This morning I came across an article on The Economist about the plummeting rate of female employment in India in the last 20 years and, were India to rebalance its workforce, the country would have been 27% richer according to IMF estimates. Ahead only of Saudi Arabia among the G20 countries, women labour force participation contribute to a meager one-sixth of our GDP which is less than even half the global average. It further stated that in a recent survey, 84% of Indians agreed that men have "more" right to employment than women when jobs are scarce.
That India fares poorly by global standards in female employment and employability conditions both in the formal and informal sectors despite rising girls' education is no news. The reasons cited are also often conventional, and take into account quantifiable socio-economic hindrances as well as non-quantifiable human factors and freedom of choice. As much as I agree about the deep-rooted patriarchy and conservatism of our society being a huge deterrent for women employment, it got me thinking whether choice in a society as ours is "really free". When women with good education, women who are equally capable at their workplace choose to be homemakers by exercising their own free will, are the choices entirely devoid of inherent patriarchal conditioning and historically assigned gender roles? Keeping external/family pressure out of the picture, does rising stability in family income by the male bread-earner especially in the urban setup play a role in the decision making process rendering women workforce participation redundant or secondary? How accurate are choice arguments when the very choices are pre-determined and any deviation from the "status quo" (for example, choosing career over reproduction) attract criticism? Is democracy and freedom of choice then not just a hidden manifestation of male dominance? The questions are unending and while measuring such cognitive aspects of human decision-making is difficult, they are intriguing nonetheless... Original link
That India fares poorly by global standards in female employment and employability conditions both in the formal and informal sectors despite rising girls' education is no news. The reasons cited are also often conventional, and take into account quantifiable socio-economic hindrances as well as non-quantifiable human factors and freedom of choice. As much as I agree about the deep-rooted patriarchy and conservatism of our society being a huge deterrent for women employment, it got me thinking whether choice in a society as ours is "really free". When women with good education, women who are equally capable at their workplace choose to be homemakers by exercising their own free will, are the choices entirely devoid of inherent patriarchal conditioning and historically assigned gender roles? Keeping external/family pressure out of the picture, does rising stability in family income by the male bread-earner especially in the urban setup play a role in the decision making process rendering women workforce participation redundant or secondary? How accurate are choice arguments when the very choices are pre-determined and any deviation from the "status quo" (for example, choosing career over reproduction) attract criticism? Is democracy and freedom of choice then not just a hidden manifestation of male dominance? The questions are unending and while measuring such cognitive aspects of human decision-making is difficult, they are intriguing nonetheless... Original link
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