Barriers for Women Employment

There are many barriers of female employment in the course of the country’s economic development and modernization.

Illiteracy, poverty, decline of household industries, competition from factories, and technological changes are the major barriers for women employment. They are each briefly discussed below:

Illiteracy: Women’s illiteracy stands in the way of women’s employment in business and commerce, agriculture and industries, both traditional and modern.

Even on the political scene, their small representation in legislative assemblies shows how marginal women are in the whole political process.

Poverty: Due to immense poverty of the majority of the Indian population, the opportunity of education, participation in social and civic life are thus restricted to women belonging to the upper and middle layers of society.

Decline of household industries: One factor is the decline in household industry. Since household industries constituted the largest traditional non-agricultural source of women’s employment, women were the greatest victims of the economic transformation.

Competition from factories: Within the category of household industry, those activities performed by women – such as hand weaving, oil processing, and rice pounding, – faced especially stiff competition from factory production.

Technological changes: Technological changes have a dampening effect on the demand for unskilled labor. Since the majority of the women in the industrial sector are unskilled, they are the main victims of this change.