Abandon prejudices for women's participation in workforce to rise

livemint.com:

International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy managing director Gita Gopinath recently observed that increasing workplace safety is an important factor in raising women’s participation in the labour force and the workforce (the former makes up for a broader cohort, of those looking for work, in addition to those who are at work and comprise the workforce). This has particular resonance in India right now, given the shock and outrage across the country over the gruesome rape and murder of a medical intern at a Kolkata hospital earlier this month. IMF research shows that closing the gender gap in labour force participation rates (LFPR) can raise gross domestic product (GDP) in developing countries significantly.

If the gap between the LFPR of men and women is entirely closed, for instance, output could rise by more than a fifth, by IMF’s estimation. But even a smaller 6 percentage point-odd narrowing could drive a disproportionately larger 8% rise in economic output. So, it’s in an economy’s broader interest to have more women at work.

Unfortunately, even after counting the self-employed women in the workforce—no matter their earnings are only 38% of their male counterparts, and despite counting unpaid helpers as self-employed women—the female LFPR in India is only 37%, less than half the rate for men, and lower than Bangladesh’s 42%, and 47% for the world at large. China’s figure for 2023 stood at 60%. This was down from the 70% level it had during its economy’s heydays of double-digit growth.

Still, it’s clear there is plenty of scope for India to raise its female LFPR and also employ women in paid work. Gopinath did not just call for a much larger presence of women at the workplace. She also called for sustained