The announcement of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, widely recognized as the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2023, has been momentous for two reasons. Firstly, it is only the third time that this prestigious award will be received by a woman past 1969 when this award was instituted. Secondly, it is being awarded to Claudia Goldin, professor of Economics at Harvard University, for her remarkable contribution to understanding of women’s labor market outcomes in the United States. This will be pivotal for initiating and analyzing impulses across non-western societies for their gender workforce participation rate and parameters that impact.
In a recent interview, World Bank’s Country Director in India Auguste Tano Kouame highlighted that in order to be a high-income country as per World Bank parameters, India will have to focus on two essential aspects, which are –
- Close to 8% annual GDP growth and
- Higher female labor force participation rate.
India trails behind at nearly 25% where the average female labour force participation rate in developed and emerging economies is nearly 50%. There is room for India to do even better. It is essential to catch the nerve of the problem before we think about the cure. Let’s look into a few core perils.
Educational attainment
The educational equality aspect of gender was long overdue, due to which the larger female population was kept out of technical and intellectual employment and reduced to rural manuals. The legal measures for free and compulsory education started yielding results in the last decade only, where female participation and the service sector of India grew hand in hand. According to the data collected by Claudia Goldin, the participation of married women showed a downward trend with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early nineteenth century, but then started to rise with the growth of the service sector in the early twentieth century. But the female labor force participation data may not do justice to the trends as increasing numbers of women are opting for higher education in the urban population, as a result rural labour force participation rate may show a slight surge than the urban.
Here, the cause of concern remains the gender gap in earnings. Despite all modernization, women with the same educational qualifications and working hours may not get paid equally to of men in the occupational arena. The reason could be uncomprehending from occupation to occupation but mainly revolves around the following aspects.
Motherhood penalty
The Motherhood penalty in India has been documented by Das and Zumbyte (2017) using regressive analysis to establish an increasingly negative relationship between the probability of Indian women getting employed & the presence of a newborn or child in their family.
- Mother employees are considered less competent & committed
- They are hired & promoted less often and receive lower salaries.
- mothers face higher discrimination than non-mothers in terms of employability as a negative impact of the legal framework
Goldin too highlighted that the bulk of earnings differences in modern society arise after the birth of the first child as employers have to follow all legal norms like maternity leave, childcare services allocations, etc.
Her Nobel citation too highlighted that “expectations of young women are formed by the experiences of previous generations – for instance, their mothers, who did not go back to work until the children had grown up – then development will be slow”
Health parameters
The critical parameter for women in the workforce is health anxiety and associating terms like “period penalty”. Employers are generally skeptical that women employees tend to skip working hours during menstrual days. This aspect should not but does affect their employability in certain kinds of jobs like the hospitality sector, which emphasizes presence rather than deadlines.
Goldin demonstrated that access to the contraceptive pill played a significant role in diversifying opportunities for career planning. Similarly, there is fair evidence that separation and increases in the number of clean toilets at school premises improved girl child enrolment and decreased absenteeism in schools. Similar measures can be taken not only at the workplace but also in transportation vectors such as local trains and the presence of clean and hygienic public toilets in the radius. The miniscule resource crunch should never be a roadblock to gender parity in employment.
Safety concerns
One of the focal barriers that prevent women from taking up distinct opportunities away from their hometowns is the legitimate safety concern.
The crime against women and harassment at the workplace remains a grave distress despite all our achievements, developments, and advancements. National Crime Records Bureau’s 2022 report showed that crime against women increased by 56.5% in 2020 to 64.5% in 2021 per lakh of the population. Sexual harassment at the workplace contributes a chunk of these cases, and many go unreported due to obvious reasons. To minimize this 2019 cabinet approved the setting up of 1,023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSC) by Nirbhaya fund under the National Mission For Safety Of Women & 389 exclusive POCSO courts.
Many states are initiating legislation like Maharashtra Shakti Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2020, Andhra Pradesh’s Disha Bill of 2019 that proposes the death penalty in cases of rape, acid attack, & serious crimes against women and children. Also mandated investigation within 7 working days for “heinous offenses”, where “adequate conclusive evidence” is available. CRPC provides that investigation relating to offenses punishable with imprisonment up to 10 years must be completed within 60 days for offences with higher punishment (including rape), within 90 days of detaining the accused, before he or she is released on bail. To speed up the process, the CrPC had been amended in 2018, and the investigation timeline was reduced from 90 to 60 days for all cases of heinous offenses like rape. Many harmful practices persist despite laws. The government needs to go beyond passing and enforcing laws, to tackle the root cause of harmful practices, namely harassment, gender-based subordination & inequality which may include but are not limited to investment in community awareness, rapid distress redressal for women, and proactive law enforcement agencies.
Social metamorphosis.
The perspective that women are less compatible than men for outdoor jobs has long surpassed myth. Goldin demarcated enhancement in the female labour force participation pattern as the consequence of structural metamorphosis and evolving social norms regarding women’s responsibilities to the family. In India too, women left their mark in Sciences, humanities, and the technical and hospitality sector even more than men. The social transformation asks for a previous generation of family, especially women elders, to encourage the present generation to take up the diverse opportunities for employees without prejudices and stereotypes. Ministry of Defence issued the formal Government Sanction Letter for Grant of Permanent Commission to women officers in the Army(SSC). Also for command posts in non-combat areas. Experts also opined that female participation can get boosted as a secondary effect of the 128th amendment bill 2023, i.e., narishakti vandan abhiniyam that seeks for 33% reservation for women in Lok Sabha & Vidhan Sabha. Women in leadership positions can pave the way for many others to follow.
Restriction on female participation in any scenario will lead us to the era of complacent blindness talking of Paraphernalia of progress and development where two wheels of the carts are not treated alike. It will ultimately result in the dead rhythm of wheels and counterwheels. we are going nowhere until we synchronize both the wheels in the same direction. She deserves her rightful place in economy and nation-building not because she is a woman, but because she is capable.