Women Empowerment and Gender Disparity in Workforce Participation in India: An Issue Now

Abstract

Although most women in India work and contribute to the economy in one form or another, much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics. Women plow fields and harvest crops while working on farms, women weave and make handicrafts while working in household industries, women sell food and gather wood while working in the informal sector. Additionally, women are traditionally responsible for the daily household chores (e.g., cooking, fetching water, and looking after children. This work is hardly accounted as productive work. This paper looks into the issue of women empowerment from the perspective of workforce participation and general awareness about their work and rights. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section conceptualises the issue of women empowerment, the second section delves on the issue of gender equality; the third section discusses various indicators of women workforce participation as outlined by NFHS-III and, Census 2011, India. The paper is of descriptive type citing various national and international studies on the issue. The last section briefs about conclusions.