RGS-SA-2025-wl-6048-How Care Shapes Work: Homeworkers in the Leather Value Chain, Tamil Nadu

Homeworkers in the leather footwear cluster in Ambur, Tamil Nadu, are employed at the lowest end of the gendered global value chain (GVC). The study probes the experiences of women homeworkers in negotiating the continuum of paid work and unpaid household work. It examines the intra-household gendered and generational dynamics of care and brings to light the simultaneity of work and care in the everyday lives of women workers. Care significantly shapes not only women’s participation in the labour market but also defines the nature of work they engage in. In doing so, the paper critiques mainstream economic thinking that disregards the labour of care and reiterates the urgent need for state policies and national statistics to acknowledge the hidden, invisible labour—of work and care—of homeworkers.