Women’s participation in the Tamil Nadu economy presents a paradoxical picture. A woman in Tamil Nadu is likely to be educated, to work, and to find work in a modern sector of the economy. But she is also likely to be paid far lower than men for the same work, and experience segregation in the workplace. While state interventions towards women’s welfare — free transportation and populist schemes — seek to overcome supply side constraints, the decadal fall in female labour participation in the State is driven mainly by the demand side, i.e., a lack of gainful employment. Tamil Nadu needs to match its supply side interventions by creating employment for women in emerging sectors.
In Tamil Nadu, thanks to state interventions and century-old social mobilisation, the share of women in the workforce is higher than the national average and most of the States. As per the NSSO-PLFS data for 2020-21, women’s participation was about 43% in the State as compared to 32.5% for all of India. Yet, by international standards, women’s participation in work is low. Women’s participation in the labour force was at its peak (54%) in 1993-94 in the State, but came down to 51% in 2004-05 and has only been declining since then. It was at its lowest (34%) in 2017-18. It jumped to 43% in 2020-21, but this should not be seen as a necessarily positive development as the increased participation was mainly in agriculture. This was likely a response to the pandemic-induced distress, which may have drawn more women into the workforce to supplement household incomes.
Modern sectors in Tamil Nadu employ a larger proportion of women workers compared to most States. Women’s participation in service and manufacturing is 58% compared to 39% for Gujarat and Maharashtra and the all-India average of 37%. This sectoral shift from agriculture for women workers in Tamil Nadu is significant given the larger national trend towards feminisation within agriculture. About 28% of the women identified as regular workers in total manufacturing in India are located in Tamil Nadu, which is higher compared to other industrialised States such as Maharashtra and Gujarat that constitute 13% and 11% of the total pie. In organised manufacturing alone, the share of Tamil Nadu women is 43%. In other words, almost half the women working in manufacturing are located in the State. Similarly, about 52% of government employees in Tamil Nadu are women compared to 36% at the national level.
This achievement of women’s entry into employment doesn’t always guarantee inclusion since they suffer from wage discrimination. The rise of women’s enrolment in education doesn’t translate into commensurate employment opportunities. Men and women don’t start out on an almost equal footing in access to jobs. Even if they manage to get into the job market, they suffer from occupational discrimination or wage discrimination. The gender earning gap (ratio of women’s earning to men’s earning) in Tamil Nadu is among the highest in the country. For instance, monthly earnings for women in regular jobs in Tamil Nadu were ₹12,969 as against ₹17,476 for men in 2020-21. Even if we take the average of four years (2018-2021), a woman employed in regular salaried work in Tamil Nadu earned 74 paise for every rupee that a man in the same job earned, as against 81 paise in Maharashtra and 85 paise in Gujarat. The average Indian woman with a regular salaried job earned 77 paise for every rupee that a man earned.
What explains this earning gap? It cannot be typical of the “human capital” differences as the literacy gap in the State is much lower as compared to many other States. It could be partly an outcome of occupational segregation as only 12% women are in white collar jobs while a substantial number of them are concentrated in semi-skilled or unskilled jobs.
The State has to recalibrate its strategies by adopting a qualitative approach. Mere expansion of schools and colleges cannot help overcome persisting gender inequality. While the ₹1,000 monthly assistance to women heads of eligible households would certainly ameliorate the precarious condition of those working in informal sectors, improving learning outcomes, upgrading skills to equip women to participate in the service sector, and strengthening the manufacturing sector may be long-term strategies.
Kalaiyarasan A. is Assistant Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and Research Affiliate at the South Asia Institute, Harvard University
