Abstract
Competitiveness has helped increasing feminisation phenomenon globally because of cheap and flexible labour. However, the evidence are contrary in the context of Southeast Asia and Latin America because of altogether different reasons in two sets of regions of declining and rising feminisation of labour. Also, there is intense debate regarding the quality of employment it generated for women in the manufacturing sector. In the Indian context, the share of manufacturing employment has increased but the moot question remains how this employment is on efficiency ground. The analysis makes palpably clear that women are dominated in this sector from an urban setting and this sector offers employment to those having senior secondary and above educational qualifications. Despite possessing the relevant qualification, they are primarily absorbed in the low-end jobs, i.e. manufacturing labourers, assembly (mounting and soldering) etc. Though the employment status is noted regular yet there is a huge difference in their wages as compared to males and majority of them are denied social security benefits. The econometric analysis reveals that education level, work experience, upper caste, union membership, household income level and people from urban areas have a significantly higher probability for getting better jobs.
Earlier version of this paper has been published in Indian Journal of Labour Economic, 59(2), ‘Women’s Employment in Modern Indian Industry’, June, 2016, Springer (Balwant Singh Mehta as Principal author).
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Mehta, B.S., Awasthi, I.C. (2019). Women in Modern Industrial Sector: A Case of Electronic Manufacturing Industry. In: Women and Labour Market Dynamics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9057-9_5
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