Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan quoted in Devex on women in paid employment in India
Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan describes research from the Gender and Growth Gaps project discussing various demand- and supply-side factors that together keep Indian women away from paid work, despite high education levels and interest.
India’s women want to work but the jobs are missing
...[India’s female labor force participation] is low both given India’s level of development and its unfolding economic growth story, Aishwarya Lakshmi Ratan, deputy director at the Yale Economic Growth Center, told Devex.
[...]
Household norms holding women back and discrimination at work are two parts of the puzzle that must be addressed at the same time, according to Yale Economic Growth Center’s Ratan. Just as households are unwilling to let women go to work, companies can be unwilling to hire them based on their status, Ratan explained. This notion of what women can and cannot do often differs significantly from how women rate their own abilities, she explained.
[...]
“The costs historically have been borne by the employers themselves … and so that has squarely, you know, made it a disincentive for them to invest greater amounts in women workers,” Ratan said.
For Ratan, a prudent way to do it would be to follow the lead of the Nordic countries, where they have a public provision that covers the cost of parental leave and everybody pays into it. The approach makes it a collective priority to ensure children have high-quality child care and support, she said.
Read more on the Devex website by logging in with an email account.