Women's Economic
Empowerment
IWWAGE’s work on women’s economic empowerment focuses on understanding and addressing the structural barriers that shape women’s participation in India’s labour market. At the centre of this agenda is the persistently low Female Labour Force Participation Rate (FLFPR), which reflects deep-rooted challenges related to access to decent work, social norms, and labour market institutions.
IWWAGE’s work in this area focuses on:
Evidence generation for policy action
Analysing national and state-level data to understand women’s employment patterns, sectoral and occupational distribution, and barriers to labour market entry and continuity.
Improving measurement and visibility of women’s work
Improved definitions and measurement of work, with a strong emphasis on recognising unpaid, home-based, and care work that remains undercounted in conventional labour statistics.
Shaping the future of women’s work
Examining women’s participation in a rapidly digitising economy, including platform and hybrid work models, to assess emerging opportunities, risks, and forms of precarity.
Strengthening agency and protection
Exploring women’s access to digital skills, agency, bargaining power, and social protection within evolving labour market arrangements.
Together, this body of work highlights that meaningful women’s economic empowerment requires better data, recognition of all forms of work, and the proactive shaping of labour market institutions so that women’s work is visible, valued, and protected.
Learning note
Trend In Female Labour Force Participation In India
- December , 2024
- Aneek Choudhary , Bidisha Mondal
Despite significant economic growth since the 1990s, India’s female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) remains low at 28.2%, lagging behind countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.This factsheet explores these barriers and their impact on women’s workforce participation in India.
Despite significant economic growth since the 1990s, India’s female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) remains low at 28.2%, lagging behind countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.This factsheet explores these barriers and their impact on women’s workforce participation in India.
Learning note
Climate Change and the Future of Women’s Work
- December , 2024
- Sayak Sinha | Divya Singh | Devika Oberai
Climate change is a pressing global challenge that exacerbates existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting women, girls, and marginalised communities. Due to persistent gender inequalities, women face unique challenges in adapting to climate-induced disasters, often lacking access to resources, financial services, and decision-making platforms needed to rebuild livelihoods. As a result, they are often slower to recover compared to men. International frameworks, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Lima Work Program on Gender, stress the importance of integrating gender perspectives into climate policies. However, there is a lack of sex-disaggregated data to fully understand the impact of climate change on women’s workforce participation. This highlights the urgent need for research on how climate change affects women’s livelihoods and the importance of advocating for policies that protect their participation in existing sectors while empowering them to enter emerging industries. By addressing these gendered impacts, we can create more equitable and sustainable solutions to climate change, ensuring that women play a key role in building climate-resilient communities.
Climate change is a pressing global challenge that exacerbates existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting women, girls, and marginalised communities. Due to persistent gender inequalities, women face unique challenges in adapting to climate-induced disasters, often lacking access to resources, financial services, and decision-making platforms needed to rebuild livelihoods. As a result, they are often slower to recover compared to men. International frameworks, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Lima Work Program on Gender, stress the importance of integrating gender perspectives into climate policies. However, there is a lack of sex-disaggregated data to fully understand the impact of climate change on women’s workforce participation. This highlights the urgent need for research on how climate change affects women’s livelihoods and the importance of advocating for policies that protect their participation in existing sectors while empowering them to enter emerging industries. By addressing these gendered impacts, we can create more equitable and sustainable solutions to climate change, ensuring that women play a key role in building climate-resilient communities.
Working Paper
Improving Women’s Employment Possibilities: A Sectoral Analysis
- September , 2024
- Sona Mitra | Bidisha Mondal
This research paper explores the intersection of sectoral growth and gendered employment in India, analysing how economic changes impact women’s participation in the workforce. Using time-series data from CPHS, CMIE CAPEX, PLFS, and NAS, the study forecasts employment trends across key sectors from 2024 to 2027, with a particular lens on sectors employing large numbers of women. It highlights an overall projected decline in women’s employment, especially in agriculture, education, ICT, and several manufacturing industries due to mechanisation and automation. However, it also identifies potential growth in sectors such as wholesale and retail trade, and selected manufacturing sub-sectors like footwear and detergents, driven by women’s increasing entrepreneurial presence in e-commerce. The paper calls for urgent upskilling and targeted investments in sectors with high potential to absorb women workers.
This research paper explores the intersection of sectoral growth and gendered employment in India, analysing how economic changes impact women’s participation in the workforce. Using time-series data from CPHS, CMIE CAPEX, PLFS, and NAS, the study forecasts employment trends across key sectors from 2024 to 2027, with a particular lens on sectors employing large numbers of women. It highlights an overall projected decline in women’s employment, especially in agriculture, education, ICT, and several manufacturing industries due to mechanisation and automation. However, it also identifies potential growth in sectors such as wholesale and retail trade, and selected manufacturing sub-sectors like footwear and detergents, driven by women’s increasing entrepreneurial presence in e-commerce. The paper calls for urgent upskilling and targeted investments in sectors with high potential to absorb women workers.
Report
Capturing Women’s Work to Measure Better
- September , 2024
- Sona Mitra | Prakriti Sharma | Aneek Choudhary
Women’s work is often underestimated in labour force surveys due to its complex nature, which includes economic, non-economic, and unpaid work such as domestic tasks and caregiving. Additionally, biases in respondents and enumerators, along with survey designs lacking gender sensitivity, contribute to data gaps and the undercounting of women’s contributions, keeping them invisible in statistics and policy discussions. Research highlights how oversimplified methodologies in mainstream surveys lead to the misclassification of economically active women as inactive. This study aims to address these gaps by testing innovative survey techniques that provide more accurate estimates of women’s participation in the workforce. It also examines perception bias in proxy-reporting. The study was conducted in Karnataka and Jharkhand, surveying 4,000 women and 800 men. Findings show that these innovations were effective in capturing more women in employment compared to conventional surveys, offering deeper insights into their time-use patterns and highlighting the impact of perception bias in proxy reporting.
Women’s work is often underestimated in labour force surveys due to its complex nature, which includes economic, non-economic, and unpaid work such as domestic tasks and caregiving. Additionally, biases in respondents and enumerators, along with survey designs lacking gender sensitivity, contribute to data gaps and the undercounting of women’s contributions, keeping them invisible in statistics and policy discussions. Research highlights how oversimplified methodologies in mainstream surveys lead to the misclassification of economically active women as inactive. This study aims to address these gaps by testing innovative survey techniques that provide more accurate estimates of women’s participation in the workforce. It also examines perception bias in proxy-reporting. The study was conducted in Karnataka and Jharkhand, surveying 4,000 women and 800 men. Findings show that these innovations were effective in capturing more women in employment compared to conventional surveys, offering deeper insights into their time-use patterns and highlighting the impact of perception bias in proxy reporting.
Learning note
Capturing Women’s Work To Measure Better
- August , 2024
- Sona Mitra | Bidisha Mondal | Prakriti Sharma
Women’s work is often more diverse and complex due to the significant amount of unpaid labour they perform, including domestic chores and caregiving responsibilities. Conventional labour force surveys tend to overlook these contributions, leading to an undercounting of women’s work and their exclusion from policy discussions. As a result, women are often not recognised as ‘workers,’ keeping them invisible in statistical estimates. IWWAGE seeks to address this gap by developing better mechanisms for collecting data on women’s work. Through innovative probing techniques and sampling frames, our research aims to capture a more accurate picture of women’s labour force participation. Additionally, we propose a framework for women-centric surveys that can be aligned with national Labour Force Surveys (LFS) to provide more accurate estimates. Our study also highlights the bias that occurs when respondents other than women themselves report on their work, further underestimating women’s contributions to the economy. By engendering labour force surveys, IWWAGE hopes to bring greater visibility to women’s work and ensure their inclusion in policy discussions that drive economic empowerment.
Women’s work is often more diverse and complex due to the significant amount of unpaid labour they perform, including domestic chores and caregiving responsibilities. Conventional labour force surveys tend to overlook these contributions, leading to an undercounting of women’s work and their exclusion from policy discussions. As a result, women are often not recognised as ‘workers,’ keeping them invisible in statistical estimates. IWWAGE seeks to address this gap by developing better mechanisms for collecting data on women’s work. Through innovative probing techniques and sampling frames, our research aims to capture a more accurate picture of women’s labour force participation. Additionally, we propose a framework for women-centric surveys that can be aligned with national Labour Force Surveys (LFS) to provide more accurate estimates. Our study also highlights the bias that occurs when respondents other than women themselves report on their work, further underestimating women’s contributions to the economy. By engendering labour force surveys, IWWAGE hopes to bring greater visibility to women’s work and ensure their inclusion in policy discussions that drive economic empowerment.