IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v64y2021i3d10.1007_s41027-021-00330-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Female Employment in India: Tracking Trends During 2005–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Varsha Gupta

    (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Varsha Gupta, 2021. "Female Employment in India: Tracking Trends During 2005–2019," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 803-823, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00330-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-021-00330-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-021-00330-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-021-00330-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farzana Afridi & Taryn Dinkelman & Kanika Mahajan, 2018. "Why are fewer married women joining the work force in rural India? A decomposition analysis over two decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(3), pages 783-818, July.
    2. Fletcher, Erin K. & Pande, Rohini & Moore, Charity Troyer, 2019. "Women and Work in India: Descriptive Evidence and a Review of Potential Policies," India Policy Forum, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 149-216.
    3. Mehrotra, Santosh & Parida, Jajati K., 2017. "Why is the Labour Force Participation of Women Declining in India?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 360-380.
    4. Balwant Singh Mehta & Ishwar Chandra Awasthi, 2019. "Women and Labour Market Dynamics," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-13-9057-9, September.
    5. Stephan Klasen & Janneke Pieters, 2015. "What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 29(3), pages 449-478.
    6. Esha Chatterjee & Sonalde Desai & Reeve Vanneman, 2018. "Indian paradox: Rising education, declining womens' employment," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(31), pages 855-878.
    7. Anderson, Siwan & Eswaran, Mukesh, 2009. "What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 179-191, November.
    8. World Bank, 2017. "India Development Update, May 2017," World Bank Publications - Reports 27545, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gupta, Tanu & Negi, Digvijay S., 2021. "Daughter vs. Daughter-in-Law: Kinship Roles and Women's Time Use in India," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313373, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Megan Reed, 2020. "The labor force participation of Indian women before and after widowhood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(24), pages 673-706.
    3. Sonalde Desai & Omkar Joshi, 2019. "The Paradox of Declining Female Work Participation in an Era of Economic Growth," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(1), pages 55-71, March.
    4. Antara Bhattacharyya & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2020. "Does U Feminisation Work in Female Labour Force Participation Rate? India: A Case Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(1), pages 143-160, March.
    5. Veeramani, Choorikkad & Banerjee, Purna, 2022. "Exchange rate fluctuations, labour laws, and gender differences in job flows: Analysis of manufacturing industries across Indian states," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    6. Deininger,Klaus W. & Jin,Songqing & Nagarajan,Hari Krishnan & Singh,Sudhir K., 2020. "Political Reservation and Female Labor Force Participation in Rural India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9350, The World Bank.
    7. Alison Andrew & Orazio P. Attanasio & Britta Augsburg & Jere Behrman & Monimalika Day & Pamela Jervis & Costas Meghir & Angus Phimister, 2020. "Mothers' Social Networks and Socioeconomic Gradients of Isolation," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2261, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    8. Amrita Datta & Tanuka Endow & Balwant Singh Mehta, 2020. "Education, Caste and Women’s Work in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(2), pages 387-406, June.
    9. Esha Chatterjee & Reeve D. Vanneman, 2022. "Women's Low Employment Rates in India: Cultural and Structural Explanations," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 445-474, June.
    10. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2020. "Demographic shocks and women’s labor market participation: evidence from the 1918 influenza pandemic in India," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 494, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Siddique, Zahra, 2018. "Violence and Female Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 11874, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Sarkar, Sudipa & Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2019. "Employment transitions of women in India: A panel analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 291-309.
    13. Dhanaraj, Sowmya & Mahambare, Vidya, 2019. "Family structure, education and women’s employment in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 17-29.
    14. Indrajit Bairagya & Tulika Bhattacharya & Pragati Tiwari, 2021. "Does Vocational Training Promote Female Labour Force Participation? An Analysis for India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 15(1), pages 149-173, February.
    15. Najeeb,Fatima & Morales,Matias & Lopez-Acevedo,Gladys C., 2020. "Analyzing Female Employment Trends in South Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9157, The World Bank.
    16. Syamantak Chattopadhyay & Subhanil Chowdhury, 2022. "Female Labour Force Participation in India: An Empirical Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(1), pages 59-83, March.
    17. Teralynn Ludwick & Marie Ishida & Sapna Desai & Ajay Mahal, 2022. "Witnessing Intimate Partner Violence Impacts Schooling and Labor Market Outcomes for Young Women in India," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 505-543, June.
    18. Deshpande, Ashwini & Singh, Jitendra, 2021. "Dropping Out, Being Pushed Out or Can’t Get in? Decoding Declining Labour Force Participation of Indian Women," IZA Discussion Papers 14639, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Zahra Siddique, 2022. "Media-Reported Violence and Female Labor Supply," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1337-1365.
    20. Priyanka, Sadia, 2020. "Do female politicians matter for female labor market outcomes? Evidence from state legislative elections in India," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:64:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-021-00330-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.