Integrating Women into the Labor Market: Solutions to End Segmentation

India’s economy carries a striking paradox. Women make up nearly half the population, yet the female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) hovers far below the male rate, with India ranking among the lowest globally on economic participation. The reasons are layered, ranging from deep-rooted social attitudes and unequal access to education to wage gaps and rigid workplace structures. Fixing this is not just a women’s issue, it is an economic imperative. According to Bain & Company, doubling the FLFPR could help India build a 400-million-strong women workforce by 2047 and contribute nearly 45% of the country’s GDP target. So what are the remedies that can actually move the needle?

Changing societal attitudes 🔗

Before policies and skill programs can work, the social environment around women’s work has to shift. A large share of women in India remain outside the labour force not because they lack ability, but because cultural norms expect them to prioritise domestic duties. A study by the Indian Institute for Population Sciences and TISS shows that women spend 301 minutes daily on unpaid domestic work compared to 98 minutes by men. This invisible “second shift” is a major reason why women either drop out of the workforce or never enter it.

Addressing the breadwinner and homemaker norms 🔗

The Directorate General of Employment identifies two interlocking social norms that suppress women’s participation: the breadwinner norm, which assigns income generation to men, and the homemaker norm, which assigns unpaid domestic work to women. Even educated, employable women often opt out because of the disproportionate burden of “time poverty” created by the care economy. Unless these norms are challenged, simply opening up jobs will not bring women in.

Awareness programs and community engagement 🔗

Sustained awareness campaigns at the panchayat, school, and workplace level are essential. Schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao have tried to shift attitudes towards the girl child by educating communities on her education, health, and safety. Building on this, district-level campaigns that involve men, in-laws, and local leaders can normalise women going out to work, returning after maternity, or pursuing non-traditional careers. Media representation also matters. Visible role models, whether women scientists, entrepreneurs, or police officers, slowly chip away at the idea that some jobs are “not for women”.

Safer cities and public infrastructure 🔗

Safety is a powerful, often-overlooked attitude shifter. When parents and husbands believe streets, transport, and workplaces are unsafe, restrictions tighten. Initiatives like Hyderabad’s SHE Teams, Kochi’s Women Police Control Room vans, and Chennai’s inclusive street design manual show how safety infrastructure and gender-responsive urban design can directly increase the willingness of households to let women work.

Improving education and skill development 🔗

Education is the single strongest predictor of whether a woman enters and stays in the labour market. Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin’s U-curve shows that women’s workforce participation rises only when education crosses a threshold and service-sector jobs expand. India has the schooling base, but the leak happens between classroom and career.

The STEM paradox 🔗

India produces a remarkably high share of women in science. Women make up around 43% of total STEM enrolment in India, but only 18.6% work in R&D roles, indicating a sharp gap between education and employment. This is higher enrolment than the United States or the United Kingdom, yet workforce conversion remains poor. Bridging this gap requires more than scholarships, it needs internships, returnship programs, and workplaces that retain women after marriage and motherhood.

Scholarships and targeted schemes 🔗

Financial assistance reduces a major barrier for girls from low-income families. The Department of Science and Technology runs the Women in Science and Engineering-KIRAN (WISE-KIRAN) scheme, which includes sub-programs like Vigyan Jyoti for Class IX-XII girls (now running in 250 districts across 34 States and UTs), the Women Scientist Scheme for those returning after a career break, CURIE for women’s college infrastructure, and GATI for institutional gender equity. The INSPIRE program, BioCARe for biotechnology re-entry, and WINGS for international research exposure round out a fairly comprehensive ladder. The challenge is awareness and uptake, especially in smaller towns and rural districts.

Vocational and digital skilling 🔗

Not every woman wants a research career. Equally important are vocational and digital skilling programs that prepare women for the modern services economy and the gig sector. Currently, women make up only 28% of platform economy workers, partly because they lack training in digital tools and partly because gig work lacks maternity and welfare benefits. Expanding programs under the Ministry of Skill Development, with childcare support attached, would help women enter both traditional and emerging sectors.

Policy interventions for equal pay 🔗

Even when women enter the workforce, they earn less. The perceived gender pay gap among salaried women in metropolitan cities is around 23%, according to a DBS Bank India and CRISIL survey. India ranks 127 out of 148 countries on gender pay parity in the WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2023. Closing this gap needs strong laws, stronger enforcement, and a culture of transparency.

From the Equal Remuneration Act to the Code on Wages 🔗

India’s foundational law is the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976, which was passed to ensure equal pay for men and women and to prevent discrimination in recruitment, training, promotions, and transfers. It built on India’s ratification of the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention. The Act has since been subsumed under the Code on Wages, 2019, which extends the equal-pay principle to all establishments and aims to address the gender pay gap across the formal and informal sectors. The Code is part of four new Labour Codes that also allow women workers to work in night shifts and across all sectors with appropriate safeguards.

Equal pay for work of equal value 🔗

A key shift in policy thinking is moving from “equal pay for equal work” to “equal pay for work of equal value”. The newer framing matters because men and women often hold different jobs that require comparable skill and effort but are valued unequally, like nursing versus technician roles. Recognising equal value helps correct the systemic undervaluation of female-dominated occupations. The International Bar Association notes that this approach is more effective at combating gender-based wage discrimination than the narrower equal-work standard.

Gender-sensitive labour policies and enforcement 🔗

Laws are only as strong as their enforcement. Effective remedies include mandatory pay audits, transparent salary bands, and complaint mechanisms accessible to rural and informal workers. Outreach programs should inform women, especially in unorganised sectors, about their rights under the Code on Wages, the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, and the POSH Act on workplace sexual harassment. Public-private partnerships, like Telangana’s WE-Hub linking women to start-up ecosystems, show how state action can be paired with private investment.

Care infrastructure and flexible work 🔗

No amount of equal-pay law will work if women cannot stay in jobs. Affordable creches, extended childcare leave shared with fathers, and hybrid work arrangements are essential. The new Labour Codes allow women to return to work after availing maternity benefits and provide flexible work options. Combined with public investment in elder care and crèches, these policies can break the “motherhood penalty” that pushes women out around their late twenties.

Pulling the pieces together 🔗

India’s female labour force participation has actually risen in recent years, climbing alongside the overall LFPR from 51.5% in 2017-18 to 60.5% in 2023-24, driven largely by rural women. But much of this growth is in low-productivity, survivalist work without regular wages or benefits. Real integration means moving women into well-paid, secure, and diverse jobs. That needs a three-track approach working together: shifting attitudes so households support women’s work, building education and skills so women have the capacity to compete, and enforcing policies so the workplace itself becomes fair. None of these alone is enough. Together, they can turn the demographic dividend into a true gender dividend.

What do you think? If you could prioritise just one of these three remedies, changing attitudes, expanding education and skilling, or enforcing equal-pay laws, which would create the biggest shift for women in your own community? And how do you see the burden of unpaid care work being redistributed within Indian households in the next decade?

References

1. https://www.bain.com/insights/from-aspiration-to-action-building-indias-400-million-women-workforce/
2. https://www.ibanet.org/rethinking-Indian-law-on-equal-pay-towards-gender-pay-equality-in-workplace
3. https://dge.gov.in/dge/sites/default/files/2023-05/Female_Labour_Utilization_in_India_April_2023_final__1_-pages-1-2-merged__1_.pdf
4. https://visionias.in/current-affairs/monthly-magazine/2026-03-31/economy/female-labour-force-participation-in-india
5. https://vajiramandravi.com/current-affairs/women-in-stem/
6. https://dst.gov.in/scientific-programmes/wise-kiran
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_pay_gap_in_India
8. https://amlegals.com/equal-pay-for-equal-work-the-impact-of-the-code-on-wages-act-2019/
9. https://ceda.ashoka.edu.in/too-good-to-be-true-steadily-rising-female-labour-force-participation-rates-in-india/