Women’s participation in workforce rises as economy normalises: Study

Gender inequality in the male-dominated BFSI and manufacturing sectors dropped 20 percent as women's contribution to the overall workforce increased by 80 percent in BFSI and by 33 percent in manufacturing in FY22 from levels in FY20.

Women’s participation in the frontline workforce in India is reviving as the economy normalises after more than two years of the pandemic, a study showed.

The participation of women doubled to 6 percent in the first half of FY23 from a year earlier as they returned to offices, factories and retail outlets.

The share of women in sectors such as BFSI, manufacturing, retailing and quick service restaurants had dropped by 40 percent in FY22 from levels in FY20.

Their participation had dropped by 60 percent in the first year of Covid-19 during FY21, according to an analysis of trends by BetterPlace, a Bengaluru-based company that offers digital solutions for workforce management.

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The frontline workforce’s services are of an essential, recurring and indispensable nature, making them the backbone of any given economy. These include blue-collar, grey-collar, and gig-workers with roles such as data entry/back-office jobs, BPO/customer service and field sales, delivery executives.

BFSI & manufacturing

Gender inequality in the male-dominated BFSI and manufacturing sectors dropped 20 percent as women's contribution to the overall workforce increased by 80 percent in BFSI and by 33 percent in manufacturing in FY22 from levels in FY20.

In the BFSI sector, women take up data entry, tele-calling, and clerical jobs, among others, while in manufacturing, women work in production and assembly lines.

Gender inequality in retail and QSR, which generally has more females than males, has widened over the past two years. The contribution of women to the sector decreased by 49 percent in FY22 from FY20. The share of women in the retail and QSR workforce was 33 percent in FY22 from 65 percent in FY20.

In terms of retail and QSR, the role of women is focused on inventory management and store management.

“The increasing inequality in the retail and QSR sector is a result of the growing demand during the festive season,” a BetterPlace spokesperson said.

Still, retail & QSR was the fastest-growing sector in terms of women participation and rose almost eightfold in H1 of FY23 (29,085 women were hired) from levels in H1 of FY22, when 3,654 women were hired.

IFM (integrated facilities management ) and the IT sector expanded by over 56 percent from FY22 to FY23.

Across e-commerce delivery, BetterPlace said women take up roles that offer some sort of safety and security and they opt for roles under the roof rather than on the field.

With e-commerce shopping at an all-time high during the festive season, BetterPlace noted that demand for frontline workers in the delivery space was extremely elevated.

“Since these roles are on-the-field, they are more preferred by men, which led to rising inequality in H1 of FY22,” the spokesperson said.

However, the spokesperson said this sector has historically had higher women participation, which is growing year-on-year, and with post-festive season normalisation, equality will return to the sector soon.

The findings are based on an analysis of trends that BetterPlace noticed on its platform, where it manages 3.5 million people.