What’s the problem with Women not Working? A Critical Analysis of the Skill India Development Mission & Explanations on Female Labor Force Participation

Abstract: This study analyses the Skill India Development Missions ways to increase female labor force participation and economic development. Previous research finds that the low rates of women working in India, in times of rising economic growth and education, are driven by supply, demand, or data related factors. This study contrasts the explanations by adopting a ‘what’s the problem represented to be’ approach to policy analysis. An old research debate related to economic development is thus revisited with innovative research tools. Seldom has policies on gender parity in the labor market been the focus of similar studies. My analysis shows a general tendency in the examined literature to represent women as responsible for the problem, of them allegedly working too little, as well as being the solution, in that increased skilling or incentives could encourage them to ‘chose’ work. Supply and demand-side explanations in previous research are both represented, while data-driven factors and factors related to time constraints or discrimination are silenced. Explicitly or implicitly, women are produced as vulnerable while regardless of work status, men are produced as already fitting into the labor market. I thus find contradictions to the aims of the policy and that alternative ways to act are excluded in this way of representing the problem.