According to a 2022 study by the University of Oxford, women who are working are less likely to find a match on matrimonial sites compared to women who don’t work. Diva Dhar, the doctoral candidate who conducted the experiment to test her theory, found that women who have never worked get 15 to 20 per cent more interest compared to those women who work.
Basically, out of a 100 men who respond to a woman who has never worked, only 78 to 85 will respond to a working woman. Dhar spends her time researching Indian women’s participation in the labour force and the way gender roles have an impact on marriage and the working women’s lives. The experiment started with her making 20 fabricated profiles on a leading matrimonial website. They were the same in age, lifestyle preferences and diet and the only difference was the caste and whether the women chose to work–now and in the future–and how much they earn.
Dhar then sent out invites to men who met a certain eligibility criteria. She found that women who don’t work get a high response from men and those who are willing to give up their careers are next in line. Women who want to work after marriage get lesser responses and from the ones who do, the higher earning per cent were popular. Dhar concluded that since almost 99 per cent of Indian women get married by the time they’re 40, the fact that there is a penalty causes women to internalise it. They tend to not build careers before marriage or immediately give it up once they’re hitched. She is carrying out a follow-up research study with a larger sample size to understand the situation more. Her long-term goal is to diminish the bias that women face through various interventions.