Relevance: GS I (Society), GS II (Social Justice) & GS III (Inclusive Growth) | Source: The Indian Express 

1. The Broad Picture: A Rising but Flawed Graph

• The Goal: For India to become a developed nation (Viksit Bharat) by 2047, massive and meaningful female participation in the economy is essential.
• The Good News: The Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has recently increased to 40%.
• The Reality Check: Experts warn this is mostly “distress employment.” Women are mostly joining low-paying, informal jobs (like agriculture) just to survive, not aspirational corporate jobs.
• The Global Gap: India’s female LFPR is exactly half of Indian men (~80%) and remains well below the global average of 49%.

2. The “Glass Ceiling”: Missing at the Top

As we look at higher positions of power, women start disappearing from the workforce:

• Management Gap: Official surveys show that for every 100 men working as senior officials or managers, there are only 13 women.
• Corporate Boards: Women make up only 7% of chairpersons in top Indian companies.
• Legal Tokenism: The Companies Act legally requires companies to have “at least one” woman director. However, companies treat this as a mere compliance tick-box (tokenism) rather than giving women true strategic power.
• Academia: In premier higher-education institutes like the IITs, female faculty presence is stuck at a dismal 14%.

3. The Root Causes (Why do women drop out?)

• The Care Economy Burden: Indian women carry a massive, unequal burden of “Unpaid Care Work” (childcare, cooking, looking after elders). This leaves them with no time to upskill or take high-pressure leadership roles.
• The “Leaky Pipeline”: This is a structural flaw where women continuously drop out of the corporate ladder at mid-career stages due to a lack of support (like affordable crèches or flexible working hours).

4. The Administrative Way Forward

To achieve true “Women-led Development”, the administration must:

• Formally invest in the “Care Economy” by building high-quality, affordable childcare infrastructure.
• Push market regulators (like SEBI) to tighten corporate rules, moving away from the “one-woman” rule to a mandatory 30% diversity metric at senior management levels.

The Trap 

• The “Corporate Law” Trap: UPSC might try to trick you by stating, “The Companies Act of 2013 mandates a strict 33% reservation for women on the board of directors of all listed companies.” Incorrect. The Act only mandates at least one woman director, which frequently leads to tokenism.
• The “Maternity Act” Trap: An exam statement might say, “Under the Maternity Benefit Act, the government fully pays the salary for the 26 weeks of maternity leave.” Incorrect. The financial burden currently falls entirely on the private employer, which inadvertently makes some companies hesitant to hire young women.

UPSC Value Box: Important Concepts

With reference to women’s employment and corporate governance in India, consider the following statements:

1. Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of companies are mandated to have at least one woman director on their board.
2. The Global Gender Gap Index, which measures economic participation and opportunity among other metrics, is published by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
3. Recent Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data indicates that the rise in India’s Female Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is predominantly driven by high-paying jobs in the formal corporate sector.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (a)