Women & Work - what we’ve been reading through September 2024
News, research, data, and recommendations about women and work - curated by our team
Hello, and welcome to CEDA’s newsletter ‘Women & Work’!
In this edition, we bring you our curation of news, data and other updates on women’s participation in the economy. If you’ve ever wondered if and how school timings, breaks and closures have impacts beyond the students, you might find more to think of in this edition. We hope you will find the edition worth your time.
Before we get started, a request: We are curating ‘Women & Work’ with the hope that it can provoke, stimulate and amplify conversations about women’s participation in paid work in India. If you like this edition, please do share it on your social media, and with your friends, family and colleagues. Thank you!
In case you would like to read any of our past editions, they are available here.
🗞️In The News
The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the Indian government’s annual survey that provides data on key labour force participation-related metrics, was released earlier this month. 35.6 percent of women aged 15 years and above were part of the labour force in 2023-24 (by Current Weekly Status), up from 31.6 percent in the previous year. For men, the corresponding rate was 77.5 percent (very similar to the 77.4 percent a year ago). We’ll be diving into the numbers more deeply, so keep an eye out for our analyses.
The government is planning a new framework for flexible work for women with the aim to improve women’s labour force participation, The Economic Times reported earlier this month. A task force headed by the labour secretary is currently looking at flexi work arrangements that could be recommended to the industry, the report said. Read more here.
Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu will soon have a huge – and India’s first of such scale – residential complex built by a state government for a private company. It will serve as accommodation for more than 18,000 women working at Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s electronic devices. In a field report for The Straits Times, journalist Rohini Mohan examines what this is likely to mean for women’s participation in the workforce. Read here.
Can the care economy boost women’s workforce participation, asks this edition of Finshots.
Women lead less than *one percent* of the firms listed on Japan’s Tokyo Stock Exchange’s top-tier prime market, a Kyodo news agency analysis shows. Yes, 0.8 percent to be more specific. In absolute numbers – there were only 13 women CEOs at 1,643 of Japan’s top firms in 2023.
China enforces different retirement ages for men and women. Earlier this month, the country’s top legislature approved a proposal to increase its retirement ages but did not address this gender discrimination. Effective January 2025, the new retirement age for men will be 63 years (from 60 years), while for women working in white collar professions it would be raised to 58 years from 55 years. For women in blue collar work it will be increased from 50 years to 55 years. More here.
💡Research Spotlight
Every year, during the summer in the USA (from May to July), women’s participation in the labour force records a small decline. In contrast, male labour force participation sees a small increase.
What happens?
The answer is, school closures for the summer break (along with corresponding lapses in the availability of childcare services), argue Brendan M. Price & Melanie Wasserman in their paper published in The Review of Economics and Statistics.
As school-going children get time off from their classes, it poses a challenge for their parents – who will take care of them? And consequently, parents, mostly mothers, take time off work.
Among those who are employed, both men and women tend to work fewer hours over the summer owing to summer holidays. However, among women, this drop is larger and also includes an increase in unpaid time off, the authors find based on their analysis of data from the Current Population Survey from 1989 to 2019.
They note an average drop of 1.1 percentage points in prime-age women’s employment-to-population ratio from May to July “with equal contributions from increased unemployment and diminished participation”. Among prime-age men, however, employment rises slightly over the summer.
But is it really childcare duties, or simply a summer vacation impact? The authors argue it is the former based on the following:
This drop coincides strongly with the timing of summer breaks
Is concentrated among mothers, especially those with school-aged children
Accompanied by an increase in those who cite household/family duties as their main duty while out of labour force
And there is also an accompanying increase in women’s time spent engaging in childcare.
They argue that this drop in summer employment for women is the result of the following:
Women tend to exit the labour market at higher rates than men during the summer months, find the researchers
Women also tend to be overrepresented in the education sector, which contributes to the drop in employment during summer.
Additionally, they are also more likely to be employed in sectors where employment shrinks during summer months
“School closures for summer break may contribute to gender gaps in pay by reducing women’s annual hours worked, curbing productivity, impeding human capital accumulation, or influencing job choices,” observe the authors, urging policymakers to think about the ramifications of lengthy school closures on both students as well as the labour market.
Read the paper here (or here).
📊Datapoint
Women’s labour force participation rates trail those of men in all Indian states, but the gender gap is a lot wider in some states as compared to the others. Look at the chart to know more. Read more in our analysis here.
🧑💼Perspectives
Justice Hima Kohli, only the ninth woman to become a Supreme Court judge, retired from her position earlier this month. In this interview with the Times of India, she reflects on the profession and how to bring more women in. An excerpt:
“In our field, success is largely measured by the fee a lawyer commands. I once mentioned the existence of the ‘Old Boys Club’ in a speech. That still exists. It may not be overt or blatant. But men will promote men over women professionals who are not a part of that club.
“...Women lawyers may not pick all kinds of briefs, but they mostly deliver better results than their male counterparts. The point is, how often do they get that opportunity? So, the success of women lawyers should not be measured only by the number of cases they handle or fees they command.”
👍 CEDA Recommends
This edition’s recommendations have been curated especially for our readers by Digvijay Singh Negi, Associate Professor of Economics, Ashoka University.
What’s an essential academic work that you would recommend to someone who is just getting started with working on the subject of female labour force participation?
Digvijay Singh Negi: In trying to understand issues around female workforce participation, especially in rural areas, one has to have a deeper understanding of factors that determine the status and role of women in society in general. An insightful book that throws light on the social lives of women in Rural Nepal is Lynn Bennett’s “Dangerous Wives and Sacred Sisters: Social and Symbolic Roles of High-Caste Women in Nepal”. The book describes in rich detail the complex set of social, economic, and cultural factors that govern the upper caste Hindu women’s activities and life in rural Nepal. While the book focuses on Nepal, the observations hold true for entire South Asia.
Anything published in the news media that shed light on an important aspect about women’s work in India?
The most striking and eye-opening statistic for me is that 63 percent of workers in the Indian Agriculture sector are women (PLFS 2020-21). Any policy that aspires to achieve growth in agricultural incomes and the rural economy, therefore, must target women.
Is there a film/TV series that you can recommend which, in your opinion, does a good job of portraying the world of work?
Not a recent movie, but for me, 1987’s Mirch Masala is one of the most important works in Indian cinema, beautifully portraying the complex lives of women in rural colonial India. I recall the climax scene where women of the village led by Smita Patil grind lal mirch (red chilies) and ambush them in the exploitative subedar’s (the wonderful Naseeruddin Shah) eyes. Women empowerment and poetic justice at its best. The movie artfully portrayed sexualization, exploitation, and class hierarchy in colonial India.
And a book that did the same?
Again, not a recent book, more of a classic; Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living, which I read some time back, comes to mind. Though fiction, the book paints a poignant picture of Post-Revolutionary Russia and follows the life of the main protagonist, Kira Argounova. Portrays the several sacrifices women have to make to justify societal expectations yet balance their own dreams, desires and aspirations.
⏳Throwback
The above is a photograph of a woman working at a matchbox factory in Hackney in London, UK. It is part of the archive of the Hackney Flashers, a women’s photography collective that was formed in the United Kingdom in 1974 and remained active till 1980. The collective started with the purpose of documenting women at work. Their work focussed on two aspects of women’s lives: paid work, and the lack of childcare for working mothers, and they released two exhibitions called ‘Women and Work’ (1975) and ‘Who’s Holding the Baby?’(1978). The photograph featured above is from the former. Explore more about the collective, their history and their exhibitions on their website here.
That’s all from us for this edition. Thank you for reading! We will see you next month. In the meantime, if you have feedback, questions, tips, or just want to say hello, feel free to do so by replying to this email, or drop in a word at editorial.ceda@ashoka.edu.in
Curated by: Akshi Chawla for the Centre for Economic Data & Analysis (CEDA), Ashoka University. Cover illustration: Nithya Subramanian.