Comedian Aditi Mittal, filmmaker Christina MacGillivray, and host of special guests tackle a feast of taboo topics in a free-wheeling podcast about women, work, family, power and everything in between.

WOMEN IN LABOUR

Women In Labour aims to shine a light on an issue threatening gender equality everywhere: women being held back from fulfilling their potential in the workforce. Through using comedy and journalism, we engage audiences who wouldn’t otherwise be part of this critical conversation and mobilize support for new and powerful advocacy work in this space.

The result? A public conversation around women and work, an engaged audience of everyday activists, and a cultural movement that sows the seeds of long-term change.

PODCAST SEASON ONE: INDIA

Produced in partnership with the American Center - New Delhi, Women in Labour Season One takes on India’s falling female labour participation rate with the help of top comedian Aditi Mittal.

In a freewheeling, interview-driven podcast, it asks questions like, ‘Why do women do the most unpaid work in the world?’, ‘What's stopping us from finding our inner boss?’, ‘Why do we preface our work emails with “I was just wondering…”?’ And the big one: ’What’s keeping women away from India's workplaces?’

"No podcast gives you a more complete listening experience than Women in Labour."

Youth Ki Awaaz

WHY INDIA ? WHY NOW?

Women are dropping - or more accurately nose-diving - out of India’s workforce. Since 2005, the percentage of Indian women in paid work has dropped from 35 percent to less than 24 percent. Nearly 20 million women have disappeared from India’s workforce. And that includes its most educated and productive women.

There was no simple reason for it. And no one was talking about it. And so Women in Labour was born.

Season One investigated why Indian women are disappearing from the workforce, why this matters and what we can do about it.

EPISODES

Let Aditi and Christina tell you how Women in Labour came into existence and what to expect from the series.

In the 8 years to 2012, 19.6 million Indian women dropped out of paid work. Journalist Namita Bhandare helps us understand what’s going on and why you should care. Yes, you.

Can working women thrive in a man's world? Sports reporter Mayanti Langer should know. She talks to us about her boundary-breaking journey and working without operational female toilets.

Twitter's Mahima Kaul is both boss lady and boss mummy. Don't miss her awesome advice on the pitfalls of maternity leave and how to be a leader post-pregnancy.

Working usually means commuting through spaces full of men. Yes, it's not fun. Dr. Shilpa Phadke joins us with a revolutionary idea for how women can take back the city: Loitering.

Indian women do more unpaid work at home than anywhere else in the world - and, of course more than men. The brilliant and hilarious Dr. Ritu Dewan explains some of this insane data to us.

Listen to all the episodes here.

LIVE EVENT SERIES

This was not a topic that could be contained to one podcast series. But to add to the conversations we began on the podcast, Women In Labour collaborated on a series of ten events in partnership with the American Center and one of India’s leading cultural events organizations, Wild City.

The idea was to create sustained momentum by bringing our listeners to events that touch upon women's experiences in the workplace.

OP-ED SERIES

To help build the discussion on the topic, Women in Labour published a five-part op-ed series in Outlook, one of India’s leading news publications. The series was authored by Women in Labour's Lead Researcher Sonakshi Chaudhry and edited by Christina MacGillivray and Laura Quinn.