Women, Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Paving the Path Forward

Abstract

This paper focuses on the pandemic’s impact on women’s participation in the economy. The author outlines the various barriers to the full and equal participation of women in the Indian economy such as the gender division of labour which requires women to shoulder the burden of unpaid domestic work, the occupational segregation of the labour market, gender-blind development policies, regressive social norms and patriarchal attitudes. The challenge facing women only increased with the pandemic which led to large numbers of women dropping out of the workforce. The author suggests that in the immediate future the State has a crucial role in redressing this injustice. In the longer term, she calls for rethinking the dominant models of development that pursue economic growth and rise in GDP as the panacea for all problems. Such models have given rise to the rampant exploitation of labour, among whom women are the most vulnerable.