IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae24/344351.html

Determinants of Female Labor Force Participation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Lele, Uma

Abstract

Attention to women’s economic participation is relatively new, although women constitute half the global population; with their increasing role in labor markets, they play an important role in the economies of developed countries. This paper focuses on the determinants of female labor force participation in India. Examining the structural transformation (ST) framework from agricultural to nonagricultural sectors, comparisons are made to other countries including, particularly, China. Although growing in recent years, women’s participation in India is shown to be low in the formal sector, lower than in neighboring Asian countries and developed countries. Six factors influencing female labor force participation in India are reviewed: (1) development strategy, including the extent of labor intensity and skills development; (2) demographic transition; (3) sociopolitical and cultural factors, including policies pursued in the process of modernization of traditional gender roles and religion; (4) insufficient investment in vocational education and training; (5) insufficient quantity and quality of childcare facilities; and (6) concern for women’s safety and their limited mobility. Some policy implications are highlighted.

Suggested Citation

  • Lele, Uma, 2024. "Determinants of Female Labor Force Participation in India," IAAE 2024 Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India 344351, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae24:344351
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.344351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/344351/files/Lele%20ICAE2024.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.344351?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bauernschuster, Stefan & Schlotter, Martin, 2015. "Public child care and mothers' labor supply—Evidence from two quasi-experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-16.
    2. Carta, Francesca & Rizzica, Lucia, 2018. "Early kindergarten, maternal labor supply and children's outcomes: Evidence from Italy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 79-102.
    3. Heim, Carol E., 1984. "Structural Transformation and the Demand for New Labor in Advanced Economies: Interwar Britain," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 585-595, June.
    4. Blau, David M & Robins, Philip K, 1988. "Child-Care Costs and Family Labor Supply," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(3), pages 374-381, August.
    5. Samuel Berlinski & Sebastian Galiani & Patrick J. McEwan, 2011. "Preschool and Maternal Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 313-344.
    6. Global Health 50/50 & International Food Policy Research Institute & UN Women & Tanaka, Sonja & Malapit, Hazel J. & Njuki, Jemimah, 2024. "Global food 50/50 report 2023/2024: Analysis of family-friendly workplace policies and gender equality in 51 global food system organizations," Research reports 139832, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Sen, Amartya, 2000. "Social justice and the distribution of income," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 59-85, Elsevier.
    8. World Bank, 2019. "Global Economic Prospects, January 2019," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 31066, April.
    9. Christina Gathmann & Björn Sass, 2018. "Taxing Childcare: Effects on Childcare Choices, Family Labor Supply, and Children," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(3), pages 665-709.
    10. Berlinski, Samuel & Galiani, Sebastian, 2007. "The effect of a large expansion of pre-primary school facilities on preschool attendance and maternal employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 665-680, June.
    11. Lefebvre, Pierre & Merrigan, Philip & Verstraete, Matthieu, 2009. "Dynamic labour supply effects of childcare subsidies: Evidence from a Canadian natural experiment on low-fee universal child care," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 490-502, October.
    12. Lakshmi Iyer & Anandi Mani & Prachi Mishra & Petia Topalova, 2012. "The Power of Political Voice: Women's Political Representation and Crime in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 165-193, October.
    13. Doepke, Matthias & Hannusch, Anne & Kindermann, Fabian & Tertilt, Michèle, 2022. "The Economics of Fertility: A New Era," IZA Discussion Papers 15224, IZA Network @ LISER.
    14. Claudia Goldin, 1994. "The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function in Economic Development and Economic History," NBER Working Papers 4707, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Hojman, Andrés & Lopez Boo, Florencia, 2022. "Public childcare benefits children and mothers: Evidence from a nationwide experiment in a developing country," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    16. Brewer, Mike & Cattan, Sarah & Crawford, Claire & Rabe, Birgitta, 2022. "Does more free childcare help parents work more?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Siwan Anderson & Debraj Ray, 2012. "The Age Distribution of Missing Women in India," Working Papers id:4842, eSocialSciences.
    18. Audrey Bousselin, 2022. "Access to universal childcare and its effect on maternal employment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 497-532, June.
    19. Chaudhary, Ruchika. & Verick, Sher., 2014. "Female labour force participation in India and beyond," ILO Working Papers 994867893402676, International Labour Organization.
    20. José María Da Rocha & Luisa Fuster, 2006. "Why Are Fertility Rates And Female Employment Ratios Positively Correlated Across O.E.C.D. Countries?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1187-1222, November.
    21. repec:ilo:ilowps:486789 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. World Bank, 2019. "Global Economic Prospects, June 2019," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 31655, April.
    23. Borooah, V. & Iyer, S., 2004. "‘Religion and Fertility in India: The role of son preference and daughter aversion’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0436, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    24. Pedro Mira & Namkee Ahn, 2002. "A note on the changing relationship between fertility and female employment rates in developed countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 667-682.
    25. 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.
    26. Eckhoff Andresen, Martin & Havnes, Tarjei, 2019. "Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    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. repec:ags:cfcp15:344351 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Huebener, Mathias & Pape, Astrid & Spiess, C. Katharina, 2020. "Parental labour supply responses to the abolition of day care fees," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 510-543.
    3. Daniel Halim & Hillary C. Johnson & Elizaveta Perova, 2022. "Preschool Availability and Women’s Employment: Evidence from Indonesia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(1), pages 39-61.
    4. Fang, Guanfu & Miao, Liya, 2024. "Expanding boundaries: The Impact of kindergarten availability on women's employment in China," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    5. Müller, Kai-Uwe & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2020. "Does subsidized care for toddlers increase maternal labor supply? Evidence from a large-scale expansion of early childcare," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    6. Brewer, Mike & Cattan, Sarah & Crawford, Claire & Rabe, Birgitta, 2022. "Does more free childcare help parents work more?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Kazakova, Yuliya, 2019. "Childcare availability and maternal labour supply in Russia," ISER Working Paper Series 2019-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Brewer, Mike & Cattan, Sarah & Crawford, Claire & Rabe, Birgitta, 2016. "Free Childcare and Parents' Labour Supply: Is More Better?," IZA Discussion Papers 10415, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Padilla-Romo, María & Peluffo, Cecilia & Viollaz, Mariana, 2025. "Parents’ effective time endowment and divorce: Evidence from extended school days," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    10. Christoph Zangger & Janine Widmer & Sandra Gilgen, 2021. "Work, Childcare, or Both? Experimental Evidence on the Efficacy of Childcare Subsidies in Raising Parental Labor Supply," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 449-472, September.
    11. Selina Gangl & Martin Huber, 2025. "From homemakers to breadwinners? How mandatory kindergarten affects maternal labour market outcomes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(2), pages 1-23, June.
    12. Kairon Shayne D. Garcia & Benjamin W. Cowan, 2024. "Childcare Responsibilities and Parental Labor Market Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 153-200, June.
    13. Franziska Zimmert, 2023. "Early child care and the employment potential of mothers: evidence from semi-parametric difference-in-differences estimation," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Gangl, Selina & Huber, Martin, 2021. "From homemakers to breadwinners? How mandatory kindergarten affects maternal labour market attachment," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203636, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association, revised 2021.
    15. Hojman, Andrés & Lopez Boo, Florencia, 2022. "Public childcare benefits children and mothers: Evidence from a nationwide experiment in a developing country," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    16. Pierre Pora, 2020. "Keep Working and Spend Less? Collective Childcare and Parental Earnings in France," Working Papers hal-04159681, HAL.
    17. Matias Busso & Dario Romero Fonseca, 2015. "Female Labor Force Participation in Latin America: Patterns and Explanations," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0187, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    18. Geyer, Johannes & Haan, Peter & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2015. "The effects of family policy on maternal labor supply: Combining evidence from a structural model and a quasi-experimental approach," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 84-98.
    19. Francesca Carta & Lucia Rizzica, 2015. "Female employment and pre-kindergarten: on the uninteded effects of an Italian reform," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1030, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Fiaschi, Davide & Tealdi, Cristina, 2023. "The attachment of adult women to the Italian labour market in the shadow of COVID-19," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    21. Hermes, Henning & Krauß, Marina & Lergetporer, Philipp & Peter, Frauke & Wiederhold, Simon, 2022. "Early child care and labor supply of lower-SES mothers: A randomized controlled trial," DICE Discussion Papers 394, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ags:iaae24:344351. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    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.