‘Not an ordinary housewife’: Women's testimonies of negotiations and self‐transformation in multilevel marketing scheme in Delhi

This paper explores and analyses motivational content and testimonies of self‐transformation of young to middle‐aged women circulating within the distributors networks of a multilevel marketing company in Delhi. These ‘before’ and ‘after’ stories offer insights into how women from low‐income and lower‐middle class neighbourhoods of Delhi make sense of their journey and pursuit of social mobility, respect and recognition in otherwise patriarchal settings of their families and neighbourhoods. These stories are situated within the context of neoliberalizing India, the rise of enterprise culture and how MLM's messaging encourages ‘ordinary’ women to unleash their ‘entrepreneurial’ potential. As the trope of a ‘simple housewife’ and ‘ordinary housewife’ is recurring in these testimonies, the paper unpacks and argues that while MLMs try to generate appeal by acknowledging the undervalued, socially reproductive labour of women, it only promises a semblance of identity, freedom and economic independence without upsetting the status quo. Women continue to constantly look for flexibility to straddle home and paid work, negotiate their freedom with family members revealing how patriarchy continues to shape women's participation in the labour market.