Restart: Women, career breaks and employer response

Gender gap in access to gainful employment opportunities is a striking feature across countries. An under studied aspect of this gap includes the labour market constraints faced by women who return after a career break due to care responsibilities. In India, the number of women who have taken a career break and are seeking work are estimated to be around 7 million. This paper uses a correspondence study experiment to determine the extent of discrimination faced by women returning back to work after a break in the Indian private sector. On average, women who take a break receive 49% lower call backs than other women with similar characteristics but who have not taken a break. This penalty is larger in skill intensive sectors like finance that in sectors like HR which require more generic skills. However, simply indicating upskilling certifications does not lead to a statistically significant difference in call-backs for women who take a break. Further, this penalty is larger in smaller firms and in those located in north India. These findings are consistent with taste-based theories of discrimination since large firms often make commitments to have gender inclusive policies and northern Indian states have more regressive gender attitudes.