Women and Labour Market Dynamics

This book addresses women’s changing role in and contributions to the Indian labour market. It explores how feminist theories and frameworks have changed over time and gradually been supplanted by new ones. The book explores the structural shift in women’s employment from farm to non-farm jobs in services and industries, both theoretically and empirically. Further, it examines the steady rise of women in high skilled or ‘new economy’ sectors like information and communication technology, electronics and telecom; and in low skilled work such as domestic work, particularly in urban areas. It also scrutinizes how emerging sectors of the economy are experimenting with new forms of employment by changing the temporal (part-time work, flexible hours), spatial (location of work) and contractual (temporary contracts) dimensions. Beyond analysing the above-mentioned aspects, the book discusses perennial challenges such as patriarchy, socio-cultural norms and gender-based labour market inequalities across occupations as a ‘glass ceiling’ or ‘sticky floor’.

One of the book’s most important contributions is inclusion of detailed labour market statistics for women, with long-term trends and patterns, as well as comparisons with other countries and regions. In closing, the book highlights women’s participation in economic and non-economic activities and related quantification issues, i.e. the invisibility of women’s work, which remains a highly contentious aspect. Given its content, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad readership including academics, NGOs, and policymakers. 

“The subject of low work participation rates for women has been of concern to economists, gender specialists and policy makers for decades. This book makes an important contribution in understanding the role of women in development and identifies some new policy directions that could be initiated to facilitate greater employment of women.”

-          Rohini Nayyar, Former Principal Adviser, Yojana Aayog, Government of India 

“This book is timely and extremely relevant to the academic and policy debates in India. Given the puzzle of low and declining female labour force participation, it is critical to focus on where women work, beyond a supply-side perspective. In addition, efforts are needed to better measure women’s work, which is typically underreported. In both these dimensions, this book makes an important contribution, which will be valuable for both academics and policymakers.”

-          Sher Verick, Employment Policy and Analysis Programme (EPAP) of the International Training Centre (ITC), International Labour Organization 

“This book critically examines both theoretically and empirically the dynamics of changes in women’s participation in and contribution to the fast-transforming Indian labour market. The aspects covered include the essential issue of how the new forms of employment are impacting temporal, spatial and contractual dimensions. An excellent and compulsory read for academicians and policy-makers involved in gender as well as labour economics.”

-          Ritu Dewan, Former President, Indian Association for Women's Studies; Former Director & Professor, Dept. of Economics, University of Mumbai 

“The book is a required addition to the exiting literature on women’s work and employment for its comprehensive and distinctive approach. It is a unique blend of macro and micro level perspectives and issues capturing statistics.”

-          Neetha N., Acting Director & Professor, Centre for Women’s Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi

“The book makes crucial contribution to raise the bar of labour studies. I strongly recommend this book as the inputs provided by the book can be of great help for the policy makers to frame economic, welfare, social protection, social security measures for women workers, legal fraternity to humanise labour jurisprudence by revisiting ‘labour codes’, trade unions and women’s rights activists to decide their action agenda.” (Vibhuti Patel, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 63, 2020)

Balwant Singh Mehta is ‘Fellow’ at the Institute for Human Development, Delhi. He obtained his PhD (Development Economics) from Jamia  Milia  Islamia, New Delhi and postdoctoral from the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. His research interests include issues in employment, unemployment, gender, child wellbeing, poverty, inequality, and information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D). He has published five books and 45 articles in professional journals. In recognition of his contributions, he has been selected as an ‘Amy Mahan International Fellow’ by the UPF, Spain; awarded a Research Fellowship in ICT4D by SIRCA, Singapore; and selected as an ‘Emerging Researcher’ by the IDRC, Canada. He also writes regular columns in magazines, blogs and newspapers on nation-relevant issues.

Ishwar Chandra Awasthi is Professor at the Institute for Human Development (IHD), Delhi. He obtained his PhD (Economics) from the Jawaharlal NehruUniversity (JNU), New Delhi and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmadabad). He also took part in the International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) organized by the World Bank and Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada). Currently active in the areas of labour, employment and livelihood issues, human resource planning and development evaluation, he has published more than three dozen papers in professional journals and published a book titled ‘Livelihood Diversities in Mountain Economy: Constraints and Opportunities’ (Concept Publishing Company, 2012). He has two co-authored and three edited books to his credit. He has presented papers at various national and international conferences. He is the Honorary Secretary of the Indian Society of Labour Economics, and serves as Managing Editor of the IASSI (Indian Association of Social Science Institutions) quarterly, Contributions to Indian Social Science.