Swethaa Ballakrishnen, a sociolegal scholar and assistant professor at UC Irvine, discusses her book on gender dynamics in India’s elite law firms. She reveals how structural factors create unexpected gender parity in a male-dominated industry. The conversation explores the complex interplay of socio-economic backgrounds, family dynamics, and changing perceptions of work. Ballakrishnen challenges notions of intentionality in feminism, questioning whether unintentional progress can still be deemed feminist. Intriguing insights abound on navigating gender in India’s professional landscapes.
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Swethaa's Interdisciplinary Journey
Swethaa Ballakrishnen's academic journey began in India with a law degree and corporate law experience.
After an LLM at Harvard and a fellowship, they pursued a sociology PhD at Stanford, enriching their sociolegal perspective.
insights INSIGHT
Inequality and Opportunity
Swethaa's interest in the legal profession stemmed from its inherent inequalities, offering a compelling research site.
An unexpected opportunity to study global legal professional extensions arose, shaping their research trajectory.
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From Liberalization to Gender
Swethaa's book originated from a second-year paper exploring the impact of India's 1991 liberalization reforms on the legal profession.
Early fieldwork revealed gendered findings that shifted the project's focus, leading to the book's core arguments.
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Swethaa Ballakrishnen's "Accidental Feminism" explores the surprising gender parity in elite Indian law firms. The book investigates how a confluence of factors, including gendered socialization, family structures, and firm histories, unexpectedly leads to more equitable outcomes than in similar firms globally. Ballakrishnen challenges the assumption that intentional feminist initiatives are the sole path to gender equality, highlighting the complexities of achieving parity through seemingly accidental means. The research also cautions against the limitations of such 'accidental' progress, emphasizing the need for critical examination of underlying inequalities. Ultimately, the book prompts a deeper understanding of the role of intentionality in social change and the complexities of achieving gender equality.
In India, elite law firms offer a surprising oasis for women within a hostile, predominantly male industry. Less than 10 percent of the country's lawyers are female, but women in the most prestigious firms are significantly represented both at entry and partnership. Elite workspaces are notorious for being unfriendly to new actors, so what allows for aberration in certain workspaces?
Drawing from observations and interviews with more than 130 elite professionals, Accidental Feminism: Gender Parity and Selective Mobility Among India’s Professional Elite(Princeton UP, 2021) examines how a range of underlying mechanisms-gendered socialization and essentialism, family structures and dynamics, and firm and regulatory histories-afford certain professionals egalitarian outcomes that are not available to their local and global peers. Juxtaposing findings on the legal profession with those on elite consulting firms, Swethaa Ballakrishnen reveals that parity arises not from a commitment to create feminist organizations, but from structural factors that incidentally come together to do gender differently. Simultaneously, their research offers notes of caution: while conditional convergence may create equality in ways that more targeted endeavors fail to achieve, "accidental" developments are hard to replicate, and are, in this case, buttressed by embedded inequalities. Ballakrishnen examines whether gender parity produced without institutional sanction should still be considered feminist.
In offering new ways to think about equality movements and outcomes, Accidental Feminism forces readers to critically consider the work of intention in progress narratives.
Noopur Raval is a postdoctoral researcher working at the intersection of Information Studies, STS, Media Studies and Anthropology.
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