Self-care: self-serving or self-prioritization? conceptualisation by urban indian women in ahmedabad through negotiations between their (multiple) social identities

Abstract

Topic: This thesis explores how middle-aged, urban, Ahmedabad-dwelling women conceptualise and practice self-care by framing the notion within larger paradigms of gender, class, and time-use. By highlighting the contextual, cultural, and relational factors that influence women’s capacity to put their own well-being first in a patriarchal, time-constrained, and care-centric culture, it undermines the universalising discourse surrounding self-care. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was implementeda Google Form survey asking participants their basic demographics, time-use patterns, and social norms and perceptions of self-care was circulated among a diverse population, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a select sample to gain more personalised experiences and in-depth instances. Results: It was revealed that while work and marital status do not directly correlate with self-care time, education and caregiving duties do. Women with a better economic standing and higher educational attainment defined self-care in more mainstream, health-centric terms while reporting higher hours of conscious involvement in self-care. The majority of the participants who lacked time, language and an overall sense of self were also those who belonged to socioeconomic backgrounds, who perceived self-care as an unattainable luxury. They were also the ones who frequently reframed caregiving as a form of self-care due to social expectations and internalised gender roles. Discussion: The data highlighted that the participants’ notion of self-care is a highly complicated, negotiated practice that is impacted by deeply gendered obligations, class-based resource access, and time poverty. Some women grapple between self-identity and socially-constructed, duty-based roles, while others exercise agency through systematic routines or micro-practices. We suggest that in order to fully comprehend such personal experiences of self-care, we need to detach it from its neoliberal definitions and capital-driven practices, and view it as an emotional, relational, and self-fulfilling concept that is merely required for joy, satisfaction and relaxation. The aim of these findings is to promote a more comprehensive, culturally based view of self-care that acknowledges emotional and relational forms of fulfilment as legitimate manifestations of wellbeing.