The COVID-19 pandemic has redefined the legal landscape through virtual hearings and remote work, placing Indian women lawyers at a critical juncture of professional precarity and gendered expectations at home. Existing scholarship highlights the challenges women face in asserting legal identities within a male-dominated profession; the pandemic has amplified these tensions. This study draws on narrative interviews with 50 female lawyers practicing at the Calcutta High Court, exploring how digital courts and work-from-home routines have disrupted their spatial autonomy, deepened unpaid care responsibilities, and renegotiated their professional identities. Through qualitative analysis, the research traces how respondents navigate diminished case opportunities, blurred public-private boundaries, and entrenched patriarchal norms. The findings illuminate how pandemic-era legal adaptations have intensified existing gender inequities, prompting urgent questions about recognition, access, and agency in contemporary Indian legal practice.
AhmedA. U. (2021). COVID-19: Calcutta High Court to function through hybrid mode till April 30. Bar and Bench. https://www.barandbench.com/news/covid-19-calcutta-high-court-to-function-through-hybrid-mode-till-april-30-read-notification
2.
BacikI., & DrewE. (2006). Struggling with juggling: Gender and work/life balance in the legal professions. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29(2), 136–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2006.03.006
3.
BallakrishnenS. (2013). ‘Why is gender a form of diversity?’: Rising advantages for women in global Indian law firms. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 20(2), 1261–1286. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ijgls/vol20/iss2/23
4.
BambauerJ., & RahmanT. (2020). The quiet resignation: Why do so many female lawyers abandon their careers?UC Irvine Law Review, 10(3), 799–854. https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr/vol10/iss3/5
5.
ChattorajS. (2021). West Bengal: All district courts set to fast-track long-pending cases. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/all-district-courts-set-to-fast-track-long-pending-cases/articleshow/85220125.cms
6.
ClarkS. C. (2000). Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations, 53(6), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001
7.
CohenM. A. (2020, July21). What recent axiom, Deloitte, and UnitedLex announcements reveal about law’s future. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcohen1/2020/07/21/what-recent-axiom-deloitte-and-unitedlex-announcements-reveal-about-laws-future/#4d569eb76f2d
8.
CraigL., & ChurchillB. (2021). Dual-earner parent couples’ work and care during COVID-19. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(S1), 66–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12497
9.
DasN. (2020). Evaluating the functioning of Indian courts in covid period. Insights. https://www.alliance.edu.in/insights/oct2020/insights-oct2020-covid-and-indian-courts.html
10.
DixonL. J., CorreaT., StraubhaarJ., CovarrubiasL., GraberD., SpenceJ., & RojasV. (2014). Gendered space: The digital divide between male and female users in internet public access sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19, 991–1009. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12088
11.
GalanterM. (1968). Introduction: The study of the Indian legal profession. Law & Society Review, 3(2/3), 207–208. http://www.jstor.com/stable/3052998
12.
GómezD. C. (2019). Understanding technological socialization. A socio-generational study of young adults’ techno-biographical trajectories in the region of Madrid. Media Studies, 10(20), 12–30. https://doi.org/10.20901/ms.10.20.1/
13.
HayesH. (2011). Women trapped under the same glass ceiling: Compensation report highlights increasing disparity. Perspectives, 19(3), 1–2. https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/perspectives_magazine/2011winter_women_trapped_glass_ceiling.pdf
14.
High Court of Calcutta. (n.d.). Brief history of Calcutta High Court. https://www.calcuttahighcourt.gov.in/page/History
15.
HochschildA. R., & MachungA. (1989). The second shift: Working families and the revolution at home. Viking.
16.
IyerA. (2020). Functioning of courts via video conference during COVID-19 lockdown: Calcutta High Court switches from ‘Skype’ to ‘Microsoft Teams’. Bar and Bench. https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/functioning-of-courts-via-video-conference-calcutta-hc-notifies-switching-from-skype-to-microsoft-teams
17.
KennedyT., WellmanB., & KlementK. (2003). Gendering the digital divide. IT & Society, 1(5), 72–96. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.177.1749&rep=rep1&type=pdf
18.
KharelA. (2018). The concept of legal profession. SSRN, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3117339
19.
KinhalD., & KumarA. (2022). Litigation: Last career option for women?Bar & Bench. https://www.barandbench.com/columns/litigation-last-career-option-for-women
20.
LeiperJ. M. (2006). Bar codes: Women in the legal profession. UBC Press.
21.
MakhijaS., & RahaS. (2012). Challenges faced by Indian women legal professionals: A report based on the study conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore among working mothers in the legal profession. RainmakerIndia.
22.
MeadowM. C. (1986). The comparative sociology of women lawyers: The ‘feminization’ of the legal profession. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 24(4), 897–918. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol24/iss4/6/
23.
MishraS. K. (2015). Women in Indian courts of law: A study of women legal professionals in the district court of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. e-cadernos CES, 24, 84–85. https://doi.org/10.4000/eces.1976
24.
ModakS., & GokhaleO. (2020, June8). Maharashtra courts to resume work but challenges remain: Access to virtual hearing and lack of infrastructure. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/maharashtra-courts-to-resume-work-but-challenges-remain-access-to-virtual-hearing-lack-of-infrastructure/
25.
NarasimhamurthyN. (2014). Cultural impact and gender on Indian young adults in using social networking sites. International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(7), 113–125. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/72803006.pdf
26.
NeethiP. (2014). Home-based work and issues of gender and space. Economic & Political Weekly, 49(17), 88–96. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24480124
27.
PattonE. (2020, August23). Work-from-home has started a new battle. And women are losing this too. The Print. https://theprint.in/features/work-from-home-has-started-a-new-battle-and-women-are-losing-this-too/487321/
28.
RagneddaM. (2019). Conceptualising the digital divide. In MutsvairoB. & RagneddaM. (Eds), Mapping digital divide in Africa: A mediated analysis (pp. 27–43). Amsterdam University Press.
29.
RattanJ., & RattanV. (2021). The COVID-19 crisis: The new challenges before the Indian justice and court administration system. International Journal for Court Administration, 12(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.36745/ijca.391
30.
SethiR. M. (1987). Women lawyers: A study in professionalisation. Journal of the Indian Law Institute, 29(1), 29–47.
31.
SharmaK. L. (1982). Sociology of law and legal profession: A cross-cultural theoretical perspective. Journal of the Indian Law Institute, 24(2/3), 528–547. http://www.jstor.com/stable/43952220
32.
SinhaR., & BhattacharyyaA. (2024). Home and work: Struggles of Indian women legal professionals before and during pandemic. Sociological Bulletin, 73(1), 84–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380229231213332
33.
SuddabyR. (2006). From the editors: What grounded theory is not. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633–642. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2006.22083020
34.
Supreme Court of India. (2020, April6). In re: Guidelines for court functioning through video conferencing during COVID-19 pandemic. Civil Original Jurisdiction Suo Motu Writ (Civil) No. 5/2020. https://kohimahighcourt.gov.in/notice/notification/SCI%20Judgment%20and%20Order%20dated%206%20April%202020%20regarding%20utilization%20VC.pdf
35.
SuryamS. (2021). Women lawyers write to CJI, Supreme Court judges to continue hybrid hearings. Bar & Bench. https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/women-lawyers-write-to-cji-supreme-court-judges-to-continue-hybrid-hearings
36.
ThomasL. S. (2020, July24). Virtual Hearings to continue even after July 27, only fresh urgent matters may be filed: Calcutta HC. Bar and Bench. https://www.barandbench.com/news/virtual-hearings-even-after-jul-27-only-fresh-urgent-matters-to-be-filed-calcutta-hc
37.
United Nations. (2020, April9). Policy brief: The impact of COVID-19 on women. https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/04/policy-brief-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-women
38.
WredeT. (2015). Introduction to special issue ‘Theorizing space and gender in the 21st century’. Rocky Mountain Review, 69(1), 10–17. http://www.jstor.org/stable/243728
