This thesis examines the complex interplay between women’s labour force participation and time allocation in India through a feminist economics framework. This thesis advances the scholarly discourse by analysing the interconnections between paid work, unpaid domestic and care work, and self-care—moving beyond traditional productivityfocused indicators to examine how institutional structures, social norms, and economic constraints shape women’s labour market participation and time allocation patterns. Drawing upon Audre Lorde’s conceptualisation of self-care as a radical act of selfpreservation (Lorde, 1997), this thesis examines the global landscape where women perform nearly three times more unpaid care work than men—a disparity projected to persist at 2.3 hours by 2050 (UN Women, 2023). This asymmetry constitutes an “invisible infrastructure” that upholds human capital formation yet perpetuates gendered patterns of time poverty (Brown, 2015, p. 105). Feminist economists challenge biological determinist arguments about women’s ‘natural’ predisposition toward caregiving, critiquing this essentialism as a reinforcement of gender hierarchies (Bauhardt, 2018). The disproportionate burden of care work constrains women’s employment choices and career advancement, often necessitating occupational compromises (Abraham et al., 2022).