Female employment in India: what determines the choice of sector of activity?

Abstract

Despite accelerated economic growth coupled with the rise in educational attainment and closing gender gap in education, less than one- fourth of women in India are in Labour force which is lower than many South Asian countries, Further, share of  women labour is disproportionately higher in higher in informal employment. This scenario appears contradictory to  the development that the economy witnessed in the recent past. The question thus arises whether it is the structural condition of employment or the preference for reconciling work with family responsibilities decides the sector of employment for women. Against this backdrop, the present paper examines the determinants of the choice of the sector of employment among women. The paper  shows that, despite an increase in the level of education, concentration of women in informal employment is high due to slow growth of formal employment.