Challenges to Female Labour Force Participation: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

This paper is a thematic analysis of the various challenges that women face in entering the workforce based on a systematic literature review of the various dimensions associated with factors influencing the participation of women in the labour force. The objective is to understand these challenges and examine the nature of the gender gap in the labour market to draw key inferences as to why women remain underrepresented in the traditional economic growth statistics. The literature shows the importance of unpaid work done by women in the labour force that makes them invisible in the national statistics of countries across the world and India. There is thus a need to undergo an in-depth analysis of the various aspects related to women left outside traditional labour force participation calculations so that their contribution can be included to augment economic growth.