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Gender Gap
Women in blue-collar jobs in India continue to face systemic hurdles that limit their career growth, as their participation in the workforce remains predominantly in lower-skilled, lower-paid, and less stable roles, a report said on Friday. According to the report by tech-enabled blue-collar hiring platform WorkIndia, women are increasingly channeled into gendered roles like telecalling and maid services, while opportunities in fields like field sales, marketing, and back-office jobs are shrinking. The overall number of job postings for women in India showed a slight uptick in 2023 (0.4 per cent), but in 2024 it witnessed a 5.3 per cent drop, the report said. "This reduction hints at more than just a statistical anomaly, it underscores a deeper issue in gender equality, particularly in blue-collar jobs. Women's participation in the workforce remains predominantly in lower-skilled, lower-paid, and less stable roles," the report said. The WorkIndia report is based on an analysis of o
At first glance, the European Union may seem like a paragon of gender equality what with Ursula von der Leyen heading the all-important executive branch. Still, all the talk this week is about an excess of men poised for top positions at the EU headquarters. Not that von der Leyen, the first woman to hold the position as European Commission president, would want anything other than full gender parity in the body that runs the day-to-day business of the world's biggest trading bloc of 450 million people. One of its key objectives is achieving gender balance in decision-making, the strategy of von der Leyen's outgoing European Commission boldly proclaimed. Her office was committed to lead by example, with the first female Commission president selected in 2019, and the first gender-balanced College of Commissioners during this time. When it comes to gender issues, the 27-nation EU is often seen as perhaps the most progressive grouping of countries in the world, leaving other nations a
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the discourse surrounding women's issues has garnered renewed attention with the slogan of 'Nari Shakti' but several activists are apprehensive that the core concerns of women may again get subdued in the broader economic and political debates. There is a need for political parties to prioritise gender-sensitive policies, not merely as token gestures but as integral components of their core agendas, Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the Population Foundation of India (PFI) said, criticising the "marginalisation" of women's issues within the broader electoral discourse. "To truly empower women and address their unique concerns, it is imperative that political parties and leaders integrate gender-sensitive policies into their core agendas and manifestoes as a priority. "This includes not only increasing women's representation in political spaces but also ensuring that their voices are heard and acted upon in decision-making processes," she ..
Wooing women voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said a gender audit will be conducted in workplaces and steps will be taken to ensure equal pay for women, on par with men. Addressing the Chief Minister's Face-to-Face Programme with women in the state here, Vijayan said jobs should be made more favourable for women. "Until recently, the emphasis was only on educating women. But they also need to be convinced of the need for them to participate in the (formal) workforce from now on. Jobs should be made more favorable for women. For that, gender audit will be conducted in workplaces and equal pay will be ensured," Vijayan said. Highlighting the women-friendly policies of his government, he said, "Kerala has become a role model in the country by introducing menstrual leave for students in all state universities under the Department of Higher Education." As per the National Survey on Higher Education, the state has the highest ...
India has ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity -- an improvement of eight places from last year -- according to the World Economic Forum's annual Gender Gap Report, 2023. The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in the report's 2022 edition. India has improved by 1.4 percentage points and eight positions since the last edition, marking a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level, the report stated. The country has attained parity in enrolment across all levels of education, it said. India has closed 64.3 per cent of the overall gender gap, the report said. However, it underlined that India has reached only 36.7 per cent parity on economic participation and opportunity. The index ranked India's neighbours Pakistan at 142, Bangladesh at 59, China at 107, Nepal at 116, Sri Lanka at 115 and Bhutan at 103. Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world for the 14th consecutive year and th