To describe Kashmir as a conservative society in the contemporary era without acknowledging its changing social realities would be an incomplete assessment. Women today are visible in public spaces and professional spheres. The days when women’s roles were understood only through cooking, cleaning, childcare and caring for elderly family members are gradually giving way to a more diverse reality. Kashmiri women are now navigating both domestic responsibilities and professional aspirations.
Across Kashmir, from Baramulla to Srinagar and from North to South Kashmir, young women are pursuing higher education, preparing for civil services, qualifying competitive examinations and taking up leadership roles in politics and public institutions. They are building careers in research, journalism, healthcare, engineering and education. Their contribution, however, extends beyond formal employment. Women continue to sustain significant parts of the informal economy through agriculture, orchard work, handicrafts, traditional artisan activities and other community-based occupations. These changing patterns reflect a broader transformation in the social and economic position of women in Kashmiri society.
In many Kashmiri households, the question is no longer whether a daughter should study, but what she will do with her education. Families increasingly ask about employment, further studies and career prospects. Young women are entering schools, hospitals, offices, media organisations and businesses. Their presence is changing who earns, makes decisions and looks after the home.
The change is visible in ordinary routines. Kashmiri women are balancing professional commitments alongside family responsibilities. For many, completing a day’s work does not mean stepping away from household duties. The same women who contribute to offices, schools and other workplaces continue to remain closely involved in childcare, household management and caring for elderly family members. Their professional identities have expanded, but family expectations have not always changed accordingly.
Family economics have changed too. Household expenses and the cost of education and healthcare have made financial security a shared concern. A woman’s income may support household needs, children’s education or care for parents. Work also allows women to use their education, develop skills and participate in decisions about their future.
Employment changes more than a household’s budget. It gives a woman a bargaining position, mobility and authority over everyday decisions. Yet income alone does not erase inequalities shaped by class and location. A woman’s experience also depends on whether available work is secure and whether her family accepts her right to make choices. These differences should remain visible whenever progress is discussed. In one of my field interactions in Kashmir, I observed many households where men are helping in household work while women pursue their careers and education. Such small negotiations indicate a gradual shift.
The latest official figures offer one indication of this social change. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2025 recorded a female Worker Population Ratio of 49.6 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir among people aged 15 years and above.
Yet women’s employment becomes more complicated when we look inside the household. In many families, paid work has been added to, rather than substituted for, domestic work. Office hours may end, but cooking, cleaning, childcare, helping children with lessons and caring for older relatives continue. Because these tasks are unpaid, their time and skill often go unrecognised. Women have always played a crucial role in both family and society. Throughout history, they have not only been mothers and wives but also diligent workers contributing to economic and social development. However, with changes in family structures and the rising participation of women in the workforce, the challenge of balancing family responsibilities and social obligations has become more complex.
This raises a central sociological question: has the division of labour within the family changed as much as women’s access to paid employment? In some households, it has. Husbands share school runs, cooking and childcare; grandparents help with younger children; and decisions about money and careers are discussed jointly. Family roles are negotiated through everyday choices and changing ideas about partnership.
Marriage can bring these negotiations into sharper focus. A woman may have built a career before marriage and wish to continue it afterwards. Whether she can do so may depend on where the couple lives, childcare, working hours and the expectations of both families. Sometimes a job is welcomed until it begins to affect household routines. In other homes, a supportive partner makes professional growth possible without making a woman feel that she is neglecting her family. Often, the difference lies not simply in determination, but in the support around her.
Men are also part of this changing picture. Many continue to face pressure to be the principal earners, even as employment becomes less predictable and women’s incomes contribute to household stability. Some are taking a more active role in care and domestic work; others find it difficult to move beyond the roles they grew up seeing. Equality need not be presented as a loss for men; sharing responsibilities can reduce pressure and strengthen relationships.
The experience is not the same across Kashmir. A professional woman in Srinagar may have access to transport, institutions and employment networks that are harder to reach for a woman in a remote area. Women working in agriculture, family enterprises or home-based activities may contribute substantially without being recognised like salaried employees. Safe transport, decent employment, childcare and fair working conditions remain essential if opportunity is to reach more women.
There is no need to choose between family and women’s ambitions. Family life has always adjusted to changes in livelihood, education and circumstance. The question is whether those adjustments will be shared fairly. Women should not have to prove their commitment to family by carrying an exhausting double burden. Nor should professional success require them to withdraw from relationships that matter to them. Employers, institutions and families must make work compatible with care.
There is no need for grand declarations. What Kashmir needs now is a shift in everyday attitudes. Families, workplaces and institutions must stop seeing a woman’s ambition as an exception that needs to be accommodated and start treating it as a normal part of a household’s future. That means media that normalises shared responsibility, schools that teach equality as practice, and workplaces that offer flexible hours, childcare support and maternity provisions not as favours but as basic conditions for work. Most importantly, it requires honest conversations within homes where husbands, parents and in-laws see sharing domestic work not as help extended to a woman, but as their own responsibility.
Progress should be judged not simply by how many women enter workplaces, but by whether they can remain, advance and make choices without unequal penalties at home or work. A daughter’s education, a woman’s income and a mother’s professional identity need not compete with family well-being. Lasting change will come when domestic work is recognised, decisions are shared and a woman’s aspirations are treated as part of the family’s future, not as a departure from it.
