Exploring the relationship Between Marital Status of Women and Female Labor Force Participation in India
Author: Alankrita Malhotra
Sanskriti School, New
Delhi, India
Abstract: Inspired by ‘Womenomics’, a concept proposed by Kathy Matsui (which is now a part of Japan’s policy aimed to draw more women into the workforce), this paper seeks to create a proposal for increasing Female Labor Force Participation (FLFP) as a key resource development. Promotion of harmonization of work and family responsibilities for women and men by changing biases is key for a developing nation like India. While previous research papers have focused on other factors like income and education, this report highlights a causal effect between the various socioeconomic and demographic challenges and the FLFP in India. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between women's’ marital status and FLFP, controlling for the effect of other variables such as ‘education’ and ‘number of own children under the age of 5 in household’ by using individual-level data to perform linear regression analysis. The concerns regarding the declining FLFP in India are not new, but there is a renewed sense of urgency given the increasing disparity in the gender gap.