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How Social Identity Affects Economic Opportunity for Women in India

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How Social Identity Affects Economic Opportunity for Women in India Intersecting Identities, Livelihoods and Affirmative Action: How Social Identity Affects Economic Opportunity for Women in India March 2021 Image Credit: Adam Cohn | Flickr.com ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION The report Intersecting Identities, Livelihoods and Affirmative Action: How Social Identity Affects Economic Opportunity for Women in India is an output of the research vertical of the Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE), an initiative of LEAD at Krea University. This document is not a priced publication. Copyright @ 2021. Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purpose is authorised, without prior written permission, provided the source is fully acknowledged. For further information, please write to [email protected]. ABOUT IWWAGE Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy (IWWAGE) aims to build on existing research and generate new evidence to inform and facilitate the agenda of women’s economic empowerment. IWWAGE is an initiative of LEAD, an action-oriented research centre of IFMR Society (a not-for- profit society registered under the Societies Act). LEAD has strategic oversight and brand support from Krea University (sponsored by IFMR Society) to enable synergies between academia and the research centre. IWWAGE is supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to acknowledge, with gratitude, a grant from IWWAGE that enabled this study. A very special thanks to Sona Mitra of IWWAGE and Yamini Atmavilas of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for initial conversations. Subhalakshmi Nandi (Senior Program Officer, Gender Equality, India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), Soumya Kapoor Mehta (Head, IWWAGE) and Sona Mitra (Principal Economist, IWWAGE) gave extremely useful comments on an earlier draft. Thanks are due to Madhukari Mishra who collected some of the material used in this paper. In addition, I have also extensively relied on papers and material that I have accumulated through various other personal research projects on women in India. LEAD AUTHORS EDITORIAL Ashwini Deshpande SUPORT Professor of Economics Ashoka University Atiya Anis DESIGN Sakthivel Arumugam ABSTRACT This paper presents a landscape assessment of the current state of gender inequality in the economic sphere in India, which is a key facet of overall inequality. The assessment comprises the latest empirical evidence based both on demographic survey data, as well as key results from cutting-edge scholarly literature. Male–female gaps are significant in many dimensions, but the contours of these gaps are shaped by the overlap of gender with other social identities, such as caste, religion or tribal identities. Thus, women from stigmatised and marginalised groups are disadvantaged along two dimensions and have to battle the double stigma of this intersectionality. This paper outlines the trends in overall gender gaps in the areas of labour force participation, self-employment and education over the last couple of decades, but highlights the role of intersectionality that goes into producing structures of advantage and disadvantage. The paper discusses policies such as the National Rural Livelihood Mission designed to encourage self-employment, which have had several other positive impacts, such as increase in empowerment and autonomy, but their record in terms of enhancing livelihoods is mixed at best. Evidence shows that policies such as employment guarantee schemes or transport infrastructure could end up having positive gendered effects, despite their gender-blind design. The paper argues that in order to tackle inequality fundamentally, we need to mainstream evidence-based research on intersectionality, which should be the basic lens informing policy. Image Credit: Adam Cohn | Flickr.com INDEX Page 07 1. Introduction Page 11 2. Gender Gaps in the Labour Market Page 29 3. Intersecting Identities Page 39 4. Female Self-Employment and Women in Business Page 5. The Vanishing Trade-Off? Women’s Empowerment Through 45 the Lens of Intersectionality Page 51 6. Policies: Affirmative Action and Beyond Page 59 7. Discussion and Concluding Comments Page 62 References Page Appendix A 67 Page 69 Appendix B 6 7 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation This paper presents a landscape assessment of the current state of gender inequality in the economic sphere in India, which is a key facet of overall inequality. The assessment comprises the latest empirical evidence based both on demographic survey data, as well as key results from cutting-edge scholarly literature. Economic inequalities between men and women are inextricably linked to social and demographic inequalities, reflected in an adverse sex ratio, discrimination towards the girl child in health, nutrition and education, and sexual violence, both inside the home and outside it. This paper focuses on the economic dimension, while recognising the crucial interconnections that present the full picture of contemporary gender inequality in India. We need to be cognisant of these interconnections, not only to fully grasp the extent and multifaceted nature of gender inequalities, but also to recognise the deep, and sometimes invisible, interconnections between policies. This is especially crucial when policies targeted towards one specific objective (say, the imbalance in the sex ratio) could have unintended consequences for other dimensions of gender inequalities (for instance, gender gaps in education).1 1 Sharma and Rastogi (2020) show that as a standalone measure, a ban on fetal sex determination could actually worsen the problem of gender discrimination rather than mitigate it. 8 While there is a large body of literature and the question of the apposite policy framework. evidence on each of these aspects, which The paper ends with a discussion of the current this paper summarises briefly, the role of policy framework, and how it needs to change intersectionality in defining gender inequalities to address multiple disadvantages produced by is discussed less often. Male–female gaps are intersectional inequalities. significant in many dimensions, but the contours of these gaps are shaped by the overlap of The paper should be read as a wide-angle, gender with other social identities such as panoramic view of the landscape of inequalities caste, religion or tribal identities. Thus, women between men and women, overall, as well as from stigmatised and marginalised groups are along the axes of social group identities, and disadvantaged along two dimensions and have to not as an original research paper that dives battle the double stigma of this intersectionality. deep into one specific problem. The focus is This paper outlines the trends in overall gender on summarising the state of knowledge on the gaps in the areas of labour force participation, economic dimensions of male–female inequality self-employment and education over the last based on large-scale empirical evidence. This couple of decades, but highlights the role can be combined with specific nuances from of intersectionality that goes into producing the multitude of ethnographic accounts and structures of advantage and disadvantage. empirical research that zooms in on one precise aspect of the larger matrix of inequalities. The discussion of inequalities, especially if we recognise intersectionality appropriately, begs 1.2 Summary of Main Conclusions The male–female gaps in labour force from entering paid employment or prompt participation rates (LFPR) in India are strong and their exit. The focus in this body of literature persistent, as female labour force participation is on conservative cultural norms, the stigma of (FLFP) continues to decline from its already working outside the home, or the deterrent effect low level. The decline is driven by rural women, of sexual violence. However, evidence that these especially Adivasi women. There are several factors are responsible for the decline in female explanations advanced for the low level as labour force participation is not convincing. well as the decline. Part of the problem is the There is indeed a supply side constraint that inability of the statistical system to correctly women have to battle; the real cultural norm count women’s economic work. Women are that prevents women from participating in involved in economic work in far greater paid work is the belief that they are primarily numbers than labour force statistics are able to responsible for domestic chores and care work. capture. Additionally, the registered decline has Evidence from India’s first Time Use Survey (TUS) been in paid employment, and not in women’s (2019) reveals substantial gender disparities in reproductive labour. time spent on domestic duties. There is a large body of academic research that However, there are important demand side views the decline in recorded FLFP as a decision reasons for the decline in FLFPR. This is the taken by women to drop out of paid work. The problem of the low demand for female labour, attention of this body of work is on identifying especially commensurate with women’s the supply side constraints that prevent women increasing educational attainment. 9 The other important dimension characterising up having positive gendered effects, despite gender gaps in the labour market relates to their gender-blind design. Electoral quotas wage
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