Gender Gap reason for 98% of employment gap: What’s holding Indian Women back?

Women in India continue to face discrimination in the labour market, despite having the same educational qualifications and job experience as men, due to societal and employer stereotypes, a study revealed on Thursday.
Gender discrimination is the reason for 98 percent of the employment gap between males and females in India, according to a new report by Oxfam India. 

When women are employed, they tend to work in low-quality jobs in vulnerable conditions, and there is little improvement forecast in the near future.

According to Oxfam India's 'India Discrimination Report 2022,' discrimination accounted for 100% of the employment disparity experienced by women in rural areas and 98% in urban areas.

According to the survey, self-employed males earn 2.5 times more than females, with gender-based discrimination accounting for 83% of the difference, and discrimination accounting for 95% of the difference in wages between male and female casual income employees.

According to the report, gender discrimination is the reason for 98 percent of the employment gap between males and females.

“Women in India despite their same educational qualification and work experience as men will be discriminated in the labour market due to societal and employers' prejudices,” it said.

The report further said that 93 percent of the gap in earnings between males and females is due to discrimination. 

“Rural self-employed males earn twice what females earn in rural areas. Male casual workers earn Rs 3,000 per month more than females, 96 percent of which is attributed to discrimination,” it said.

Discrimination accounts for up to 91.1 percent of the salary gap between men and women. The academically recognized statistical approach used in the paper can now measure the discrimination faced by women in the labour market.

The lower wages for salaried women are due to 67 percent of discrimination and 33 percent due to lack of education and work experience, the report said.

Oxfam India urged the government to actively implement effective measures to preserve women's rights to equal pay and labour.

“The Government of India should also incentivize the participation of women in the workforce, including enhancement in pay, upskilling, job reservations, and easy return-to-work options after maternity”, the report claimed.

These findings are based on government employment and labour statistics spanning the years 2004-05 to 2019-20. The Oxfam India study uses unit-level data from the government's 61st round National Sample Survey (NSS) on employment-unemployment (2004-05), the Periodic Labour Force Survey in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and the All India Debt and Investment Survey.