Build Back Better: Equal Spaces for Women in the Workforce

UN Women and KPMG in India came together to host a webinar ‘Build Back Better: Equal Spaces for Women in the Workforce’ on September 30th. The purpose of the webinar was to address the prevailing issue of declining female participation in the labour force, which was identified as a key determinant of women’s empowerment.

Objectives of the Workshop

• Discuss challenges faced by Indian women at workplaces
• Assess opportunities that Government, private sector, civil society and community can provide to women to thrive in the workplace
• Identify good practices and establish key strategies going forward for improving female labour force participation

Neha Bagaria, Founder & CEO, JobsForHer participated in the discussion on “India’s FLFPR: A SWOT Analysis.”

Panelists at the session:

1. Ms. Aya Matsuura, Gender Specialist, International Labour Organization

2. Ms. Aparna Mittal, Founder, Samāna Centre for Gender, Policy and Law

3. Ms. Neha Bagaria, Founder, JobsForHer

4. Dr. Radhicka Kapoor, Fellow, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations

5. Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairperson Sambhav-LabourNet

Key themes discussed at the session

• Enablers and barriers for women participation
• Current approaches to mitigate declining FLFPR (Fall in Female Labour Force Participation Rate)
• Strengths and Weaknesses and lessons for the future

The workshop touched upon

• Multiple initiatives by the Government around access to finance, creation of market linkages, skilling and capacity development interventions
• Concerted efforts driven by development partners and the private sector; in the area of return to formal education, making the workplace more conducive for women and working through the COVID-19 crisis
• However, female labour force participation saw a decline of 11 percentage points between 2005 and 2020 – from 30.79% in 2005 to 19.79 % in 2020
• Representation of women in the workforce has been impacted further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 37 per cent of women having lost their jobs as against 28 per cent of men

The session helped the audience in understanding key trends (sectors, occupation, skills etc.) in the context of women’s workforce participation; Identification of policy and regulatory enablers and barriers for female labour force participation.?

Understanding the role of the private sector in creating equal and inclusive workspaces. And understanding the linkages between educating and skilling the ecosystem to enable women to access employment and livelihood opportunities.

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