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Gender Norms and Women's Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from India

Author

Listed:
  • Amit Basole
  • M. K. Shravan
  • R. Vijayamba

Abstract

We examine the role of household-level social norms regarding women's mobility in determining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's employment. The shock of the pandemic containment measures, such as India's nationwide lockdown caused both supply- and demand-side disruptions. Nationally representative labor force surveys offer suggestive evidence that loss of income and employment for men could plausibly have increased the labor market participation of women, particularly in self-employment, in order to smooth household consumption. But whether women are able to respond in this manner to a negative income shock is likely to be mediated by social norms around mobility. Using the fourth and fifth rounds of the National Family Health Survey (2015-16 and 2019-20), we show that this was indeed the case. We find that women residing in districts with more progressive gender norms in the baseline period (2015-16) were significantly more likely to be employed as compared to women residing in districts with stricter norms, controlling for the husband’s employment and other relevant household- and individual-level factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Amit Basole & M. K. Shravan & R. Vijayamba, 2025. "Gender Norms and Women's Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from India," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_1096, Levy Economics Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_1096
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sinha, Aashima & Kumar Sedai, Ashish & Bahadur Rahut, Dil & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2024. "Well-being costs of unpaid care: Gendered evidence from a contextualized time-use survey in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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