Why in news?

The Indian government failed to get Parliamentary approval to advance the implementation of the Women's Reservation Act, with its linkage to the delimitation bill proving to be a stumbling block.

This has renewed focus on the broader question of women's participation in India's economy — not just in legislatures, but across the workforce, academia, and corporate boardrooms.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Why Women's Economic Participation Matters?
• Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) — Explained
• Women in Senior Academic Positions
• Women in Business and Corporate Leadership

Why Women's Economic Participation Matters?

• The World Bank (2023) stated that for India to become a developed economy by 2047, it must grow at nearly 8% per year — a target that is impossible to achieve with low female workforce participation.
• A 2018 study found that constituencies with women legislators recorded 1.8 percentage points higher economic performance per year compared to those with male lawmakers.
• This demonstrates that women's leadership directly translates into better economic outcomes.

Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) — Explained

• Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is the percentage of the working-age population (typically 15-64 years) that is either employed or actively seeking employment.
• It is a key indicator of how productively a country is utilising its human capital.
• A low female LFPR means a large section of women is neither working nor looking for work — representing a significant loss of economic potential.
• India's Current Position
  • Female LFPR has risen from 33.9% (2022) to 40% (2025) — a positive trend.
  • However, it remains well below the global average of 49%.
  • Emerging market peers significantly outperform India — Brazil at 53% and Vietnam at 69%.
• Why is India's Female LFPR Low?
  • India's low female LFPR is primarily a demand-side problem, not just a supply-side one.
    • Supply-side approach — focuses on encouraging more women to enter the workforce by relaxing social norms, providing childcare, etc.
    • However, in a labour-abundant economy like India — where most workers are in the informal sector with low wages — simply increasing female labour supply without creating new jobs would only reduce wages further, not improve welfare.
    • Demand-side approach — focuses on creating new jobs through promotion of labour-intensive industries.
    • An increase in demand for labour raises both employment and wages simultaneously — a far more effective strategy for raising female LFPR in Indian conditions.
  • Other reasons include:
    • Persistent patriarchal norms and institutional barriers
    • Limited opportunities in high-productivity sectors
    • Underrepresentation in decision-making roles

Women in Senior Academic Positions

• Despite rising LFPR, women remain significantly underrepresented in senior positions across India's premier institutions.
• At the national level, women in professor-level roles increased from 25.9% (2011–12) to 29.5% (2021–22).
• Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
  • Female faculty proportion is stagnant at around 14% of total strength nationally.
  • IIT-Jodhpur has the highest proportion at 22% (57 out of 259) in 2024-25 — an improvement from 14% in 2014-15.
  • Some IITs have even seen a decline in female faculty over the years.
• IIMs (Top Management Institutes)
  • Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad: ~20%
  • Indian Institute of Management Bangalore: ~26%
  • Indian Institute of Management Calcutta: ~31%
  • Indian Institute of Management Lucknow: ~24%
  • Indian Institute of Management Indore: ~19%
  • Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode: ~30%

Women in Business and Corporate Leadership

• Ownership and Entrepreneurship - Female-owned proprietary establishments stand at only 27% of total unincorporated sector enterprises (Statistics Ministry, 2025).
• Senior Management - For every 100 males working as legislators, senior officials, and managers, there are only 13 females in similarly high positions (Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2025) — a stark gender gap in management.
• Corporate Boards
  • Nearly all of India's leading firms have at least one woman director — but 77% of firms have only 1-2 women directors.
  • Only 7% of BSE 200 and 5% of NSE 500 board chairpersons are women.
  • Experts note that the "one-woman director" mandate is often treated as the maximum rather than the minimum, reducing it to a compliance exercise rather than genuine inclusion.
  • Research suggests that women need to constitute at least 30% of a board — the concept of "critical mass" — for their presence to be substantive rather than symbolic in influencing strategic decisions and board culture.

Conclusion

While India has made progress in increasing women’s workforce participation, deep structural gaps remain in leadership, academia, and business. Achieving inclusive growth requires not just more participation, but meaningful representation and economic empowerment at all levels.