Whenever a company present in the UK government's gender pay gap service posted a celebratory tweet about Women's Day, the bot retrieved public data on the company’s median gender pay gap and posted it as a reply to the tweet, juxtaposing hollow words with data that revealed the persisting inequality in the workforce.

Data can act as a mirror to society. The example above is a microcosm of how data can provide factual insight into the state of women in the workforce, cutting through promises of development. Looking at data about women in the Indian workforce, The Secretariat offers an assessment of the state of women at work – in five charts.

Workforce Participation: India Ranks Lowly Even Among South Asian Peers

In 2023, India ranked an abysmal 127 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index.  In terms of women’s economic participation and opportunities, it ranked even lower at 142. The report estimates that at the current pace, the South Asian region will take 149 years to close the gender gap. 

Starting with a zoomed out view of India within the context of South Asia in the past three decades, the country does not fare well in terms of female labour force participation as compared to each and every one of its neighbours, except Pakistan. Despite high economic growth in South Asia, the share of women in the workforce at 26.3% in 2022 is much lower than the global average of 39.7%.

Data by the International Labour Organisation and the United Nations Population Division, estimate female labour force participation by including nationally reported observations. The estimates capture regional and global trends allowing for cross-country comparison. Country-reported microdata such as nationally representative labour force surveys, therefore, can reflect different numbers.

Gender Gap Within Indian Workforce

While the female labour force participation rate has increased from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 37 per cent in 2022-23, there still remains a sizeable gap when compared to the male labour force participation rate at 75.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 78.5 per cent in 2022-23. 

Physical, technological, and social challenges hamper women’s participation in the workforce – from the perception that a woman's place is “in the kitchen”, to lack of safe transportation, and inadequate childcare facilities, to name a few. 

While policies mandated by the Code on Social Security (2020) with provisions to increase paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, provide mandatory crèche facility in establishments with more than 50 employees, and permitting women workers in night shifts with adequate safety measures, have helped, there remains a significant gap to cover. 

The Urban-Rural Gap

The gap between women in the workforce in rural and urban India has significantly widened in the past five years because the participation rate in the rural areas rose sharply from 24.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 41.5 per cent in 2022-23, while the same for urban areas registered a moderate increase from 20.4 per cent to 25.4 per cent over the past five years.

One plausible reason for the faster rise in rural areas could be that many migrants who fled cities during the pandemic did not bring back their families when they returned back to work. Growing rural distress could also be a reflection of newer employment opportunities as much as of growing rural distress. 

Men Continue To Earn A Lot More Than Women

Men earn more than women across all forms of work, the gap being the greatest for the self-employed. In the last quarter for which in-depth Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data was available (April - June 2023), male self-employed workers earned 64.24 per cent more than women. In contrast, male regular wage workers earned 19.5 per cent more than women and male casual workers earned 32.64 per cent more. The gender gap in earnings can be seen to be a persistent problem. 

The Code on Wages (2019) has provisions to prevent discrimination on the grounds of gender. While prejudice still exists, this gap in wages can also be owing to a restricted number of hours women tend to work. This may not necessarily be by choice owing to bias in work allocation or responsibilities at home. 

In India, women predominantly participate in the informal sector and choose home-based jobs to balance their domestic duties. This pattern is shaped by several socio-cultural factors, including an unequal distribution of unpaid domestic work, gaps in gender-based skills and education, restricted access to digital literacy, mobility limitations, and insufficient institutional support in workplaces.

Much Fewer Places At The Top

As you climb the totem pole, the number of women seen on the corporate ladder decreases. Despite provisions this remains the trend with women starting off with a 49 per cent share of entry level positions in the corporate world, but drastically decreasing to 33 per cent at middle management, 29 per cent at senior management, 18 at the executive level, and a meagre 6 per cent as CEOs. 

According to information disclosed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in Parliament, India's major stock exchanges, including the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), have levied penalties totaling over Rs 25 crores on 452 listed firms from the fiscal year 2018-19 onward. 

These penalties were imposed due to the absence of any female representation on their board of directors, contravening the provisions outlined in the Companies Act, 2013. Furthermore, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has also imposed fines on 81 unlisted companies since the fiscal year 2015-16 for similar non-compliance.

Further Data To Explore

The traditional work women are expected to do such as nurturing a family of old and young and taking care of a household is a form of unpaid labour. Its value cannot be understated. 

This unpaid domestic and care work and its impact on the economy and social society is often excluded from national policy agendas and budget planning. But, recently time use surveys have started quantifying this work, not to ensure payment, but to understand its contribution to society. 

A study conducted by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) found that although women make up 48 percent of India's population, they contribute only 18 percent to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). If decreasing inequality was not enough, it also pointed out that promoting gender equality could result in a significant boost to the economy— potentially leading to a 30 percent increase in India's GDP.

The government has started conducting a joint survey on increasing women participation in the workforce. This initiative will gauge the effectiveness of various policies that have been implemented for a more inclusive workforce. 

Whether it is considered a day of platitudes or a day to take stock of progress and advocate for women’s rights, International Women’s Day serves as a reminder that there is still work to be done.