Found this excellent article
I will request Dhruvika and Akshi, the authors of this article, to comment on their views on this topic here.
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So, how does one build/adapt a workplace to include more women?
It begins at the top.
Hire women at a C-Suite level and that’s when change happens.
From my many conversations with women in tech, these are the 5 areas they struggle with:
- Lack of women mentors
- Lack of flexi - hours
- Not ‘feeling heard’
- Being passed over for promotions
- Male:Female ratio at work
When you hire women at a senior level they help you redesign the culture of the company and make it more inclusive. These women already understand the problems that many women face and often become mentors to young hires.
“You can’t be what you can’t see.” - it’s time to adapt and make sure the next generation sees representation across sectors.
I came a across some excellent articles that help companies become more inclusive. This article (How To Improve Female Representation In The C-Suite) gives you 4 points on how to “develop the next generation of female leaders to rebalance our C-suites to represent and reflect the entire workforce.”
The Brain Report (also attached) talks about ‘blind spots’ and how one can be unaware of challenges around inclusion in the workplaces. This is more of a global read.
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I had asked Ashutosh from Indiadatahub if he had any insights. We have partnered with them through https://rainmatter.com/.
He shared something counterintuitive to say and shared some data which we have plotted below.
I have done some work on it in the past, so sharing some thoughts that may provide you some context to the data.
The relationship between female labour participation and per capita GDP tends to be U shaped, this is because at lower income levels a large part of female employment (and same holds for children) tends to be distress or need driven. And as income levels rise, this distress employment reduces and thus female labour participation declines. And then it rises as women come out into the labour force again, not due to distress, but voluntarily.
We saw this in the 2000s when the high growth resulted in a decline in female labour participation (and also children in age groups 15-23). So this was a positive trend despite what the headline data prima facie connotes - that less women are now working.
The other way this manifests itself is that female labour force participation tends to be higher in rural areas than in urban areas. You can see this in the attached data as well. But in younger age groups now, for several states women labour force participation is now higher than in rural areas. In aggregate the female labour force participation rate in the age group 15-29 in rural areas is only 2ppt higher than in urban areas. But for all age groups, it is 13ppt higher.
Income if of course just one of the factors. There is also the social and cultural factor. West Bengal for example has a higher female labour force participation in urban areas than either Delhi or Chandigarh. And J&K has it even higher, almost same as Kerala.
So yeah, the U-shaped curve (with some exceptions of course) is evident below.
@Bhuvan, maybe we should ask Ashutosh to join in the conversation here if others have questions for him.
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I’ve asked him to share his views here.
In my opinion Nithin, participation will change with aspiration. Currently as a society and nation we have done little to promote ‘economic aspiration’ to women. Subconsciously and at times consciously we tell women to work only on a need-basis. We have either ignored or dumbed down the power, energy, empowerment and economic freedom jobs and entrepreneurship bring for women. Conventional wisdom would say with economic independence comes opportunity and other freedoms.
I feel the desire for other freedoms (fitness and health, fashion and confidence, travel and food etc) may lead women to push themselves to opt for economic opportunities. Hence I believe aspiration can play a big role.
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One factor is, women are expected to stay back, out of safety concerns, or simply convenience. The geographic limitation is very high.
They avoid jobs that require transfer, long working hours, travel, etc. The moment working isn’t need-driven, it is usually the woman who chooses/is asked to stay back, especially in families with multiple members.
This was a pattern I discovered when more and more women volunteered to work during covid, simply because WFH was available.
And while on the personal front, expectations are higher when it comes to household work, understanding and comfort with the same fact is way lower on the professional front.
Sometimes, not working is a well-calculated choice, but more than often it is a result of generational conditioning and unawareness. They need to be told that It is okay to focus on your career, it is not something to be ashamed about. And that they can achieve way more than they ever dreamed about. There is a world of opportunities left unexplored, and very much possible.
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I don’t have access to get more data right now. But if I am reading that right, %age of females have gone down. Post 2005ish. Means guys have gone up. Is that reflective of the new tech jobs added in India?
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Most of the female population is in small towns, Some of them are able to complete their higher education, and significantly fewer step out for jobs in big cities.
If Big industrialists, corporations, and the government really want the economy to grow, they need to look at the bottom of the problem.
If the Government can make big MNCs and Manufacturing, Industry to set up in small cities instead of everyone running their business in big cities only.
I agree, that it’s not that easy. There are tons of barriers like cost and facilities.
For example: If TCS opens its office in small cities like Solapur.
Impact:
Employment Will be created.
The female population will take steps to work if opportunities are in their area.
Small businesses like Food stalls, laundry, residential rent property, etc., will grow and that will additionally generate more employment.
Reduce overcrowding in Cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, etc.
Overall, Female participation in the workforce can be increased if an opportunity to work is at the door(means in their own town).
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I come from a small town and will reply based on my experience
- Parents don’t want to send there daughters out to study thus making only small jobs available to them… the salaries are so low that the motivation to hang on them is very little.
- Parents also want there daughters to get married as soon as possible… they may drop out off of school.or college early to do so. The only skill set the family invests in daughters is to do household chores like cooking cleaning etc.
- When I applied for higher education most of the prof asked me not to get married and have children while doing a long degree while the opposite is true for family pointing out the biological clock.
- Some families have this marriage clause where they wanted an educated woman but they don’t want them to work coz money givies them agency… happened with a friend
- Working wives are pressured to leave jobs so that they do there duties of managing the house and there is no or minimal support from the husband in the house work
- I have had periods of unemployment that lasted a year or more even though I’m highly educated…If I leave my present job today I don’t know when will i get the next one.
- The whole upbringing of woman is done in a way that they think that it is there duty to manage there house hold, kids and serve the husband and inlaws first that it takes precedence over a job. They are often guilt tripped for small things. Although the unpaid labour they do at home is discounted.
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A 2022 report deep dive.
With some experience in the domestic worker segment, 80% of these domestic workers are women aged 18-56 in urban areas.
Most of them come from very volatile & abusive living conditions. It gets worse when they are living in a joint family.
100% of these migrant workers live on rent in the cities in jhuggi bastee (slums or makeshift quarters) mostly with no running water; hence, water must be filled once a day & stored by them.
90% of these domestic workers do not have their own transport & either walk to the multiple homes they service, some take a bus or share an auto nearest to their workplace and then walk.
90+% of them are PMJDY account holders and BPL Ration Card holders they face a tough choice as the BPL rule states in case they work in an urban area they can not deposit more than Rs.11,580/ in their savings account monthly. In case they exceed the limit a notice is issued and they stand to lose the benefits attached to the BPL card like 25% reservation in private schools for 2 kids, DBT, Ration & medical aid from local municipal clinics/hospitals, etc.
They all are exposed to unregulated financial so-called chitty companies and many save in multiples of Rs.10 called daily deposits. The loans they get are all over 25% interest.
There are many more cons that they have to face, I would be glad to share further details.
The sad part is these women come to our homes to work on a daily basis & we do not ensure they get a fair deal, in fact, most of us are well aware that they have to struggle to make ends meet. Any changes in the past 70 years… actually close to none.
Yes, it is very difficult for the Government to regulate wages for job work area-wise, ensure they get paid, make sure they get basic benefits like a day off, etc…
In my view, women’s labour force has to be divided into the jobs they service and both Gov and Society have to work together with an aggregator to ensure inclusion and inclusive growth. In this way, it will be more practical to ensure these women are able to access the many benefits offered by Gov has made available to them that most of them are unaware of.
We should get Shinjini Kumar of SALT & Sairee Chahal of SHEROSE to discuss this. And would be even better to have women CTOs here.
We should print billboards with these stats - really shameful.
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@Yusuf this is some solid information.
Do you have any statistics on how many of their children finish school?
Education could be a turning point for their generation.
Hey! @Jayanti if you are on LinkedIn do check my posts there is so much on the subject, I decided to do a post daily and also reaching out to GOI for assistance
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mofyda-technologies-private-limited/?viewAsMember=true
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I’ve done 400+ primary surveys during the first & second lockdowns mainly to identify why these profiles refuse to bank. The response from over 70% was very clear being BPL card holders they would not want to risk exceeding the monthly deposit limit of Rs.11,580/ while working in urban areas. The reason cited was the 25% reservation at private schools. All of these migrant workers realize, that education makes all the difference & ensures one has a better chance of stepping up the social ladder. A domestic worker Sangeeta told me “Our neighbour sells vada pav and makes enough money but will never leave our slum. They behave like illiterates, with no manners and speak badly too. What is the point of having money if one’s kids don’t move out of the slum to a better life? and only education can make this difference”. Many of these profiles have explained themselves with a similar response.
In conversation with Amit Shukla (CEO) EasyGOV we exchanged these conversations and found the reasons to avoid banking were the same, education of the kids being top on their list.
Link to the Rs.11580/- max deposit being BPL card holders : BPL Ration Card Eligibility & Income Limit Details
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Hi everyone – first of all, I am just so glad to see this question being raised here, and the very serious and rich conversation on it. Thank you to everyone who has also shared some of our (Centre for Economic Data and Analysis or CEDA)’s work on the topic here.
India’s stubbornly low rates of female labour force participation are frankly quite baffling. Not only are the among the lowest in the world, as the chart above shows, the rates dropped in the early part of the millennium, at a time when the Indian economy was supposedly booming.
There are of course multiple factors contributing to this. The more common-sense understanding is that this is due to social norms about what women can and cannot do. Many of you have pointed it out in your responses. Economists often refer to these as the “supply-side” factors – practices and norms that prevent women’s “supply” into the labour markets. Early marriage, disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic and care work, childcare responsibilities etc.
But this is part of the picture. Social norms are neither monoliths nor are they specific to India. Economies with similar (even harsher) gender norms have higher rates of female labour force participation than India, so that should make us think (though India/South Asia have among the most skewed distribution of domestic work!).
The low rates of FLFPR also have a lot to do with poor demand for women’s work in the labour market. The inadequacy of jobs outside of agriculture has a big role to play. Even today, a large share of women continue to be employed in agriculture, often as unpaid or poorly paid workers. We need the labour market to create opportunities for them.
Further, within firms and organisations, gendered hiring practices, lack of the right infrastructure, discriminatory organizational practices, poor pay etc. all mean that even when women want to work, they struggle to find adequate opportunities. There is also a lack of the right kind of public infrastructure – such as good and safe public transport – that can help women access jobs.
We are currently working on a project to dive into some of these demand-side gaps to understand what can help improve women’s participation in paid work in India. For those who are interested in diving in further, I’d invite you to subscribe to Women & Work. It’s a monthly publication we curate and cover all things at the intersection of – no surprises there – women and work! 
(https://womenandwork.substack.com/ )
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Would you think something like a governmental policy giving tax benefits to companies meeting a certain female labor participation ratio makes sense? It’s a very hypothetical thing, but I am curious to know what could be a solution to this. It gets more complex during execution, with a ton of fake compliance audits, under-the-table corruption and whatnot, but discounting for the unethical practices, will something like this be the largest catalyst in involving maximum women participation?
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I think fiscal incentives could definitely help if they are designed thoughtfully. One thing where govt intervention will definitely help is a push for more transparent company data. Most companies tend to be very opaque and do not disclose even basic metrics like share of women employees (some of the top listed companies do but this is not universal). In the absence of data, it becomes very difficult to correctly estimate the gaps, forget track the impact of any intervention. And as a result we have companies making all sorts of claims on “Women’s Day” without having anything substantial to back those claims, and no way for us to know what the truth is.
Another important role the govt can play is in building good public infrastructure that can enable women to work – example, good and safe public transport. Similarly, many small orgs may not have the resources to provide all the facilities for their handful of employees (of which women are even fewer). But common facilities like clean and usable toilets, common (and safe) childcare facilities etc can help provide these services without adding to costs of individual orgs as well providing women with basic infrastructure. The lack of toilets for women at the workplace even today is frankly astonishing. (See: These women lawyers of Nilgiris have been demanding toilet in court complex for 25 years )
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