A Study of Women’s Labor Force Participation in India with Respect to Education and Other Cultural Norms

According to the data published by the ‘official periodic labor force survey’ in 2018-19, 73.7% of urban men participated in the labor market while only 20.4% of urban women participated in the labor market. For many years, the Indian government has been working on improving women’s education, their working conditions, and the cultural aspects that come along with working women. Despite these initiatives, the labor force participation of women in our country is very low which astonishing and very necessary to examine is. According to the economic survey released in 2022, there are 1,020 females per 1000 males. This statistic supports the fact that the initiatives taken by the government for girl child welfare, such as ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana’, ‘Balika Samridhi Yojana’, ‘Beti Badhao, Beti Padhao’, and ‘Ladli scheme’ have worked towards girl child’s welfare. And while improving their living standard, these initiatives have been successful in decreasing the mortality rates of infant girls as well. Moreover, they have been successful in increasing education rates among girls as well. But then, the question remains that, despite these initiatives, why do the women’s labor force participation rates still remain so low? This article tries to examine the impact of education and other cultural norms on female labor force participation rates.