Women face many barriers to entering the labor market and accessing decent work. It is important for society to understand the role of women in the labor market.
Due to this, for improving the understanding of discrimination between men and women in the labor market, this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics has been announced to be given to Professor Claudia Goldin of Harvard University.
Goldin draws attention to the root sources of gender discrimination in the labor market and how it has changed over time and development.
According to research, the trend of female participation in the labor market was not upward in the last 200 years.
Labor force participation of married women declined with the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial sector in the early 19th century but began to increase with the service sector in the early 20th century. .
Claudia’s research may prove helpful to policy makers in dealing with the problem, that may need to be overcome in the future.
In fact, there is a wide gap between developing countries and emerging economies in terms of women’s participation in the labor force. This gap is much wider than the gap in men’s participation.
India’s situation is worse than most of the developing countries of the world. Whereas in a country like India, it would not be an exaggeration to truly call female labor force participation the engine of economic growth.
Looking at the status of female labor force participation rate, there is an indication of the country’s potential for rapid development. India has reached 127th position among 146 countries in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index 2023. Which indicates improvement in its ranking.
India ranked 135th in 2022. Yet India’s social norms are such that women are expected to take responsibility for taking care of the family and raising children. This stereotype is a significant barrier to women’s labor force participation.
However, the relationship between women’s participation in the labor market and macro development outcomes is complex.
Despite substantial participation in the labor force, the condition of women workers in the country is pathetic. Necessary measures are needed to improve it.
