Letting Women Work Night Shifts Can Be Revolutionary | The Reason Why

An old Manipuri idiom says, "A woman who does not go to the market is meaningless in society."

You can see how this saying has shifted the streets of the Northeastern states, where women walk, shop or sell with ease and confidence. And when you see more women around — whether you're a man or a woman — you simply feel safer. I've lost count of how many times I've taken a new route in a new country, seen a few women walking comfortably, and thought, "Okay, this road is fine."

It turns out that our brains are wired to react that way due to evolutionary experiences. The moment a man enters a room full of only men, a study in Frontiers in Psychology found, his brain amps up its alertness — something that doesn’t happen as much in mixed spaces. The brain reads mixed-gender spaces as less threatening and thus feels subconsciously safer. 

Another study published in Violence and Victims found that places with a more balanced gender environment tend to see lower male violence. It's not that women magically calm everyone down. Basically, when women are around, men don't feel the need to act tough. That helps them behave better, and the whole atmosphere softens. So, when you see women moving freely in a neighbourhood, it often signals that people follow rules, there's accountability, and the space is safer.

So, if this is what gender balance does to a street, schools or markets, imagine what it could do to workplaces, especially those that operate overnight. For decades, India's labour laws didn't allow women to work night shifts in most sectors. The idea was that it's too risky for women to work at night, so let's protect them by banning night-time work. This underlying assumption that women cannot make informed choices and that employers cannot give safe working conditions didn't induce the factories, companies, government and society to change the mindset and offer better spaces.

No formal employment meant that millions got pushed into unregulated, low-paying work like domestic help, farm work, construction labour, street vending, etc. These jobs neither have security nor benefits like a provident fund or a pension. Thus, in trying to protect women, the law forced them into far riskier work. These rules limited their agency, job options, and economic independence.

India's Factories Act of 1948 banned women from night shifts in manufacturing. The inspiration came from the early-20th-century International Labour Organisation's conventions. By the 1990s, the world, including the ILO, had moved on. Indian courts followed slowly. The Gujarat High Court struck down such an unfair rule in 2013. Between 2014 and 2017, seven states opened night shifts to women. Finally, the central government has lifted the ban in the recently notified Labour Code.

Research from Ashoka University found that after some states lifted the ban on the night shift, female employment in large factories jumped by 13% and women's share in the workforce increased by 3.5 percentage points. However, this increase in the female labour force didn't come at the cost of male jobs. That means, total employee strength in these firms has increased, suggesting that firms used the flexibility to overcome labour shortages rather than to swap cheap labour. 

Export-oriented firms like electronics responded the most to these reforms. They utilised the flexibility to meet international orders that require 24/7 operations.

Night-shift reforms didn't just change factory rosters. They changed everything around it. Employers provide secure transportation, better lighting, working sanitation, and on-site grievance mechanisms. These upgrades improve safety for all workers, not just women. Not just that, these benefits spill over to all residents in the neighbourhood, from students returning from evening classes to market vendors and commuters.

Gender-diverse teams also change behaviour. Research shows that heavily male-dominated workplaces are more risk-taking, which may also negatively impact with more accidents and less reporting of problems. In comparison, offices and factories with more gender balance tend to work better together and build healthier work cultures.

Yes, we can't magically fix society's attitudes or make every street safe overnight. So, if someone starts working at night from tomorrow, we will naturally be worried and protective of her.

But women working at night sets off a chain reaction that goes far beyond jobs. It widens their economic freedom, improves the country's growth and at the same time forces employers, cities and policymakers to build safer public spaces and more accountable workplaces.

In that sense, lifting the night-shift ban isn't just a labour reform. It's a quiet transformation — slow, but if we hit all the right buttons, a true revolution for India's holistic development.