Labour Market Conditions Discouraging Women's Employment

India’s Economy Has a Missing Engine: Women Especially women from lower-income backgrounds. A McKinsey study estimated that India could add $770 billion to GDP by 2025 by simply advancing gender parity in work. But instead, female labor force participation fell from 32% (2005) to ~20% (2020). https://lnkd.in/dvys4E6f Despite progress in some areas, female labor force participation in India is among the lowest in the world, even lower than some Sub-Saharan African countries. Why Are So Many Poor Women Underemployed or Not Properly Utilized? 1. Social and Cultural Barriers • Deep-rooted patriarchy restricts women’s mobility, especially in rural or conservative areas. • Girls are often seen as temporary earners, their “real role” is expected to be at home. 2. Safety and Mobility • Public transport is unsafe or unavailable, making it harder for women to travel to work. • Fear of harassment, especially in cities or during night shifts, keeps families from letting women work. 3. Unpaid Labor at Home • Women spend hours daily doing unpaid work: cooking, cleaning, child care, elder care. • This invisible labor is neither recognized nor redistributed. • Poor women, in particular, bear the double burden of poverty and gendered expectation. 4. Lack of Suitable Jobs - There is no structured pathway from informal to formal employment. 5. Policy & Structural Failure • Skill development programs often don’t reach women or are too generic and disconnected from market realities. • No large-scale, nationwide push for rural women entrepreneurship, decentralized production, or employment guarantees for women. • Schemes exist, but access is broken due to middlemen, corruption, or lack of information. Poor women: • Walk miles for water • Raise children with limited resources • Cook without clean fuel • Manage micro-budgets like CFOs of households Yet the system never sees them as ‘employable’ or ‘productive’. What Can Change This? 1. Localized employment: Bring dignified work to villages (e.g., food processing, crafts, decentralised manufacturing). 2. Safe, affordable transport: So women can commute without fear. 3. Women-led cooperatives and micro-enterprises: Let women own their work, not just participate. 4. Recognition of unpaid work: Design policies around time poverty, not just joblessness. 5. Mindset shift: From “allowing” women to work to realizing they hold the key to national growth. We talk of “demographic dividend” but leave half the population on the sidelines. A country that sidelines its women isn’t just unjust, it is chronically underperforming.

A new report reveals the hidden career penalty women face in accounting in the UK. 42% of women with kids 5-9 say being a parent is their primary barrier to advancement. Another 41% say time off for childcare is an obstacle. The rates are way higher than for male counterparts. It's not about ambition. 71% of women with young children still believe they can reach senior positions. 81% of mid-career women say they have a lot to offer. The problem is structural, not personal drive. One woman was promised partnership before maternity leave. It got deferred while she was out, then deferred again when she returned "to see if she could cope." Nearly 70% of mid-career women worry that working from home will hurt their careers. Many firms have flexible work policies on paper, but the culture hasn't caught up. Women get questioned about their commitment when they actually use the flexibility. Evening networking events create impossible choices between career and family. The result? A quiet exodus of talented women to smaller firms, public sector, or self-employment. Read the full report findings: https://lnkd.in/gzx_f5SA

📘 “Jobs and Women: Untapped Talent, Unrealized Growth” report offers both a sobering diagnosis and a powerful call to action for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan region. https://lnkd.in/eKMdBK8Q Key findings at a glance: • Growth in the region is projected to reach 2.8% in 2025 and 3.3% in 2026. • Yet, economies continue to confront risks from global uncertainty, shifting trade patterns, conflict, and displacement. • Most striking is the underutilization of women’s talent and skills. Despite gains in education, only about 1 in 5 women in the region participates in the labor force — one of the lowest rates globally. • The barriers are multidimensional — from household constraints and social norms, to legal restrictions and institutional bottlenecks, to weak private sector demand. • The upside is enormous: unlocking the labor force participation gap could boost GDP per capita by 20–30% in economies like Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan. The report offers a clear prescription for comprehensive, systemic change. Among its top recommendations: 1. Reform legal and institutional barriers — Remove discriminatory laws, strengthen maternity protections, ensure women’s mobility and property rights, and modernize regulatory frameworks. 2. Transform social norms and household constraints — Expand childcare and eldercare services, promote shared domestic responsibilities, and address safety and mobility barriers. 3. Mobilize private sector demand — Incentivize firms to hire women, support women-led enterprises, promote flexible work, and embed gender lens into investment decisions. 4. Integrate gender fully into macro and sectoral policy — From infrastructure to trade to digital agendas, gender must be an integral dimension rather than an add-on. 5. Enhance data, evidence and learning — Invest in improved gender-disaggregated data, rigorous evaluation, and mechanisms to scale what works across contexts. ⸻ Having supported Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and other countries in the region in job creation, I have observed a growing recognition that the path forward demands bold, coordinated, cross-sectoral action — bringing together institutional and policy reforms, innovative programs like productive economic inclusion for women, private sector solutions, and social change — to engage women as change makers. 🔗 Dive into the full report here: Jobs and Women: Untapped Talent, Unrealized Growth https://lnkd.in/eKMdBK8Q Congratulations to Ousmane Dione , Roberta Gatti , Isis Gaddis , Caglar Ozden , Jesica Torres , Leila Baghdadi , Asif Islam , Gianluca Mele , Sumin Chun , Mennatallah MOUSA , Richard Newsome , and colleagues. #GenderEquality #WomenAndJobs

The share of working moms with young kids just hit a 3-year low. This is unraveling the progress we made after the pandemic. When remote work and flexible schedules were available, mothers drove much of the labor market’s comeback. Now, return-to-office mandates and rigid schedules are pushing them out again. For many, it’s the steady drip of decisions that make working and caregiving impossible to balance: - No flexibility when the baby’s sick. - Fewer remote days. - Layoffs in the sectors that offered stability. - Subtle signals that caregivers are “less committed.” The U.S. is already the only advanced economy where female labor force participation has declined over the last 20 years. We’re making that gap worse. This isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s also an economic competitiveness issue. When you make it harder for caregivers to stay in the workforce, you lose talent, institutional knowledge, and leadership potential. This is why employers need to prioritize flexibility. Not as a perk. As a core operating principle. And it’s why gig economy platforms and shift-based work are growing so fast. Losing mothers from the labor force isn’t a statistic, it’s a setback for families, companies, and the country. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gFECE6xj

⚡ India is currently at a pivotal moment, poised to leverage the world's largest working-age population. However, there remains a significant gap in the workforce - nearly two-thirds of Indian women aged 15 and above are not participating in its labor force. This trend holds true even for those with higher education or vocational training, and it represents a substantial untapped economic potential. While India has made impressive progress on several socio-economic indicators and recorded remarkable economic growth in recent decades, these have not translated into increased economic participation for women. The reasons for this disparity are multifaceted, rooted not just in social norms or practices but also in legal and structural barriers. So, what can public policy do about this? In this policy brief, developed for the Isaac Centre for Public Policy (ICPP) and The Udaiti Foundation, I draw on existing research and datasets to find some answers. I hope you'll find it useful! Available here: https://lnkd.in/gY_Jb8g2 TL;DR: Instead of shifting the onus of improving women’s workforce participating only on employers, public policy must focus on creating a supportive and enabling ecosystem. #publicpolicy #womenandwork #employment #indianeconomy

Gender Disparities in Work Commutes in India Commuting patterns in India highlight significant gender-based differences, shaped by social, economic, and cultural factors. Data I am analyzing shows that Indian men travel an average of 6 km to work, while women travel only 2.5 km, reflecting barriers like safety concerns, household responsibilities, financial constraints, and limited transport access. The travel gap varies by region. In Lakshadweep, men commute 11.47 km, while women travel only 3.5 km. In contrast, Mizoram shows minimal disparity, indicating how geography, infrastructure, and social norms impact commuting patterns. Key Reasons for the Gender Travel Gap Safety Concerns Women often avoid long commutes due to street harassment and unsafe public transport (Tiwari, 2013). Many adjust their work hours, routes, or transport choices to ensure safety (Phadke et al., 2011). Household Responsibilities Women spend three times more time on unpaid domestic work than men (Desai & Jain, 2020), limiting their ability to work far from home. Social expectations further restrict their mobility (Kantor, 2017). Transport Accessibility Women depend more on public transport, yet face overcrowding and poor last-mile connectivity (Singh, 2019). High transport costs relative to earnings make distant jobs unaffordable (Mahadevia et al., 2012). Lower Wages Women earn 20% less than men (ILO, 2020), making long commutes financially impractical. Many opt for part-time or informal jobs near home (Chatterjee & Bose, 2019). The shorter commuting distances of women reflect broader gender inequalities in employment and mobility. Addressing transportation safety, workplace flexibility, and economic barriers can enhance women’s workforce participation and create a more equitable labor market. World Emission Network