Women have higher social, economic, political, and overall status than they had in ancient times and the Middle Ages. They were perceived as the only way to satiate men’s physical cravings and ensure their progeny. In the social sphere, they observed purdah, were never permitted to choose their partners, and had limited freedom for education. Women were completely denied access to education; husbands were given the status of god for women; polygyny was accepted; and women were prohibited from making sacrifices, praying, and reading religious texts. At the moment, women have significantly more social and legal rights, as well as greater independence, voice and participation in public life. However, it is also true that they are still subjected to exploitation, harassment, humiliation, and discrimination. Ignoring all these, nowadays women are stepping forward and often becoming prominent in the fields of politics, literature, education, and religion, and they are shining in the world.

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In many developing economies rate of unemployment is increasing with skill accumulation and thereby leading to underemployment. Our paper offers to look at skill formation as a demand side problem not as a traditional supply side problem and also how skill formation or education affects unemployment among the remaining uneducated. We have developed a general equilibrium model of a small open developing economy incorporating skill formation, unemployment of unskilled labour in the formal sector and an informal sector which absorbs unemployed workers at a flexible wage rate. In this set up greater education for a group may generate educated unemployment within the group and increase unemployment of the uneducated outside the group leading to underemployment through the expansion of the informal sector. Both effects are due to shortage of complementary investment in production activities. Our theoretical findings are motivated by existing empirical evidence and a fresh empirical exercise undertaken using panel data of 32 countries.