She retired as Professor teaches at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai in 2017, and previously taught at the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad.
[1] She taught economics at the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, and played a key role in establishing an institute there for women's studies.
She later became the Director of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' Tarabai Shinde Women's Studies Center.
[4] Sonalkar's research has been published in Economic and Political Weekly,[5] the Asian Journal of Women's Studies,[6] and Social Scientist.
[9][10] She has also published shorter translated works of stories by Priya Tendulkar, Shyam Manohar, and others, in Indian Literature.