Gendered opportunity and constraint in India’s IT industry: the problem of too much ‘headweight’

In a pristine conference room of an American technology multinational offi ce in Bangalore, I ask Usha, a 33-year-old optics engineer, what she thinks about the rapid cultural changes she is witnessing in urban India. “The problem with women these days,” Usha explains, “is that they have too much headweight. You shouldn’t have that. You work for your own independence and happiness . . . [but] a working woman should really balance things. She should never make her husband feel that I’m prioritizing something else in life and not him. It’s diffi cult. But in a generation’s time, things will change. It will take time.”