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Why Are Fewer Married Women Joining the Work Force in India? A Decomposition Analysis over Two Decades

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  • Afridi, Farzana

    (Indian Statistical Institute)

  • Dinkelman, Taryn

    (University of Notre Dame)

  • Mahajan, Kanika

    (Ashoka University)

Abstract

Unlike the global trend, India has witnessed a secular decline in women's employment rates over the past few decades. We use parametric and semi-parametric decomposition techniques to show that changes in individual and household attributes fully account for the fall in women's labor force participation rate in 1987-1999 and account for half of the decline in this rate in 1999-2009. Our findings underscore increasing education levels amongst rural married women and the men in their households as the most prominent attributes contributing to this decline. We provide suggestive evidence that a rise in more educated women's returns to home production, relative to their returns in the labor market, may have adversely affected female labor force participation rates in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Afridi, Farzana & Dinkelman, Taryn & Mahajan, Kanika, 2016. "Why Are Fewer Married Women Joining the Work Force in India? A Decomposition Analysis over Two Decades," IZA Discussion Papers 9722, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9722
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    Cited by:

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    2. S Anukriti & Sungoh Kwon & Nishith Prakash, 2018. "Household Savings and Marriage Payments: Evidence from Dowry in India," Working papers 2018-09, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    3. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    4. Rayees Ahmad Sheikh & Sarthak Gaurav, 2020. "Informal Work in India: A Tale of Two Definitions," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 1105-1127, September.
    5. Sanghamitra Kanjilal-Bhaduri & Francesco Pastore, 2018. "Returns to Education and Female Participation Nexus: Evidence from India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(3), pages 515-536, September.
    6. Dhanaraj, Sowmya & Mahambare, Vidya, 2019. "Family structure, education and women’s employment in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 17-29.
    7. 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.
    8. Kanjilal-Bhaduri, Sanghamitra & Pastore, Francesco, 2018. "Returns to Education and Female Work Force Participation Nexus: Evidence from India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 162, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Vyas, Sangita & Gupta, Aashish & Khalid, Nazar, 2021. "Gender and LPG use after government intervention in rural north India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    10. Dhanaraj, Sowmya & Mahambare, Vidya, 2019. "Family structure, education and women’s employment in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 17-29.
    11. Shireen J. Jejeebhoy & A. K. Shiva Kumar, 2021. "What Prevents Adolescent Girls from Transitioning from School to Work in India? Insights from an Exploratory Study in Rajasthan," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 15(1), pages 30-48, April.
    12. Chayanika Boruah & Debarshi Das, 2022. "Female Labour Force Participation Rates in Assam: Trends, Composition and Determinants," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 16(1), pages 139-157, April.
    13. 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.
    14. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Yuan, Song, 2022. "Demographic Shocks and Women’s Labor Market Participation: Evidence from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 875-912, September.
    15. 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.
    16. Anukriti, S. & Kwon, Sungoh & Prakash, Nishith, 2022. "Saving for dowry: Evidence from rural India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    17. Thomas Chambers & Ayesha Ansari, 2018. "Ghar Mein KÄ m Hai (There is Work in the House)," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 141-163, August.
    18. Athary Janiso & Prakash Kumar Shukla & Bheemeshwar Reddy A, 2021. "What Explains Gender Gap in Unpaid Household and Care Work in India?," Papers 2106.15376, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2021.
    19. Vyas, Sangita & Gupta, Aashish & Khalid, Nazar, 2020. "Gender and LPG use after government intervention in rural north India," SocArXiv 3v4cj, Center for Open Science.
    20. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    decomposition analysis; female labor force participation; education; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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