Wanted: Women at work

NEW DELHI: The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was recently awarded to Claudia Goldin, a Harvard professor for advancing the world’s understanding of women’s progress in the workforce.

Following her victory, Golding said there are still large differences between women and men in terms of what they do and how they are remunerated. Her comments are telling, in the light of the 17th edition of the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, published in June.

Based upon data from 146 countries, the study concluded that at the present rate of progress, it could take 131 years to close the global gender gap. It gets stretched to 149 years in the context of populous nations in South Asia, including India.

Interestingly, Goldin’s 1990 book “Understanding the Gender Gap” was an exploration of the roots of wage inequality in America. The scholar researched topics like the impact of the contraceptive pill on women’s career, as well as decisions pertaining to marriage, women’s surnames after marriage as a social indicator, and the dominance of women in the undergraduate space.

Even though Goldin might have chronicled the work-lives of women in America, there is a thread of resonance for India as well. Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo in a recent commentary argued that today’s India shares a lot of similarities with the US of a hundred years ago — with regard to the contribution of women in the workforce.

As per estimates, women constitute about 25% of India’s labour force, which is the metric mirrored by the US in 1920.

In Tamil Nadu, the participation of women in the urban workforce is just 21.9%. One could call it a consolation, when compared to Bihar, which is 8.6%. As far as India is concerned, this is a travesty of gargantuan proportions, on account of the unutilised labour potential of women, which in turn is a speed-breaker in our quest to develop into an economic superpower.

There are a few pain points which need to be addressed in the Indian context, and chief among them happens to be the notion of privilege.

Historic data shows that a majority of women, who make it to leadership roles, are endowed with a sweet mixture of privileges. This includes higher education, support system of influential mentors or families, and strikingly, hailing from privileged castes or classes.

In India, there’s a plethora of policy-centric shortcomings that keeps women on the backfoot. For instance, the government’s efforts to push women into the workspace is nothing to write home about. Social obligations encountered by married women (including child-rearing and elderly care), often emerge as hurdles to holding onto a full-time job.

There are also the glass ceilings and obstacle courses set up by corporate India. Millions of workers had gotten a taste of the hybrid and remote work ethic during the pandemic, and it allowed several women, and men, juggling familial and professional responsibilities to strike a balance between their work and personal lives.

Once in-person attendance became mandatory, thousands of women were unceremoniously forced to drop out of the workforce on account of domestic concerns.

If developing inclusivity and equality in workspaces is on the Key Responsibility Area (KRA) radar of the government, and head honchos in India Inc, now might be a good time for course correction.