Our muddled attitude to women in the workforce

News: Pew Research data has recently revealed its survey.

What does the survey data reflect?

Nearly 30,000 adults participated in the poll conducted across India in the last four months of 2019-20.

Rights: 79% of men and 82% of women stated that women should have equal rights as men.

Jobs: Large proportion agrees that men should be given more jobs if jobs are few(Job exception case).

Leadership: About 55% gave a gender-neutral opinion on this. 14% found women more preferable for public roles. Women also show their competence like Indira Gandhi, whose policies are still found in a wide range of fields, from foreign relations to our banking system.

What is the logic behind the job exception to the Pew survey?

One reason could be that large-scale surveys have only tick box type options. They lack a reasons’ column, filling which could have made the results more accurate. So having just the tick box option, Indians gave preference to unequal job rights.

This is also supported by World Bank 2019 data, according to which only one-fifth of all working-age Indian women were employed or looking for work. In contrast, working-age men percentage has been consistent. This shows that patriarchal values remain and are increasing. Globally, more women go with better economic outcomes rather than gender-identified systems. Thus, it’s clear we need to reform gender attitudes.

Source: This post is based on the article “Our muddled attitude to women in the workforce” published in the Live mint on 4th March 2022.