Situation for working women in India still suffers from major impairments

First the good news: recently released Indian Census 2011 figures show that in the decade between 2001-2011 there has been a 116% increase in women graduates, compared with a 65% increase for men. There has also been a sharp spike in women completing post-graduation (151%) and those earning professional and technical degrees (196%). The number of women with teachers’ training graduate degrees increased by 122% while the rise of those with degrees in nursing/medicine was a staggering 157%.

Now for some reality bytes: according to a UN Women’s report released this year titled Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016 the remarkable progress in closing gender gaps in education has contributed to advances for women’s employment, but it has not been sufficient to overcome women’s disadvantage in the labour market. In other words, the situation on the ground, for women, and in the employment market, while having improved, still suffers from severe impairments, in South Asia and across the world.

What are the key issues? Where women do have jobs, globally they are paid 24 per cent less than men, on average. For the most part, the world’s women are in low-salaried, insecure occupations, like small-scale farming, or as domestic workers — a sector where they comprise 83 per cent of the workforce. In South Asia, the gender pay gap is 35 per cent for women with children.

In the corporate world, perhaps the biggest disability that women have to deal with is the existence of the ‘glass ceiling’ — or a level beyond which they find it difficult, if not impossible, to rise within the hierarchy. The reasons for the existence of the glass ceiling are several: in some cultures, it is unacceptable for women to stay in office beyond a certain time, for safety and other reasons. The existence of mens-only ‘clubs’ in top corporate management which are female-unfriendly is another. In many firms jock-talk and late-night boozing are activities that specifically exclude most women. Then there is the fact that women require maternity leave, which leaves many middle-level and above jobs in the career ladder in abeyance.

That these factors are coming into the media spotlight is welcome news, for they indicate a new awareness of some of the binds that women have to deal with. Yet, they are only a first step. Much needs to be done in order to bring about equality in the workplace, in India and across the world. UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka proposes the need to apply a human rights lens to such economic problem-solving. Action by both government and the private sector, to ensure decent, equally paid jobs for women, free from sexual harassment and violence is a vital move. Global corporations also have a central role to play by being employers that offer equal pay and opportunities. Governments on their part can effect transformative change: by generating decent jobs for women and men and ensuring that their unpaid care work is recognised. As Mlambo-Ngucka puts it: “Ultimately, upholding women’s rights will not only make economies work for women, it will also benefit societies as a whole by creating a fairer and more sustainable future.” For, it is indisputable that  progress for women is progress for the entire family, the fundamental building block across societies.