Indian society is characterized by Patriarchy from ages. Although India has come miles ahead in terms of technology, lifestyle and even with broad support for gender equality, a significant portion of Urban India believes that women are responsible for child-rearing. The archaic belief of conservative views about women’s role in households, workplaces and society is still upheld by many in Urban India.

The factors responsible for such beliefs:

• A significant minority of men who believe that it is unacceptable for women to work.
• One in five men surveyed disagreed with women working outside their homes. There is also little difference in this belief between generations: both men fewer than 30 and above 30 felt equally strongly about women working.
• A significant portion of urban residents believe that a women’s family wealth should determine their decision to work. Around one in four respondents (25%) agreed that women from affluent families need not work.
• In terms of income groups, acceptance of women workers is the highest among respondents in the middle income groups. Lower income earners (less than ?20,000 household income per month) and higher income earners (more than ?2 lakh) are relatively less supportive of women working.
• A significant number of respondents (39%) with less schooling (nine years or less) believed that women should not work outside homes.
• A major constraint in female labour force participation in India is that they’re occupied with domestic responsibilities such as child-rearing. About 68% women left their jobs after pregnancy reason being dual responsibility burden.
• A significant portion believes that child-rearing is the woman’s responsibility. There seems to be far less willingness to share parental burden across the gender divide.
• Even among young urban Indians online, a cohort seen as more progressive, there is a significant minority that holds conservative views about women’s role in households, workplaces and society.

Measures needed:

• Women’s labour force participation and access to decent work are important and necessary elements of an inclusive and sustainable development process.
• Policy makers in India and throughout the region should take a comprehensive approach to improving labour market outcomes for women.
• Improving access to and relevance of education and training programs, skills development, and access to child care, maternity protection, and provision of safe and accessible transport.
• Policy-makers should be more concerned about whether women are able to access better jobs or start up a business, and take advantage of new labour market opportunities as a country grows.
• A policy framework encouraging and enabling women’s participation should be constructed with active awareness of the “gender-specific” constraints that face most women.
• Gender responsive policies need to be contextually developed.
• Increasing labour market flexibility allowing more women, many of whom are working in the informal sector, to be employed in the formal sector.
• Supply-side reforms to improve infrastructure and address other constraints to job creation could also enable more women to enter the labour force.
• Higher social spending, including investment in education, can also lead to higher female labour force participation by boosting female stocks of human capital.

Conclusion:

Gender Equality is central to inclusive economic growth and is critical for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Attitudinal shift is essential for women to be considered as equal within their homes and in broader society. Educating Indian children from an early age about the importance of gender equality is imperative.