Growing Livelihood Opportunities for Women (GLOW)

In India, women’s workforce participation has dropped from 45% to 27% from 2005 to 2019.^[1] The World Economic Forum’s 2022 report ranks India 143^rd out of 146 countries in women’s ‘Economic Participation and Opportunity’.^[2] 33% of non-working women are keen to work. Non-working women are nearly twice as likely to prefer jobs over entrepreneurship, as it provides timely and agreed-on salaries.^[3] Most jobs in India are created in high-growth industries^[4] such as logistics and flexi-staffing but, women’s participation in these industries is approximately 5%. Many jobs (e.g., warehouse packer, delivery agent) in these industries need minimal training and some women are interested in these jobs. Most companies do not employ women due to perceived risks (e.g., performance bias, safety bias, motivation bias—“A woman doesn’t have to work”), unknown benefits (e.g., reduced turnaround time, lower absenteeism, more effective work culture), and gender inequitable hiring and retention practices (e.g., recruitment channels, recruitment messaging, on-boarding, and mentoring are optimized for men). However, the reality is that a gender-diverse workforce is good for business and great for the country.