Pink Collar Workers: Ela Bhatt

Womanica

Acast Creative Studios

History, Society & Culture, Education

4.3 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ela Bhatt (1933-2022) was an activist and organizer who founded the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA), which serves primarily low-income women across India. She went on to become an influential figure, known internationally for her work in cooperatives, labor organizing, and microfinance.

For Further reading:

This month, we're bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed! We'll be talking about Pink Collar Workers: women who revolutionized jobs that have traditionally been called "women's work." Through their lives, they created a more just and humane world for us today.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn't help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we'll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.

Follow Wonder Media Network:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:06.3	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:11.0	This August, we're bringing back some of our favorite Womanica episodes you might have missed.
0:15.5	All month we'll be talking about pink-collar workers.
0:18.5	These women revolutionized jobs that have traditionally been called women's work.
0:22.7	Through their lives, they created a more just and humane world for us today.
0:26.5	With that, here's one of our favorite episodes.
0:31.2	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:36.3	This month, we're talking about workers,
0:38.3	women who fought for labor rights and shaped the way we do business today.
0:42.3	They advocated and innovated to make the office,
0:45.7	wherever it is, a more equitable place.
0:49.0	Today's Womanican helped the poor, oppressed, and overlooked.
0:52.8	After seeing the conditions suffered by self-employed
0:55.3	women in India, she spent her life fighting to get them more recognition, and a path towards
1:01.1	self-reliance. Let's talk about Ila Butt. In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi fasted for three days.
1:11.4	He stood in solidarity with striking textile mill workers in Ahmedabad, India.
1:17.1	It was the first of many peaceful actions Gandhi would stage to bring justice for the poor
1:21.2	and disadvantaged in India.
1:25.0	Fifteen years later, in that same Indian city, another revolutionary was born.
1:29.9	She would draw inspiration from that peaceful revolutionary, who fought for those without a voice.
1:36.0	But she'd also forge her own path.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Acast Creative Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Acast Creative Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.