Social norms and women’s employment in India: A district level analysis

Chakraborty, Subhapriya and Basole, Amit (2025) Social norms and women’s employment in India: A district level analysis. Working Paper. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

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Abstract

Reducing gender disparities in workforce participation is an important policy goal in several developing countries. India, in particular, has historically had low levels of women’s workforce participation as compared to men and as compared to peer economies. Prior research has identified both supply and demand-side explanations for low levels of women’s participation in paid work. On the supply side, social norms constraining women’s mobility and autonomy are commonly invoked as one explanation. We test the relevance of such norms in explaining heterogeneity in women’s employment using district-level data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16 and the Sixth Economic Census (2013). Norms indices are constructed using Principal Components Analysis for 640 districts of India. The findings indicate that less restrictive norms related to decision-making, mobility, and asset ownership are positively correlated with higher levels of women’s employment.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Authors:	Chakraborty, Subhapriya and Basole, Amit
Document Language:	Language English
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Women’s workforce participation, Social norms, Gender disparities, India
Subjects:	Social sciences Social sciences > Economics
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru
Full Text Status:	Public
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/6445
Publisher URL:	https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/

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