The missing females in the Indian workforce

I remember reading Economist Prof. Shamika Ravi’s tweet on the low female labour force participation rate in India last year and that got me interested in the subject. The subject also resonates so well with me, as I try to break into a new career all the while juggling my household responsibilities as a married woman.

According to International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates, India’s female labour force participation rate (FLFP) dropped from 32% in 2005 to 21% in 2019 — the lowest rate in South Asia, and among the lowest in the world. This alarming drop in women’s engagement in the labour market has puzzled both academics and policymakers alike.

Low FLFP in India is necessarily a complex social phenomenon, resulting from — among other things — patriarchal norms, rural-urban transitions and a mismatch of supply and demand factors. Some of the many folds reasons that can explain this low FLFP are:

• Women generally espouse preferences for part-time work near the home — conditions that characterise the agricultural labour market, but not the urban labour market. These preferences may not just be about time spent in the home, but also a belief that it is the ‘duty’ of the female household member to do household tasks. As India urbanises, labour market opportunities fitting those criteria are in shorter supply, causing women to leave or become unwilling to enter the labour market.
• Available evidence suggests that finding a paid job is much harder for women than for men. And once they enter the labour market, women still face limited work options and have lesser learning and career advancement opportunities. Women are over-represented in the informal economy, particularly in vulnerable, low-skilled and poorly paid jobs that have limited social security.
• Due to the rise in household incomes, which potentially reduced women’s participation, especially in subsidiary activities (“income effect”) due to changes in preferences.
• Finally, though most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics, and thus women’s work tends to be under-reported. In India, a substantially high proportion of females report their activity status as attending to domestic duties.