Why Is Female Labour Force Participation So Low in India?

Abstract

In this article, we analyse the reasons for low female labour force participation (FLFP) across approximately 14,000 households in the Indian urban clusters of Dhanbad, Indore, Patna and Varanasi. We argue that expectations placed upon women to carry out household duties generate incentives for them to largely seek part-time work near their homes, due to what we term as flexibility and proximity of work. While this characterises most agricultural employment, this is not true of urban employment. Using this framework, we argue that requirements to travel large distances for most jobs put prohibitive costs on women entering the labour market. To empirically test our claims, we conduct a survey experiment on the female respondents who are currently unemployed in our sample to elicit labour market preferences. Our results are striking—women are 12 to 23 percentage points less likely to express a preference for a suitable job if they have to travel one hour to work. The magnitude of these effects is far greater than the impact of the primary wage earner of the household losing their job or other family members assisting the woman in household duties. We conclude the article by discussing the implications for policy.

A Dynamic Analysis of Women’s Labour Force Participation in Urban India

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We Know What is Good for Her: Hunar, and Respectable Work for Women

“…However, in the subsequent years, the rate has been consistently and even sharply declining which plummeted to 18.6% in 2020. Increased attendance of women in educational institutions, rise in household income, lack of job opportunities and concerns about female safety are a few of the common reasons that are foregrounded to explain the puzzling condition of decline in levels of female participation in the labour market (Dasgupta & Verick, 2016;Fletcher et al 2017;Steven, 2014). Further, the global gender gap report (2021) by the World Economic Forum states the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have increased the global gender gap 'by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years'.…”

Rising Gender Inequities: The Case of Authoritarian Patriarchy

“…Empowerment under the guise of a protectionist agenda or "Hindutva-based moral regulation" (Banarjee 2016, 5) stifles women, increases their dependence on men, curbs their autonomy, restricts their mo-bility, and prevents them from making decisions that impact their lives, including taking on employment. Low levels of labor force participation despite the various welfare schemes can be attributed to the low levels of education among rural women, the crowding out of women in the agricultural sector, reduced access to training facilities, poverty, malnutrition, sexual harassment, expectations regarding the dual responsibility of work and home, and the prevailing social norms and negative stereotypes toward women (Chacko 2020;Chatterjee and Sircar 2021).…”