Can the state correct gender norms in society?

A common assumption in policy debates is that social norms constraining women’s economic participation are a private problem requiring a public solution. The state, on this view, is the corrector of last resort. But in India, the historical record complicates that framing considerably. The state has not stood apart from the norms restricting women’s lives. It has been one of their primary authors.

Indian labour law classifies women alongside children as a vulnerable group requiring special management. One state’s excise legislation lists women among the categories barred from employment in liquor establishments — alongside criminals and the diseased. Night work restrictions have been defended in court on the grounds that women require protection from moral dangers and to preserve what one judgment called the vigour of the race. These are not historical curiosities. They are provisions that remain in active legal force.

The pattern is consistent. Where women have been excluded from work, restricted in their hours, or deemed unsuitable for entire categories of employment, the restriction has typically carried the force of law. The norm did not precede the legislation. In many cases, the legislation created and entrenched the norm.

This matters when evaluating proposals for the state to correct patriarchal attitudes through new interventions. The institutions being proposed as the solution are the same ones that have spent decades encoding the problem. That does not mean nothing should change. It means the most credible first move is for the state to undo what it has done: remove the restrictions it imposed, repeal the classifications it invented, and stop treating women’s economic choices as a matter requiring official supervision. The case for state action here is strongest when it points inward.