Putting Womenomics 2.0 to work

In the world’s fastest-growing major economy, half the population still sits out of the workforce.

That paradox defines India’s growth story today.

Women have powered the country’s demographic dividend in classrooms and boardrooms, yet remain conspicuously absent from its labour markets.

This is not merely a moral or social question, but an economic one. Women’s under-participation represents India’s single largest untapped growth lever.

Unlocking it will require a shift from token empowerment to what we might call Womenomics 2.0—a structural rethinking of how the economy values, enables and measures women’s work.

For nearly two decades, India’s female labour force participation rate has defied the logic of prosperity.

As incomes rose and education levels improved, women’s workforce participation fell—from about 31 percent in 2005 to 23 percent in 2019—recovering only modestly to 37 percent after the pandemic.

The latest periodic labour force survey, released in September 2025, suggests a rebound but much of it stems from low-paying, informal, and agricultural work.

The quality of women’s employment, therefore, remains deeply precarious.

Behind these numbers lie a web of constraints. Safety concerns, social norms, lack of childcare infrastructure, and rigid workplace structures all conspire to keep women out.

The pandemic intensified these barriers, pushing many women into unpaid roles or out of the formal labour force entirely.

The deeper truth is that India’s economic architecture was never designed with women’s time, mobility, or care burdens in mind. Women’s unpaid labour is perhaps the economy’s most invisible subsidy.

According to an Oxfam estimate, women contribute roughly 7 percent of the GDP if monetised.

Yet, these hours that sustain families and free up men for work, remain excluded from national accounts. The result is an undercounted economy—one that mistakes women’s unpaid productivity for economic inactivity.

Womenomics 2.0 demands that we begin by counting what counts. Time-use surveys, gender-disaggregated data on entrepreneurship, and inclusion of unpaid care work in policy frameworks can shift the focus from ‘employment’ to ‘economic participation’.

Several countries have shown the way. Mexico has developed an account of unpaid household work that includes “services for own final use made with unpaid work” such as housework and caregiving. In 2024, Mexico estimated such work at 26.3 percent of GDP.

South Korea, too, has integrated unpaid care valuation into its household production accounts using time-use data. India should follow suit.

The biggest barrier to women’s work is not will, but infrastructure. McKinsey estimates that India could add $700 billion to its GDP in 2025 if women participated equally in the labour force. Yet, childcare centres remain sparse, last-mile transport unsafe, and formal-sector flexibility minimal.

Rural women face an added burden of mobility and social norms; urban women, the ‘double shift’ of paid work and unpaid domestic labour. Policies must evolve from welfare to enablement.

Expanding the anganwadi network into full-fledged community childcare hubs, mandating workplace crèches, and incentivising flexible work arrangements through tax breaks or environmental, social and governance-linked ratings could make a tangible difference.

Equally, targeted public transport investments can enhance both participation and perceptions of safety.

While formal employment has lagged, women’s entrepreneurship has quietly surged.

The rise of digital platforms, e-commerce, and self-help groups has created microenterprise opportunities for millions. Mudra Yojana has seen over 70 percent of loans go to women, though average ticket sizes remain small.

A Womenomics 2.0 lens would shift focus from microcredit to growth capital—connecting women-led firms to formal finance, supply chains and digital infrastructure. What’s missing is not intent, but intermediation.

Financial literacy, collateral-free lending models, and mentorship networks can transform small ventures into scalable businesses. The success of women-led cooperatives and social enterprises—from dairy in Gujarat to textiles in Tamil Nadu—shows what’s possible when ecosystems are designed inclusively.

Womenomics 2.0 is also about rebalancing economic power. Even when women work, they remain concentrated in low-paying, informal jobs with little security or decision-making authority. Leadership gaps persist—women hold barely 17 percent of senior management roles in India’s corporate sector, and only a handful sit on boards by merit rather than mandate.

Real inclusion requires women in positions of policy influence—in trade unions, chambers of commerce and government committees. Gender-responsive budgeting, corporate diversity audits, and transparent pay-gap reporting can institutionalise accountability.

Economic parity cannot rest on social goodwill alone; it needs regulatory teeth. The conversation on growth in India has long been about rates. The real question, however, is who grows.

A gendered growth model is not just fairer; it is smarter. Societies that enable women to participate fully see higher household savings, better child nutrition, and greater social resilience. It is time to move from Women’s Empowerment 1.0—symbolic and welfare-driven—to Womenomics 2.0: structural, measurable and transformative.

The next frontier of growth is not in its factories or fintech startups, but in its homes, communities, and workplaces—where millions of women still wait for the economy to make space for them.

Tulsi Jayakumar | Professor, finance and economics, and Executive Director, Centre for Family Business and Entrepreneurship at Bhavan’s SPJIMR

(Views are personal)