Women Participation in Work Force in Urban Community

Women Participation in Work Force in Urban Community

Smt. Ambavva¹ and Dr. Shivaleela Basavaraj²

¹Research Scholar, Department of Studies and Research in Sociology, Gulbarga University, Kalaburgi

²Associate Professor, Govt First Grade College, Kalagi

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.8120272

Received: 12 December 2024; Accepted: 17 December 2024; Published: 18 January 2025

ABSTRACT

The present paper is dealt with the women participation in the work force. In the present scenario the participation of the women in the work force is increasing day by day. The periodic labour force survey report of January to March 2024 indicates that the unemployment rate of the women is declining and the percentage of women participation in the work force is increasing. In the present study an attempt is made to understand the issues pertaining to the increasing proportion and the concerned data will be covered in the present paper. The study would like to study the potential causes for the raise and at the same time the study would like to submit the potential literature pertaining to the urban women entry into the work force.

INTRODUCTION

India has experienced some changes in the society, some are positive and some are negative. The significant part of the social life of the Indian society is that, women are almost half of the Indian population and the social and economic changes can be brought into the society only through women participation in the developmental process of the society only. Women in India and in traditional India majority of the women and even are engaged in the domestic work or limited to their household work. The work of women in the house is not considered as the work in the economic aspect or in the conceptualization of the work and profession. It is significant to note that after industrial revolution women all over the world have started to participate in the work process that is women come out of the family and independently started to participate in the process of economic activities. Gradually women started to engage her in almost all the fields of work in the occupational world. As such women in the present world are engaging themselves in the world of work and at the same time are looking after her family. Work in the present era that too works outside the family, in the world of work needs proper educational training and prescribed qualification. Women in the present world are engaging themselves in getting education in almost all the branches of higher and technical education. The traditional and the medical education also are also getting entry by the women. All these developments lead to get entry into the world of work in the society. Apart from this for women there are several obstacles which prevent women to get entry into the work outside the family. Most of the educated and qualified women are staying at their houses as house wife and not going out for work in the market for remuneration. In the present study an attempt is made here to understand the entry of women in the world of work and the obstacles, lack of opportunities and such other difficulties that the women in the urban society are facing, in spite of qualification, technical knowledge and such other preconditions that are fulfilled the women in the urban community are facing the challenges.

In the present study an attempt is made here to understand such challenges and the obstacles to come out with proper solutions to these challenges.

METHODOLOGY

The present study is based on the secondary data from government records and some of the published articles and such other reliable sources. Attempt is made to understand the trends of women participation in the workforce of urban community with the help of secondary data published by some agencies and in some of the published journals and so forth. The aim of the present investigation is to identify the trends and also to find the challenges of women labour force participation in the work.

Objectives of the Present Study:

1. To study the trends of women participation in the work force.
2. To identify the gap between the male and female participation in the work force.
3. Identify the disparities of rate of women’s participation in work force in urban and rural community.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In the present section an attempt is made to review some of the important research works on the women participation in the urban work force to have scientific support to the present study.

Vericks and Chaudhary R (2014) in their work have mentioned the obstacles that a women face to get the work. Women in the work atmosphere face unreasonable challenges at the work place. These challenges are related to payment, equality, work milieu, security and such other aspects are of the challenging for women at the work place. Along with all these challenges women have to equally take the responsibilities at the home.

Geeta and Unni (2001) in their study have observed the education as the responsible for disparity in labour market effect in India. Th4 study further mentioned that the education has minimized women experiencing wage discrimination in the labour market in urban community. The study further identifies that the women with low education level earns less income from the work.

Das, Jain-Chandra, Kochhar and Kumar (2015) in their study have mentioned that the participation of urban women in the employment market is significantly favorably influenced through anticipated wages. The favorable employment market is favorable to encourage higher women participation in the employment market.

Parmar and Thomas (2020) have hypothesized as women participation in the work force is lower than of men. The study finds that the women movement to the higher payment position is at the lower phase compared of men. Gender inequality has decreased as a result of female employment. However, owing to the gender pay gap, women do not obtain the same payment as men for doing the same work. Apart from these women face discrimination, exploitation, harassment and unequal prospects for advancement and such other facilities on the work.

Agrawal (2022), based on census data explain that there is disparity in female and male workforce participation rate and at the same time gender wage gap also exists in India.

Based on the above mentioned literature review an attempt is made here to analyze the data in hand to conclude the study.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The present study is based on the secondary data collected through Periodic Labour Force Survey quarterly report of January and March 2024. The report indicated that during this period all over India the unemployment rate has decreased. The data indicated that the women labour force participation during March 2023 to March 2024 it has increased about 2 percent, that is it was 48.5 percent during March 2023 and rose to 50.2 percent during March 2024. This increase in the employment of women is finding in the urban community.

The present study makes an attempt to identify the trends in the women participation in the workforce with the help of secondary data published by some agencies and in some of the published journals and so forth. The aim of the present investigation is to identify the trends and also to find the challenges of women labour force participation in the work.

Observations made in the data on women participation in the work force.

1. It is significant to note that there is lot of gap between male and female labour participation in the work force. Always and also during this period the male participation in the work force is more than the female participation.
2. It might be attributed to the fact that women are always having the household work responsibility and this is true about married women. She has to take care of in laws, husband and her own children. All these family responsibilities and the work related some hurdles might have stopped the women participation and might have lowered the proportion of women participation in the work force.
3. It also significant to note that the women participation in the work force is more in the informal works and the proportion is less in the formal work organizations. At the same time the wage is lower than the male worker.
4. The participation of women in the work force is increasing in the urban community and it is declining in the rural community.
5. Unemployment rate in the urban community has decreased to about 1 percent in the quarter period of study. The decrease is from 6.8 to 6.7 percent. The age group of the women participation in the work is above 15 years of age.
6. It is significant to note that the in total the labour participation in the urban community has increased to 48.5 percent to 50.2 percent during the study period.
7. Women participation in the work force has risen from 20.06 percent to 23.4 percent during January and March 2023 to January and March 2024. This has given an opportunity for the social scientists to research over the increase in the proportion, the causes and the consequences of this raise must be researched in a scientific manner.

Scope of the Research:

Based on the findings of the present study it could be stated here that, the data on hand with regard to the women workforce participation in the urban community indicates the trend in women participation in the unorganized sector work force. The trend indicates the increase in the participation of women workforce. Hence, it could be stated here the increasing trend of women participation in the urban work force. At the same time the survey also mentioned that the women are less paid than the male counterpart of the work force.

These are the some of the issues which needs further systematic research. The survey indicates the trend of increased women participation in the urban work force. But the study did not mention the reasons behind the increased trend in the women participation in urban work force. The present article suggests having a detailed research to identify the factors and the causes behind the increased trend of women participation in the work force.

CONCLUSION

The survey conducted by the “The periodic labour force survey report of January to March 2024” scientifically and systematically collected the data pertaining to the women participation in the work force all over India. The committee has visited the individual respondents and interviewed and the data on participation of the women workforce in urban community are collected on first hand base. In the present study, secondary data of the above mentioned committee are used for the present study. The study indicates that the women participation in the urban workforce has increased to some extent. At the same time the study has not identified the reasons behind the increase in the participation of women in the work force. The present article suggests the further systematic research to identify the causes and consequences of increase in the women participation in the work force in the urban community.

REFERENCES

1. Agrawal M.& Mukherjee P., Determinants of Female Workforce n 2022 Participation in India, international journal of all research education and scientific methods (IJARESM), volume 10, issue 3, pp. 9 -30.
2. Chaudhary, Ruchika; Verick, Sher Female labour force participation 2014 in India and beyond / Ruchika Chaudhary and Sher Verick; International Labour Organization, ILO DWT for South Asia and Country Office for India. – New Delhi: ILO.
3. Das, Jain C., Kochhar& Kumar, Economic development and female 2015 labour force participation: A reconsideration, Social Forces, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 599–619.
4. Geeta and Unni, Education and Women’s Labor Market Outcomes in 2001 India, Education Economics 9(2).
5. Parmar & Thomas, Family Status Production: The ‗Work ‘and ‗non- 2020 Work ‘of women, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 481-500.