“GENDER PAY GAP AND FEMALE

UNEMPLOYMENT”

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO
FAKIR MOHAN AUTONOMOUS COLLEGE IN
FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIRMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF BACHLOR OF ARTS.

SUBMITTED BY: Sai Krishna Mohapatra

EXAM ROLL NO:21A10032
CLASS ROLL NO:BA21-046
REGISRATION NO:
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF: Dr Sangram Panigrahi

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F.M Autonomous college, Balasore

2021-2024
 DECLARATION
I do here by declare that the research presented in this project entitled GENDER PAY
GAP AND FEMALE UNEMPLOYMENT is original and was carried out under the
supervision of Dr Sangram Panigrahi (professor at the department of economics at F.M
autonomous college)
This work is original and has not been submitted for any other degree of this college or
any other college or university.

Signature of the candidate

Date:
Exam roll no.21A10032
Registration no.
Class Roll no. BA21-046

Signature of the guide

Signature of head of department
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Any work of this magnitude requires the helping of numerous. In this context I deem it
my moral duty to express my heartfelt gratitude to those people who directly or
indirectly helped me in the presentation of this project. At the onset, I express my
gratitude to Dr Sangram Panigrahi. His constructive and valuable suggestions and his
timely assistance has helped me to prepare the project.
I am immensely grateful to the esteemed teachers in my department Dr Sangram
Panigrahi, Dr Subrat Kumar Rana and Swarna Prava Mam. I would also like to thank all
those who directly or indirectly contributed to the success of this endeavour.

Sai Krishna Mohapatra

Exam roll no.21A10032
Session:2021-24
 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitled “GENDER PAY GAP AND FEMALE
UNEMPLOYMENT” which is being submitted by SAI KRISHNA MOHAPATRA, Exam roll
no:21A10032, Regd. No:16905 in fullfillment for reward of B.A Degree to Department of
economics, FM Autonomous college, Balasore, is a record of bonafide work carried out
by her under my guidance and supervision.

The project has not been submitted to any other college or university for any other
degree.

Signature of supervisor
Name: Dr. Sangram Charan Panigrahi
Asst. Professor of economics,
F.M Autonomous college,balasore

Date:11/5/24
 CONTENT
CHAPTER I
1. Introduction
1.1 Meaning of gender pay gay and female unemployment
1.2 Types of gender pay gap
1.3 Causes of gender pay gap and female unemployment
CHAPTER II
2.REVIEW OF LITERATURE
3.OBJECTIVES
CHAPTER III
4.METHODOLOGY
4.1 Table
4.2 Analysis
CHAPTER IV
5.conclusion
6.suggestion
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION:
Gender pay gap and female unemployment is a significant socio-economic issue in India
and all over the world. Even though women have increased their presence in high
paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial
positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower paying
occupations relative to their share of work force. This may contribute to gender
differences in pay. Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender
discrimination may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.
Around the world, finding jobs is tougher for women than it’s is for men. The current
global labour force participation rate for women is just under 47%. For men it’s 72%.
That’s a difference of 25%, with some regions facing a gap of more than 50 percentage.
This problem is particularly marked in north African and Arab states.
The govt of India has implemented several programs and initiatives to improve
employment rates and quality of work for women. The government initiatives ensure
better opportunities for women workers it includes social security programs, skill
development, better educational opportunities and legislative reforms.
In this project we will examine the gender pay gap and female unemployment situation
in India and around the world. We will take a deep dive into the reasons why such
gender disparities exist. The findings of this study will provide variations that exist
between male and female employment and also provide policy makers with
information and strategies needed to reduce female unemployment and gender pay
gap. Analysing gender pay gap is critical to understanding women’s immediate and
long-term security.

1.1 meaning of gender pay gap and female unemployment

Gender wage pay gap is the difference in the average gross hourly earnings between
women and men. The overall gender pay gap is useful for understanding the impact of
gender on women’s pay. But there is no single gender pay gap since women of different
backgrounds have very different experiences and earnings. However, across all racial
and ethnic groups, women working full time are typically paid less than men in the
same group.
The lack of jobs for women who want to work at current wage rate is called female
unemployment. In India more educated women are unemployed than before as the
push factors for them to go out and work is missing. According to NSSO survey 2017-18,
in urban areas unemployment among educated women was twice their male counter
parts.

1.2 Types of gender pay gap

 Unadjusted gender pay gap
The unadjusted gender pay gap is the difference in average gross hourly earning
between women and men excluding overtime. It is based on salaries before income tax
and social security contributions are deducted. It does not take into account any other
factors potentially explaining the earnings, such as level of education or work
experience. By only focusing on gender, it identifies any systematic differences in pay.
The difference between average wage of men compared to the average wage of women
is expressed as a percentage of average male earning. For example, if the unadjusted
gender pay gap is 10% this means that on an average women earn 10% less than
average male.

 Adjusted gender pay gap

Some of the reasons for the existence of gender pay gap are structural and are related
to differences in elements such as employment tenure, level of education, work
experience etc. If we remove the parts that can be explained by these factors, what
remains is called or is known as adjusted pay gap. The adjusted pay gap is the difference
is pay between women and men taking into account other factors that determine pay
level such as job level, seniority, experience, efficiency, performance etc.
Both the unadjusted and adjusted pay gaps together are a good starting point to dig
deeper into potential root causes of difference in pay.

1.3 Causes of gender pay gap and female unemployment

 Lack of experience: On average, women have less work experience than men,
and this contributes to gender pay gap. Women are expected to temporarily exit
the work force most often to raise children or to take care of an older relative,
which leaves them with less work experience.
 Choice of College major: Women are more likely to major in subjects such as
humanities, education etc, and these majors are associated with lower paying
jobs after graduation. On the other hand, fewer women graduate in the STEM
subjects, which are associated with the most lucrative jobs.
 Gender roles: gender role and the pressure to conform to these roles for women
is one of the major reasons for female unemployment. In developed countries
women who have spouse with stable jobs are less likely to be employed in a paid
job. This can often arise from the from the economic stability of the partner that
can reinforce the “male breadwinner” bias in marital arrangements.
 Under-representation in leadership positions: fewer women are in management
and leadership positions, especially at higher levels. When women are managers,
they tend to be more concentrated in management support functions such as
human resources and financial administration than in more strategic roles. This
brings down the average salary of female managers compared to that of male
managers.
 Gendered jobs: Occupational gender stereotyping results in certain jobs being
held predominately by women, and that leads to “female jobs” being
undervalued. This brings down wages across the board for women compared to
men as female jobs and occupations tend to pay less than those occupations and
industries dominated by men. Also, enterprises that employ a majority of women
tend to have lower wages than businesses which employ men.
 gender bias: a job done by a woman is perceived as less worth than a similar job
done by a man. In the absence of objective job evaluation methods and
practices, gender bias can easily occur in determining pay scales for women and
men.
 Motherhood: it is usually the women in a marital relationship who are expected
to quit their jobs to take care of their family and kids. After marriage in a lot of
conservative household women are expected to quit their jobs, have children and
take care of their husbands.
 Priority to household work: even when women are allowed to work after
marriage there is rule that a woman’s first priority should be her husband and
household work. Women are expected to work outside and also do all the
household chores with little help from their husbands. This holds women back
from achieving their full potential as they can’t give as much time and attention
to their professional work as men.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A brief review of some important studies done on this given topic is given below
 Claudia Goldin (2023)
In her Nobel prize winning research work Claudia Goldin exposed the causes behind
deeply rooted wage and labour market inequality between men and women. The
prize giving body said in their statement “her research reveals the causes of change,
as well as the main sources of remaining gender gap”
 Equality and human rights report (2017)
This research report found that the overall gender pay gap is exacerbated by the
large number of women that work park time and the many women in highly
feminized and low paying jobs. When it comes to exploring policy solutions it is
important to consider both ends of the pay spectrum. This means tackling the ‘glass
ceiling’ for high achieving women but at the same time ensuring that women are
paid adequately and fairly for less skilled work.

 Ministry of labour and employment of India (2023)

This report showed that the female labour participation rate in India is rising. The
female labour participation force from the age 15 to 59 years has increased to 35.6%
in 2021-22 from 25.3% in 2017-18. In the journey of employment for women,
government assistance in terms of policies, schemes, programs, etc are their
companion. the various government programs and schemes are ongoing process to
increase the female labour participation along with safe working conditions.
 Imran khan and Darshita Gunwant (2024)
Imran khan and Darshita Gunwant in their research paper REDUCING GENDER
BASED UNEMPLOYMENT IN INDIA: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL INCLUSION AND
FOREIGN FUND INFLOW, found that both social inclusion and foreign funds inflow
are necessary for reducing unemployment but this is only true in case of male
unemployment. In the case of female unemployment, only social inclusion factor
plays an important role, where as foreign fund inflows have no role in reducing
female unemployment.
 OBJECTIVES
 To analyse the trend of gender pay gap around the world.
 To analyse the relationship between female unemployment and various socio-
economic factors.
 To study the impact of these socio-economic factors on female employment.
 To study the unemployment rate among women.
 To analyse the various government policies and initiatives.
 Provide ways to reducing the pay gap between man and women.

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
The methodology used to calculate gender pay gap is based on the paper published by
AAUW. The male to female earning ratio is calculated by women’s media earning
divided by men’s media earning and the gender pay gap is calculated by subtracting
women’s media earning from men’s media earning, whole divided by men’s media
earning.
The study is descriptive in nature. This study is solely based on the study of secondary
data related to the problems of gender pay gap and female unemployment. The
request data has been collected from ministry of labour and employment in India,
world of journal of advanced research, the global economy, world bank etc.

TABLE AND ANALYSIS

Table and analysis are an important tool for economists to understand, compare and
make informed decisions about economic conditions and policies.
Table data is useful to organize data that is too detailed or complicated to be described
adequately in text, allowing the readers to see the results quickly. graphs are a common
method to visually illustrate relationships in data which are too numerous or
complicated.
Following there are some tables and graphs given which are used for describing female
unemployment and gender pay gap.
  Given below is the average of female unemployment for 2022, the average
unemployment of these countries is 8.92 %. The country with the highest female
unemployment is Palestine with an average 42.02%. The indicator is available
from 1991 to 2022.
Source: world bank

Global Available
Countries Female unemployment, 2022
rank data
Palestine 42.01 1 1991 - 2022
Djibouti 37.88 2 1991 - 2022
South Africa 31.43 3 1991 - 2022
Sudan 30.17 4 1991 - 2022
Gabon 29.41 5 1991 - 2022
Iraq 28.46 6 1991 - 2022
Libya 26.67 7 1991 - 2022
Swaziland 26.31 8 1991 - 2022
Yemen 26.3 9 1991 - 2022
Somalia 25.89 10 1991 - 2022
Jordan 25.04 11 1991 - 2022
Tunisia 23.59 12 1991 - 2022
R. of Congo 23.17 13 1991 - 2022
Botswana 22.76 14 1991 - 2022
Sao tome and Principe 21.91 15 1991 - 2022
Syria 21.42 16 1991 - 2022
Lesotho 20.38 17 1991 - 2022
Algeria 20.3 18 1991 - 2022
Namibia 19.7 19 1991 - 2022
Saudi Arabia 19.49 20 1991 - 2022
Saint Lucia 19.4 21 1991 - 2022
St. Vincent & ... 18.25 22 1991 - 2022
Iran 18.03 23 1991 - 2022
 Global Available
Countries Female unemployment, 2022
rank data
Haiti 17.75 24 1991 - 2022
Bosnia & Herz. 17.22 25 1991 - 2022
Montenegro 16.17 26 1991 - 2022
Greece 16.03 27 1991 - 2022
Lebanon 16.03 28 1991 - 2022
Egypt 15.93 29 1991 - 2022
Samoa 15.44 30 1991 - 2022
Costa Rica 15.1 31 1991 - 2022
Belize 14.83 32 1991 - 2022
Spain 14.66 33 1991 - 2022
Guyana 14.37 34 1991 - 2022
Rwanda 14.31 35 1991 - 2022
North Macedonia 14.28 36 1991 - 2022
Colombia 13.66 37 1991 - 2022
Cape Verde 13.06 38 1991 - 2022
Turkey 12.72 39 1991 - 2022
N. Caledonia 12.66 40 1991 - 2022
Nepal 12.6 41 1991 - 2022
Mauritania 12.44 42 1991 - 2022
Morocco 12.35 43 1991 - 2022
Suriname 11.99 44 1991 - 2022
Brazil 11.83 45 1991 - 2022
Albania 11.76 46 1991 - 2022
Domin. Rep. 11.65 47 1991 - 2022
Comoros 11.2 48 1991 - 2022
Armenia 10.59 49 1991 - 2022
Serbia 10.39 50 1991 - 2022
Mauritius 10.28 51 1991 - 2022
Bahamas 10.25 52 1991 - 2022
Georgia 10.03 53 1991 - 2022
Angola 9.96 54 1991 - 2022
Sri Lanka 9.87 55 1991 - 2022
Eq. Guinea 9.74 56 1991 - 2022
Honduras 9.74 57 1991 - 2022
Panama 9.73 58 1991 - 2022
 Global Available
Countries Female unemployment, 2022
rank data
Italy 9.45 59 1991 - 2022
Uruguay 9.41 60 1991 - 2022
Pakistan 9.27 61 1991 - 2022
Oman 8.74 62 1991 - 2022
Brunei 8.69 63 1991 - 2022
Paraguay 8.48 64 1991 - 2022
Chile 8.44 65 1991 - 2022
Sweden 7.92 66 1991 - 2022
Mongolia 7.8 67 1991 - 2022
Cyprus 7.76 68 1991 - 2022
Zimbabwe 7.67 69 1991 - 2022
Croatia 7.57 70 1991 - 2022
Eritrea 7.39 71 1991 - 2022
France 7.37 72 1991 - 2022
Argentina 7.3 73 1991 - 2022
Barbados 7.26 74 1991 - 2022
C.A. Republic 7.14 75 1991 - 2022
Bangladesh 7.08 76 1991 - 2022
Jamaica 7.01 77 1991 - 2022
Uzbekistan 7 78 1991 - 2022
India 6.67 79 1991 - 2022
 As per the latest PLFS (periodic labour force survey) report, around 32.8% women
of working age (15 years and above) were in labour force in 2021-22 which was
just 23.3% in 2017-18. The major push came from the rural sector than the urban
sector, where it increased by 12% and 3.4 percentage points, respectively. In rural
areas, female LFPR (labour force participation rate) has increased to 36.6% during
2021-22 as compared to 24.6% in 2017-18, showing an increase of 12.0% points.
On the other side, female participation in urban areas was significantly lower
than the rural areas. Female LFPR was 23.8% in 2021-22 as compared to 20.4% in
2017-18 in urban areas, showed an increase of just 3.4% points.

According to Annual PLFS Report, Figure 1, 2 and 3 shows the Female Labour
Force Participation Rate for age 15 years & above at usual status during 2021-22.
The following steps has been taken by the government to increase female employment
in our country

 Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Girl, Educate the Girl): This
flagship scheme aims to improve the Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and ensure
access to education for girls.
 Stand Up India: This initiative provides loans and support to women
entrepreneurs, encouraging them to set up businesses and become
financially independent.
 Skill India Mission: This mission focuses on equipping women with
industry-relevant skills, making them more employable and competitive in
the job market.
 Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: This scheme encourages parents to save
for their daughters' futures by offering attractive interest rates and tax
benefits.
 Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY): This scheme provides easy
access to loans for women microentrepreneurs, enabling them to start and
grow their businesses.
 Mahila Shakti Kendra (MSK): These centres act as one-stop shops for
women, providing them with information and support on various
government schemes and initiatives.

 Swadhar Greh Scheme: The Swadhar Greh Scheme is is being

implemented as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for women who are
victims of difficult circumstances in need of institutional support for
rehabilitation so that they could lead their life with dignity.
 CHAPTER IV

5. CONCLUSION
One of the mounting concerns around the world is the problem of unemployment
among women in both the urban and rural sectors. In urban sector, there is a huge
problem of educated unemployment and underemployment among the women.
Unemployment among women leads them to be dependent on their husbands for
financial stability, this leads to problems like control and manipulation, domestic
violence and abuse, women not being able to fight back and leave toxic relationships
etc. financial independence among women is a must among women for them to be
able to lead a prosperous life. Gender influences human options, conditions and
experiences. Deep understanding of gender patterns, dynamics and biases can enhance
the accuracy and scope of work in many fields. As women entreprenurs experience
greater financial independence, autonomy and control, it leads to increase retention of
women in work force. About 59% women in india believe that working for themselves
reduces their dependency on spouse or family, while 46% view it as a means to
breaking the glass ceiling.
6. SUGGESTION
Every country is trying to solve the problem of female unemployment in their own
establishment of vocational and technical training institutes were also started for
women. Big factories should be attached to these colleges. Enabling female
entrepreneurship benefits future generation through the multiplier effect. Investing in
women build economic and social prosperity by enabling a gradual social shift from
high fertility, low education and poor health to making more conscious reproductive
choices, higher education and better health for self and family. Women entrepreneurs
are fulfilling untapped customer needs through innovative businesses. Women
currently hold a mere 20% of all entreprises in India. However these units directly 27
million people. If india focus on enabling more women entreprenure to start up and
scale we will be able to increase direct employment by 50 million to 60 million people,
and increase indirect employment of another 100 million to 110 million people by
2030.