Editorial: Address gender pay gap

Claudia Goldin’s works hold significance for India too where women’s participation in labour market has been dwindling

Despite progress in education and health, women continue to face economic hurdles and workplace challenges. World over, they are vastly underrepresented in the labour market. Even when they do join the workforce, they end up earning less than men. Globally, about 50% of women participate in the labour market compared to 80% of men, but women earn less and are less likely to reach the top of the career ladder. It is important for policymakers to understand the socio-economic dynamics that drive the gender pay gap and the role of women in the labour market. This year’s choice for the Nobel Prize in Economics reflects a growing recognition of the importance of deeper research into this field. The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked 77-year-old American economic historian Claudia Goldin for the coveted award, recognising her extensive work on women’s employment and pay. The research work of Prof Goldin, who teaches labour market history at Harvard University, has helped in enhancing understanding of factors that drive gender inequalities. A pioneer in studying the role of women in the economy, Goldin is only the third woman to receive the prize, and the first to not share the award with male colleagues. By examining 200 years of data on the workforce, she has provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries, showing how and why gender differences in earnings and employment rates changed over time.

Goldin’s exhaustive works hold significance for India too where women’s participation in the labour market has been dwindling. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranks India 135 out of 146 countries surveyed last year. In 2006, when the gender gap report was first released, India ranked 98th among 115 countries. It comes as no surprise that South Asia is one of the worst-performing regions, followed by the Middle East and northern Africa. The global gender gap report benchmarks the current state of gender parity across four key dimensions — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. On the share of women in the labour force and wage equality, India ranks a lowly 143 out of the 146 countries. With a female population of 662 million, India’s situation has an overwhelming impact on the global picture. The gender gap in India is largely attributed to patriarchal systems. The reduction in women’s labour force participation rate was an important reason for India’s poor ranking. Women continue to face many barriers to enter the labour market relating to access, choice of work, working conditions, employment security, wage parity and discrimination. India has one of the lowest female participation rates in the workforce across the world, oscillating between 16% and 23% in the last few years. It is less than half the global average.