to work in the less professional and poorly paid sectors, whereas urban women tend to mention self-fulfilment, career development, and financial autonomy as major reasons. The level of job satisfaction is also seen to have a positive relationship with perceived agency, income adequacy, and supportive work environments. This paper emphasizes the importance of context-based policy interventions to increase the agency of women, the working conditions, and the equitable working opportunities in the rural and urban areas in India.