In “When Employment Is Not Empowerment,” The Hindu argues that while employment is often seen as a path to women’s empowerment, work alone rarely suffices. Many women in India and elsewhere hold jobs yet remain constrained by unequal power relations, limited freedom, and cultural norms that stifle their agency. Being employed doesn’t automatically equate to real control over decision-making, mobility, safety, or financial independence.

The piece highlights how some employment is exploitative or precarious—lacking stable hours, benefits, respect, or fair pay—and how social expectations and household burdens often persist regardless of whether a woman is formally working. Without broader institutional support (childcare, legal rights, social safety nets) and shifts in gender norms, employment risks becoming another layer of burden rather than a genuine lever of change. 

Empowerment, the editorial insists, involves being heard in one’s home, having choices about work, being safe from violence or coercion, and having control over earnings and time. It calls on policy makers to go beyond promoting job numbers, and instead foster working conditions, legal protection, and societal attitudes that allow women not just to work but to thrive. Employment should be a foundation, not the ceiling, of women’s empowerment.