‘Women’s participation in workforce jumps to 37%’

The participation of women in the workforce has increased to 37% in the 2022-23 financial year, a sharp increase from 23.3% in the 2017-18 financial year, showed a report by talent solutions firm Careernet. The report shows that 69.2 crore women are in the workforce compared to 73.7 crore men.

Global capability centres (GCCs) in the BFSI segment have the highest representation in hiring women — about 43% in 2023 compared to 40% in 2022, the report said.

Based on seniority, most women are hired at the entry level and as they go up the ladder, the number of promotions have come down. About 40% of freshers from colleges placed in 2023 were women, but only 17% of the employees hired with more than 12 years of experience were women.

“In the female workforce population, we have observed a stark contrast — while 30% of the urban population are white-collar professionals, only 5% of the rural population falls into this category. Across sectors, the total whitecollar workforce is 80 million, with a mere 10 million being female, indicating a participation rate of just 12.5%. It’s clear that female participation is notably low. This underscores a significant gender disparity in India’s whitecollar landscape,” Anshuman Das, CEO and co-founder of Careernet, said.

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