Working women and caste in India: A study of social disadvantage using feature attribution

Women belonging to the socially disadvantaged caste-groups in India have historically been engaged in labour-intensive, blue-collar work. We study whether there has been any change in the ability to predict a woman’s work-status and work-type based on her caste by interpreting machine learning model...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Joshi, Kuhu, Joshi, Chaitanya K.
Format: Conference Paper
Language:Inglés
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146126
Description
Summary:Women belonging to the socially disadvantaged caste-groups in India have historically been engaged in labour-intensive, blue-collar work. We study whether there has been any change in the ability to predict a woman’s work-status and work-type based on her caste by interpreting machine learning models using feature attribution. We find that caste is now a less important determinant of work for the younger generation of women compared to the older generation. Moreover, younger women from disadvantaged castes are now more likely to be working in white-collar jobs.