Tracing the journey of women's Economic Participation in India

“The Indian Women’s Journey: The Last Five Decades” was published recently. This pioneering book chronicles the journey of India’s women over the last five decades, tracing the evolution in law, social norms, political movements, government efforts and economic spheres to celebrate achievements, and to examine failures. The book is a collection of experiences and analyses by ten sector experts. It has been edited by Ms. Kamla Nath, a renowned figure of the feminist movement and the Head of the Nath Foundation.  Almost all the contributors are women who have graced the book with their academic expertise, decades of professional acumen, and their personal experiences.

Having been given the responsibility of writing the chapter on women's economic empowerment, Mitali set up a small research group - Nikore Associates. The team spent a large part of 2019 analyzing women's labor force and workforce participation trends, pouring over multiple data sources, reviewing the literature to understand issues of occupational segregation, income effects, social norms, education, health, family and institutional support, and working out how these impact women's work opportunities and choices. This culminated in the chapter, "Women's Human Capital", which became the second chapter of the book.

We are hosting two detailed webinars, exclusively for Nikore Associates alumni, in the month of August - on 8th and 22nd at 7 PM. Over these two sessions, Poorva Prabhu, Manvika Gupta, Ujjwala Singh, Vidhi Narang, and others from the team, will be discussing the important conclusions and their experiences while researching for the chapter.