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While India's low female labor force participation in urban areas is often attributed to its demographic and labor market characteristics, education, and cultural aspects, attention is not paid to the labor market opportunity structure limiting women's labor market participation. We examine the role of transport infrastructure in gendergap in labor force participation and its variations by gender-norms across communities. Using India Human Development Survey and city-level data on transport infrastructure, the causal effects of differential employment status of women and men are related to size and quality of transport in twelve Indian cities. Interaction effects are explored to understand varying impacts of transport on employment by gender-context in communities. We find that an improvement in the size and quality of transportation infrastructure improves women's labor market participation more than that of men. In gender egalitarian communities, stronger positive effect of transport on female labor and reduction of gender gap in employment. Along with generation of new job opportunities suitable for women, it is important to encourage a gender-friendly institutional and social fabric to allow women to connect to new jobs. Using a novel data, the paper highlights the importance of ostensibly gender-neutral development policies for shaping gender inequalities in outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The participation rate of women in India's labour force is not only one of the lowest in the world, it has also been declining. To increase women's employment, some observers argue for reducing occupational gender segregation so that more women enter non‐traditional jobs. Purpose: I ask how aspirations for non‐traditional jobs are formed among young women in Delhi. The aim was to enable policy‐makers to foster occupational aspirations for non‐traditional jobs so women could enter jobs considered to be men's work, reducing gender segregation and increasing women's participation in the labour market. Methods and approach: I interviewed 72 young women from low‐income households in Delhi, following a semi‐structured guide. These young women were training either in jobs seen as the preserve of men—taxi drivers, electricians, and electronics mechanics—or in traditionally female work in beauty salons. Findings: Contrary to conventional wisdom, young women's entry into non‐traditional training in Delhi was not a result of their occupational aspirations. Rather, entry into training saw them aspire to the jobs for which they trained. Policy implications: To increase women's entry into jobs dominated by men, policy‐makers do not need to influence young women's occupational aspirations. Instead, they should focus on factors that directly affect job entry—for example, having training centres close to where these young women live—and provide opportunities for young women to train. Traditional concepts of occupational aspirations, generally derived from the global North, do not apply in the same way to young women in India. My study raises questions about these conceptions of aspirations and prompts future studies to assess whether they apply in other parts of the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on women empowerment highlights a positive correlation between work and decision‐making power of women within families. On the contrary, the role of work opportunities in letting women achieve greater control over their lives, making them more independent is also well‐established. In this background, we explore the effect of women employment on different dimensions of women empowerment by using a nationally representative household survey data, the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS‐II, 2011–12). As "empowerment" is unobservable, multi‐faceted and difficult to quantify, we model it by an index which aggregates the qualitative answers provided by a respondent. Due to the presence of an endogenous relation, we exploit sources of exogenous variations in employment through an instrumental variable (IV) setup. Following the literature, we identify IV as the level of transport infrastructure in the region where a woman resides. We find that the estimated coefficients are positive and statistically significant, remaining robust to changes in empowerment calculation. In the context of public initiatives aimed at improving female labour force participation and empowering women in India, our results show how policymakers can look beyond standard policies and take the help of transport‐related initiatives to improve employment and empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender inequality is pervasive in many societies, creating disparities between genders in terms of what they can accomplish and their access to opportunities. Achieving sustainable development necessitates providing equal chances to all, regardless of gender. Despite the remarkable economic progress India has attained, gender inequality is a major concern. Against this backdrop, the current study endeavours to comprehend gender inequality and analyse the extent of gender gap in India using secondary data. India's performance in major gender-related indices paints a stark picture of gender inequality in the country. The study also finds that there exists gender gap in India concerning health, education, political representation and economic participation. Further, the study finds that female labour force participation has steadily declined over the years, raising concerns over the inclusiveness of India's economic growth. The findings of the study provide valuable insights to policymakers to formulate effective policies that promote gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Re-emerging joint families and declining female labour force participation rates (FLFPR) are the two paradoxical consequences of India's steady urbanisation over the past few decades. In this backdrop, our study is motivated to examine the causal link between intergenerational co-residence and married women's employment status in urban India. Exploiting housing affordability in the locality as an instrument for co-residence with in-laws, we find significant negative impact of such traditional but still relevant social institution on women's labour force participation. We identify access to pooled financial resources and lack of decision-making authority relating to work participation as the key drivers of this phenomenon. However, co-residence does not act as a barrier to women's work in families characterised by lower economic status. Public policies encouraging family nuclearisation are to accelerate the process of household transformation which in turn would promote women's work in urban India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify an impact of Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 (Amendment 2017) on job employment of working mothers. It proposes the certain facts that has positive impact on employment of women from the point of view of Government of India, but at the same time it highlights some negative implications that are faced by the employers and working mothers. The objective of this act is to provide a woman with a financial assistance and make her free from engaging in any work so as to protect health of "New Mother" and "New Born child". Also, the act ensures women to take care of her child without having worry about loss of her job and loss of her employment. Design/methodology/approach: This paper carries efforts of researcher done on the topic of "Impact of Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 (Amendment 2017)" and measures its impact on employers and job employment of working mothers in India through literature review from various sources like SCOPUS, EMERALD, EBSCO, PROQUEST, SAGE, etc. The paper opted for an exploratory study using the questionnaire approach of grounded theory, including 50 in-depth interviews of working mothers. Findings: Outcome of this describes both positive and negative implications of this amendment on businesses and job employment of working mothers. It throws the limelight on implementation of this act in real life and identification of problems and stress faced by women employee either to get the job or to retain the job during pregnancy period which is very hazardous to the health of women and her inborn child also. Research limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. Practical implications: The paper includes implications of the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 (Amendment 2017) on employers whether to hire women employee or not and on women though they are having capability to do work but because of ignorance of government on ensuring proper implementation of act, women are not getting opportunity to work after baby birth. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study and find some measures for effective implantation of Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 (Amendment 2017) so as to protect and regulate employment of women workers before and after child birth so as to increase female labour force participation rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tea industry in India is the second-largest employer and largest recruiter of female labourers in terms of percentage share. Currently, when the female labour force participation (FLFP) rate is ebbing down globally with the biggest democratic country being no exception, the FLFP is on a rise within this industry. Despite this fact, the condition of female labourers is precarious in the north-eastern regions of this industry in India. The divide between the north and south of this industry in India is due to the difference in wages; the north follows a tripartite agreement whereas, in the south, it is determined through revision of the Minimum Wages Act. The exploitation of labour by defying all sorts of labour laws and how women labourers get accustomed to this is the key topic of discussion. This article also explores the driving factors of the tea industry being the largest employer of women despite the globally shrinking percentage of women's employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy's (CMIE) Consumer Pyramid Household surveys have emerged as an important source of regular labour market data for India. Given the differences in methods in data collection between the CMIE and official employment sources, it becomes exceedingly important to establish some comparability between the government and the CMIE datasets. With the release of the official Periodic Labour Force Surveys for 2017–18, we now have an overlap between the official datasets and CMIE datasets. In this paper, we examine the extent of comparability of labour force estimates from these two datasets. We find that employment estimates for men are broadly comparable. However, for women, there is a consistent divergence, with CMIE estimates of women's workforce participation lower than that of NSS-PLFS. We find that irrespective of the reference period used in the PLFS estimation of employment statuses, there is no convergence with the CMIE employment estimate for women's employment. Moreover, the mismatch in CMIE-PLFS estimates occurs across all types of women's employment and irrespective of what reference period of employment (in official data) is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women constituting half of the potential demographic dividend of India contribute very less in terms of workforce participation. The lesser participation is driven by several inherent factors of the society and culture. The major objective of the given study is to analyse the various attributes that helps to study the involvement of women in workforce in India and how those attributes strengthen for a greater development of the nation. The study talks about the importance of women to play an active role in workforce as with growing competition at world level it is important to have more hands to work and feed the people. The study shows the inherent socio-cultural factors that either help or hinder the women to contribute in the workforce. It also talks about the ways to enhance the chances for women to contribute more effectively and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diversifying household livelihoods and increasing women's labor force participation is a major developmental challenge in South Asia. Multi-sectoral development approaches can provide better economic opportunities and women's employment simultaneously. This study provides evidence on the livelihoods and women's labor supply impacts of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), a $5.1 billion livelihoods initiative. The study matches primary data from 4,202 households and 726 villages using the 2011 Population Census and the 2012 Socio-Economic and Caste Census. The instrumental variable estimates suggest that participation in NRLM is associated with an improvement in the number of household livelihoods by 0.707, livelihood diversification by 0.13σ, and women's working participation rate (WPR) by 15.4 percent. The study identifies two sets of channels, namely, formation of productive assets and access to formal credit, through which NRLM influenced livelihoods and women's WPR. Heterogeneous program effects suggest that women in socially and economically deprived households benefitted most. HIGHLIGHTS The study highlights India's National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), the world's largest livelihoods initiative. NRLM improved opportunities for women's gainful employment in farm and nonfarm productive activities. The program's impact reflects the efficacy of multi-sectoral development interventions. It relies on a unique multi-sectoral approach that mobilizes rural poor women into SHGs and their federations. The study argues for interventions that influence gender roles in the context of rural growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel of establishments from the annual survey of industries, I study the impact of the 1991 trade liberalization episode in India on the employment share of women. Contrary to the predictions of a taste-based discrimination model, I find that establishments exposed to larger output tariff reductions and import competition reduced the share of female workers. I also find that input tariff reductions neither raised nor reduced female employment share. The negative association between output tariff reductions and female employment appears to be driven by establishments which increased the number of shifts per worker. Since women in India are prohibited by law from working long hours and night shifts, this hours-constraint appears to have reduced relative employment of women. This paper is the first to provide empirical evidence of how an ostensibly pro-women policy of limiting female work hours might have unintended side effects. In order to look at the overall effects of liberalization on the gender employment share, I use Census of India data to create a district level panel. I find that districts which were more exposed to the reforms experienced a reduction in the share of female workers. This was observed for both urban and rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the trends and employment patterns from a gender perspective in India. With the use of latest PLFS data and two rounds of EUS, it draws out the changes in female employment during the period 2005–2019 using exploratory research methods. The employment elasticity of output has turned negative at −0.039 between 2012 and 2018. This has affected female employment more than that of males. Education levels have gone up among females, but corresponding rise in employment is not reflected. On the contrary, female WPR has gone down in 2019 since 2005. The paper traces the temporal patterns during 2005–2019, between rural and urban areas, and provides an overview of current state of female employment in India. Results show that the decline is present across the country in all states and union territories. There has been a slight rise in urban areas in certain states. Another positive development is rise in regular salaried employment and reduction in self-employment. The fall in self-employment is owing to falling share of unpaid family workers. There is industrial segregation among female workers with higher concentration in agriculture and services. Share of female workers in non-manufacturing sector increased during 2005–2012 but went down thereafter. Education has been the major employer for women, and their share in this industry has increased by 4.45 percentage points since 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction in gender inequality has become a major component of development agendas, cited as a mechanism for improved access to health care, declining fertility rates, reduced poverty, and increased political and social participation of women. While women's participation in the labor force is an essential component of increasing gender equity in the developing world, such participation can only be made possible under conditions that allow women to possess the level of autonomy and mobility necessary for engaging in the labor market. In this article, I explain that while women's labor force participation is an essential component of gender equity, it is not the key to ensuring gender equality. To explain this, I examine India's decline in women's labor force participation rate (LFPR) despite its growing economy. I challenge arguments that rationalize that this decline is attributed to the U-shaped hypothesis, and I assert that this decline is associated with existing gendered notions of labor and persisting patriarchal and traditional values that discourage women from re-entering the labor force in the industrial and service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the child's educational outcomes are impacted by the mother's participation in an employment guarantee program versus mother's participation in the regular labor force in India. Using the survey data from India Human Development Survey I and II, I estimate this effect by analyzing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 2005. I use household specific and parent specific characteristics as controls. Regression analysis and propensity score matching techniques are used to determine the causal relationship. The results show that the participation of mothers in MGNREGA work leads to a decrease in the test scores of the children. While MGNREGA is an important source of employment for households in the rural areas, especially women, this paper shows that increased participation can lead to negative spillover effects for the children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper re-focuses attention on the big picture question of the persistently low level of female labour force participation in India. • We show how attention on a binary indicator (in the labour force or out of it) misses a crucial aspect of women's economic/productive work. • We suggest that women's work in developing countries should be viewed in terms of at least three categories. • We find that the social norm that places the responsibility of domestic chores exclusively on women is primarily responsible for women's inability to participate in paid work. • We demonstrate the existence of 'virtuous cycles' within families: a history of working women in the family increases the probability of the woman being in paid work. Based on primary data from a large household survey in seven districts in West Bengal in India, this paper analyses the reasons underlying low labor force participation of women. In developing countries, women who are engaged in unpaid economic work in family enterprises are often not counted as workers, whereas the men are. We show that for women, not being in paid work is not synonymous with not being in the labour force. Women are often involved in expenditure saving activities i.e. productive work within the family, over and above domestic chores and care work. We document the fuzziness of the boundary between domestic work and unpaid (and therefore invisible) productive work that leads to mismeasurement of women's work and suggest methods to improve measurement. Counting women's expenditure-saving activities yields a substantially higher estimate of women's participation in economic work. On social norms, we show that religion and visible markers such as veiling are not significant determinants of the probability of being in paid work. We find that being primarily responsible for domestic chores lowers the probability of "working", after accounting for all the conventional factors. Our data shows substantial unmet demand for paid work. Given that women are primarily responsible for domestic chores, we find that women express a demand for work that would be compatible with household chores. We demonstrate the existence of 'virtuous cycles' within families: a history of working women in the family (mother or mother-in-law ever worked) increases the probability of being in paid work between 18 and 21 percentage points. This suggests that the positive effects of increasing women's labour force participation today are likely to have positive multiplier effects on the prospects for work in future generations of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector plays a strategic role in the process of economic development of a country. Today, this sector as a whole has developed and expanded immensely with the growth of science and technology, and there is a growing realisation and commitment among the global community that the agriculture sector has to undergo changes for a sustainable and broadbased expansion, after addressing gender-related issues through the initiation and partnerships of various national, regional, and global institutions. In developing countries like India, agriculture continues to absorb and employ the female workforce, but fails to recognise their role and importance as an employed labour force. In developing countries, women participation in the agricultural labour force is 38%. However, a large number of women have been treated as an insignificant part of the active agricultural labour force; there is also a growing gap between women's actual economic participation and public perception about their economic participation. At this juncture, there is a growing need for the agricultural research agenda to overcome the existing gaps and to tackle the emerging problems of sustainable development and livelihood of resource-poor women farmers. Several researchers have attempted to overcome this gap through empirical research studies on gender analysis and gender roles. The present study is an attempt to highlight the trend of female workforce participation in the agricultural sector across various Indian states. The secondary data is used to analyse the growth trend of the agricultural workers over the last decade. Suitable solutions have to be delivered to women farmers for raising their productivity, through which their overall empowerment may be targeted. Other practical solutions should also be taken up to help and support women farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this paper is to look at the trends and pattern of changes in women's employment structure over years (1983–2018) consequent upon the structural changes in the Indian economy. It also attempts to analyse the quality of women's labour in terms of select parameters. The study finds that there is neither quantitative nor qualitative improvement in women's employment over time on account of structural changes in the economy. There is no 'U' curve of female labour supply in response to GDP growth and expansion of female literacy, implying that economic growth has not generated adequate jobs for women. It also signifies that women's entry or exit of labour market is influenced by non-economic factors also. There is no major occupational diversification in women's employment despite structural shift of the economy from primary to tertiary sector. Agriculture is still the leading sector in women's employment. The study further reveals that the quality of women's labour is poor. Overcrowding of workforce in agriculture largely as wage labourers, lower earnings, poor literacy levels, large-scale informal employment and most self-employment in the form of unpaid work are indications of women's disadvantaged position in the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the 61st and 68th rounds of National Sample Survey data, we investigate the role of stigma, the economy's structure, potential selection bias, and sectoral differences in explaining the low labor force participation (LFP) of middle and secondary educated women in India relative to low‐ and high‐educated women (the "U‐shape"). Estimating LFP regressions on a sample of prime‐aged married women, we show that, controlling for background characteristics, if a woman's husband works in a white‐collar job in a region with a high share of blue‐collar jobs, she is less likely to participate in the labor market (stigma). We also find a positive effect of an increase in an index of white‐collar job growth (structure) on married women's LFP. These effects are present in both rural and urban sectors but are strongest in the rural sector. However, middle and secondary educated women are still found to have substantially lower LFP than low‐ and graduate‐educated women in both sectors. Indeed, over time, the U‐shape persists in the rural sector and deepens in the urban sector. Because unobservables are quite large in the urban sector, we use the method of instrumental variables and find an increasing return at middle levels but stagnation at higher levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian women's labor force participation is extremely low, and women are much less likely than men to work in the nonfarm sector. Earlier research has explained women's labor supply by individual characteristics, social institutions, and cultural norms, but not enough attention has been paid to the labor market opportunity structure that constrains women's labor market activities. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) in 2004–05 and 2011–12, this study examines how village transportation infrastructure affects women's and men's agricultural and nonagricultural employment. Results from fixed-effect analysis show that access by paved or unpaved roads and frequent bus services increase the odds of nonagricultural employment among men and women. The effect of road access on nonfarm employment (relative to not working) is stronger among women than among men. Improved transportation infrastructure has a stronger positive effect on women's nonfarm employment in communities with more egalitarian gender norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation of women in the workforce is crucial for any economy to optimally utilize the potential of its full human capital. However, according to the Global Gender Gap Report (2016) by World Economic Forum, no country by now has achieved gender equality. Due to demographic change as well as a stronger focus on service and knowledge-intensive industries, India will face a significant shortage of (qualified) skills in the next decades. To secure qualified labor, it will be of vital importance for large companies to diversify the pool of (potential) employees by gaining better access to the female labor force. When a pool of young women, who are professionally qualified to participate in the workforce and contribute to the country, cannot utilize their true talent, it becomes quite important to know and understand the reasons for that. Career choice and career decisions of women are influenced by a number of social, cultural, familial, and personal factors. The article seeks to identify the reasons of decreased female participation in the Indian workforce from the lenses of career theories and practicalities of career decision-making. It is aimed at a focused target group, that is, young women (between the age of 25 and 45) who have full-time enrollment in university education, are professionally qualified to join the workforce, and are living in an urban setting, yet not contributing in the workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We study the employment entry and exit decisions of working-age women in India. • A rise in household income or wealth reduces entry and increases exit of women. • Caste, religion, and social status play a major role in women's employment dynamics. • A rural workfare program significantly reduces women's exit from labour force. • Our findings suggest that women's entry and exit decisions are not symmetric. Abstract This study analyses employment transitions of working-age women in India. The puzzling issue of low labour force participation despite substantial economic growth, strong fertility decline and expanding female education in India has been studied in the recent literature. However, no study so far has looked into the dynamics of employment in terms of labour force entry and exit in this context. Using a nationally representative panel dataset, we show that women are not only participating less in the labour force, but also dropping out at an alarming rate. We estimate an endogenous switching model that corrects for selection bias due to initial employment and panel attrition, to investigate the determinants of women's entry into and exit from employment. We find that an increase in wealth and income of other members of the household leads to lower entry and higher exit probabilities of women. Along with the effects of caste and religion, this result reveals the importance of cultural and economic factors in explaining the low workforce participation of women in India. We also explore other individual and household level determinants of women's employment transitions. Moreover, we find that a large public workfare program significantly reduces women's exit from the labour force. Our study indicates that women's entry and exit decisions are not necessarily symmetric, and it is important to consider the inter-temporal dependence of labour supply decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper explores the recent fall in female labour force participation and its socio-economic determinants in India. The major contribution of this paper is: to explore both micro- and macro-level factors which determine female labour force participation rate (LFPR); to examine the “U shape” female LFPR, by examining the likely income and substitution effects of the real wage increase, to identify the sub-sectors within manufacturing and service sectors that could create jobs for new female job aspirants and those older women displaced from agriculture in recent years; and thus to understand the conditions under which female LFPR could be raised. Using both macro-level and household survey (NSS) data, we find that the recent fillip in the process of structural transformation has pushed a large number of females out of agriculture. The growing mechanization in agriculture and rising capital intensity in manufacturing sectors together have limited the opportunity for females because of their low education and skill and due to other cultural constraints. We also found that the rise in real wages in rural areas and the consequent improvement in the standard of living has produced a strong negative income effect which outweighs the positive substitution effect and as a result female LFPR has declined substantially. However, with the massive increase in female enrollment in secondary and higher levels of education, it could be expected that the substitution effect of the increase in real wage would become stronger if appropriate measures are taken by the government, which are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Despite only small changes in principal usual activity status (the conventional measure of labour force participation rates in India) there were large declines in minutes worked (based on the System of National Accounts definition) in India between 1998 and 2019 for the six states with comparable time-use data. • For women, minutes of work fell 66 min per day overall and minutes of paid work fell 39 min per day. There was little change in urban areas so this is entirely driven by decreases in work in rural areas. • For men, minutes of work fell 51 min per day overall. Men in rural and urban areas experienced even larger decreases in paid work than women (104 min and 147 min per day respectively) but compensated for this with large increases in time spent in self-employment. • Domestic work barely changed for rural women and decreased for urban women, leading to substantial gains in leisure for women. Leisure for men also increased but by less, leading to a reduction in the male–female leisure gap from 51 min in 1998 to 26 min by 2019. • The reduction in work (and increase in leisure) for rural women occurred within all six states, within all caste/religious groups, and for all levels of education. For men the reductions in work (and increases in leisure) are concentrated among low income and low education households. I provide evidence on long-run changes in women's work for six Indian states common to the 1998–99 and 2019 time-use surveys. Rural women experienced large decreases in work time (especially paid work) but urban women did not. Men experienced larger declines in paid work but partly compensated with greater self-employment. Changes in self-reported "principal usual activity status" that are typically used to measure labour force participation do not provide an accurate measure of these changes in work time. Declining work for rural women is observed regardless of self-reported usual activity status, education level, caste/religious group, or state. Leisure time for women increased, reducing the gender-gap in leisure by 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s and 1990s, there has been growing global recognition and endorsement of women as economic actors whose income-earning activities contribute to the survival and livelihood security of impoverished households and communities in many parts of the developing world. Women's economic contribution is considered particularly valuable when population groups living below the income-poverty line have struggled to cope with the adverse social effects of neo-liberal economic reforms. Given this backdrop, the aim of this study is to examine closely women's experience of laboring in the lower end of the informal labor sector, their workspace negotiations and conditions of labor, and to assess the significance of women's work to the survival and well-being of their households. The paper focuses on a case study of home and neighbourhoodbased food production units in order to show how women's labor in these units is shaped by the intersecting dynamics of household patriarchies on the one hand and the profit maximizing ends of private capital, on the other. Primary data was gathered through interviews and focus group discussions with women workers and owners of these units located in the working class and industrial belt of North Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The paper argues that there has been an excessive responsibilizing of the women who work long hours in unregulated workspaces and feed and care for their families, often in the face of male disengagement from supporting the household. While aid agencies and national governments valorize women for their efficiency in 'managing' household poverty and sustaining fragile livelihoods with skill and ingenuity, this study foregrounds the gender-unjust implications of vesting poor women with the prime responsibility for alleviating global poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has experienced steady economic growth over the last two decades alongside a persistent decline in women's labor force participation (LFPR). This paper explores the relationship between economic development and women's labor supply using state-level data spanning the period 1983–4 to 2011–2. While several studies suggest a U-shaped relationship between development and women's labor force participation, our results suggest that at the state level, there is no systematic U-shaped relationship between level of domestic product and women's LFPR. On examining the relationship between the structure of the economy and women's economic activity, we find that it is not economic growth but rather the composition of growth that is relevant for women. Further, our results suggest that aggregate changes in the proportion of women in the workforce can be mostly attributed to the movement of the workforce across sectors rather than changes in the proportion of women workers within a sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a common belief that there are substantial returns on education, both direct and indirect and gainful employment is regarded as one of the expected outcomes of education. However, existing analyses of the employment–unemployment trends in India indicate an inverse relationship between women’s education and employment. Within such a context this article seeks to raise the question of whether the education system can address the problem of educated women withdrawing from the labour force even as attempts are made to transform other structural factors that impinge on the situation. Feminist concerns about empowerment frame this discussion on education and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research note focuses on two key issues: crime against women and gender empowerment. It tries to find out, by correlation analysis, any existing relationship between the rising crime rate against women in India and various parameters for measuring the extent of gender parity. Statistics of National Crime Records Bureau and Gender Gap Reports constitute the dataset for the research note. This simple analysis is undertaken for a time period of eight years (2006–2013) and reveals that there is a negative, high, and significant correlation between the extent of violence that women face and female-to-male labour force participation rate. The note concludes that increasing political representation and educational opportunities for females will be ineffective in reducing gender-based violence, unless adequate measures are taken for reducing the gender gap in labour force participation and earned income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to carry out an empirical investigation regarding the role of marriage as a structural constraint to women's employability in India. The National Sample Survey data based analysis shows that the heterogeneity of women's employment is significantly controlled by their orientation to work where marriage acts as an important mediating factor. Significant differences are observed between the workforce participation of currently married and never married women across different educational attainment and socio-demographic segments. However, the way marriage operates as a formal barrier to women's workability merely depends on the historically available opportunities and constraints experienced by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do labor market opportunities for women affect marriage and fertility decisions? We provided three years of recruiting services to help young women in randomly selected rural Indian villages get jobs in the business process outsourcing industry. Because the industry was so new at the time of the study, there was almost no awareness of these jobs, allowing us in effect to exogenously increase women's labor force opportunities from the perspective of rural households. We find that young women in treatment villages were significantly less likely to get married or have children during this period, choosing instead to enter the labor market or obtain more schooling or postschool training. Women also report wanting to have fewer children and to work more steadily throughout their lifetime, consistent with increased aspirations for a career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor force surveys have undergone several changes over the years in order to better estimate the size and understand the characteristics of the work and labor forces. It is frequently argued, however, that these surveys still tend to underestimate the workforce, particularly women and certain productive activities that they perform. By comparing the findings of the National Sample Survey Organisation's 1999–2000 employment–unemployment survey in India with the findings of the 1998–9 pilot Indian Time Use Survey, this study shows that the latter survey has some built-in advantages that lead to improved estimates and understanding of the workforce. The case of India illustrates how a time-use survey can provide improved estimates of and better information on the workforce in a developing country, particularly capturing women's participation in informal employment, including subsistence production. Documenting this work is important, since it is increasingly common as developing and developed economies are informalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, researchers and activists in India have been calling for attention towards the rising numbers of women entering the labour force as domestic workers, who have remained at the rock-bottom of the working-class hierarchy here. SEWA Kerala’s union displays marked differences from mainstream unions. This article reflects upon the agency of the SEWA domestic worker in contemporary Kerala through the analysis of workers’ narratives, and the specific strategies they deploy through SEWA’s unionisation in the changing context of the demand for domestic labour here. Second, we highlight SEWA Kerala’s strategies to transform domestic workers, generally positioned at the very margins of politics and the public in Kerala, into citizens. Third, we reflect on SEWA workers’ perception of full citizenship, and on their self-chosen distance from mainstream, formal politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dramatic reductions in trade barriers during the past 10 years have caused unprecedented economic growth in India. Little is known about the impact of globalisation on the informal labour market, especially the impact on women. We interviewed women working in four occupations in Mumbai's informal labour market, gathering information about their daily lives, job responsibilities, and how the circumstances of their jobs have changed over the last 5 years. We construct a typical day in the lives of these women, discuss similarities and differences in the issues they face, and consider the policy implications of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's share of agricultural wage employment is rising across the Indian sub-continent. Studies examining this process of feminisation tend to be divided along the lines of an ideological debate following either the 'poverty-push' or the 'demand-pull' argument. This debate, however, has largely ignored the institution of patriarchy. In this study we revisit the debate with a focus on gender relations. The study is based on data collected from 291 households in the state of Andhra Pradesh. We find that, despite increased labour market participation, women's household status, her wages and working conditions remain acutely depressed. Women labourers with access to productive assets, however, are effectively expanding their agency within both the household and the labour market. Their experiences, we argue, have implications for transformative policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper provides comparative analyses across women’s employment-status groups to examine how processes of exclusion and constrained and adverse inclusion shape different women’s labor market opportunities and outcomes in Lucknow, India. It examines under what conditions, if at all, women’s labor contributes to household-poverty reduction and for which work types paid employment leads to increased voice for women in the household, one dimension of a process of empowerment. It finds that women’s labor force participation has a meager influence on household and individual level development outcomes largely due to the inter-related processes of exclusion and inclusion, where social norms and responsibilities for reproductive work can lead to constrained inclusion in the labor market, adversely affecting women’s terms of incorporation. The findings have relevance for programming focusing on improving the range and quality of choices for women in the paid economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article attempts to understand women's labour market behaviour in the context of export-oriented garment manufacturing in India, particularly women's decision to work and their alleged aversion to unionism. Asian women's submissiveness in the labour market can hardly be the result of 'Oriental docility' in every case. We question this assumption by looking at a small sample of 25 women in garment manufacturing firms in Hyderabad, India, and seek other explanations for women's lack of interest in unions, and note the pressures that affect them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A country's economic development is often associated with an increase in the labor force participation rate of women. This paper deals with the consequences such an increase has in India in terms of social and gender relationships, especially with regard to how the migration of female workers in search of paid employment affects changes in self perception and even amounts to a challenge against existing patriarchal structures. How these women fare in the foregoing enterprise depends on the success of the migration process and on their ability to establish themselves as regular workers in the informal domestic work market. As the paper shows, urban and rural settings provide variant conditions and opportunities for overcoming social and gender restrictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper investigates the effect of rural women labour force participation on the households' dietary diversity. • We find a significant improvement in dietary diversity with increased women labour force participation. • There exists significant heterogeneity in the effect between paid and unpaid work-days. • Empowerment due to labour force participation drives the results for paid work and the self-consumption of home-produced goods for the unpaid work. • No deleterious effects on the health indicators of women despite increased time burden. This paper investigates the role of women's labor force participation in the household's dietary diversity and the value of home-production. Using unique household panel data from Semi-Arid tropics of India, empirical estimations from a household fixed effects model reveal a positive significant effect of workdays of women on dietary diversity (overall and home-produced) and home-production. Our findings highlight a significant heterogeneity in the effect by type of work—paid and unpaid. The results for paid work are driven by a greater decision-making power emanating from labor force participation of women. Unpaid work, on the other hand, operates through the self-consumption of home-produced goods. We show that correcting for endogenous labor force participation of women leaves our conclusions unchanged. The results suggest that interventions boosting female labor force participation in paid activities are nutrition enhancing for the household and work towards improving women's bargaining power within the household. Moreover, we rule out deleterious effects on health indicators of women despite increased time burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-sectional data from more than 350 districts in India in 1981, I test whether female labor force participation and kinship structures explain gender differences in the mortality of children ages 0 to 5. The relationship of mortality differentials to economic development, socioeconomic stratification, rice cultivation, and region is also examined. Results suggest that kinship structures and female labor force participation are important factors in gender differences in child mortality and these factors reinforce each other to produce especially high sex differentials in mortality. While agricultural, industrial, and urban development appear to reduce the relative survival of girls, male literacy levels seem unrelated to female survival. Rice cultivation consistently enhances female survival. Gender differences in child mortality between the North and South regions of India remain unexplained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifies the source of biases in measuring the female labor force in India based on the results of a methods test survey conducted. Importance of the questionnaire design.