Reimagining skilling for women’s enduring and inclusive economic growth

There is overwhelming evidence that gender equity in the economy and gender diversity in workplaces make nations and societies more prosperous and just, and organisations more innovative and profitable. Unfortunately, progress has been slow and inconsistent. Furthermore, any precious progress made is thrown back by crises of any nature, which impact women first and hardest – and Covid-19 has been devastating on this front as well.

What makes the outlook even more dismal for women in this crisis is that the economic slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has hit female employment and their employability. With heightened burdens of unpaid childcare, catastrophic health effects, and decreased access to medical services, girls drop out of school and women are forced to stay at home. This becomes a vicious circle wherein it gets tougher for them to keep pace with changing skilling requirements and fall further into oblivion.

Consider the statistics : According to a study by McKinsey, women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable to this crisis than men’s jobs. As of May 2020, women accounted for 54 per cent of overall job losses while making up 39 per cent of the global employment ratio. Azim Premji University reports that during the first lockdown in 2020, 47 per cent of Indian women lost their jobs, compared to 7 per cent of men. Between March and April 2021, rural Indian women in informal employment accounted for 80 per cent of job losses.

Yet, all is not lost. The pandemic and its consequent damaging impact on women’s employment can be treated as an opportunity to reimagine how we look at reskilling or upskilling girls such that we can reshape the narrative. But now, more than ever, is the time to act quickly, collaboratively and innovatively as the already significant poverty gender gap threatens to widen and take with it any hope for a swift economic recovery for the world at large. McKinsey estimates that taking action now to advance gender equality could add $13 trillion to global GDP in 2030. Gender equity, therefore, must not be seen as a ‘nice-to-do’, but as a strategic imperative from every possible angle. It makes ‘smart economics’.

Imagine what could happen if 50 per cent of the population that women represent is allowed to power the country’s economic engine? According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), raising the participation levels of women in the workforce can boost India’s GDP by 27 per cent. There is another wave of economic opportunity to redress the problem that women’s incomes in India were just one-fifth of men’s even before the pandemic.

While a lot had been written and said about what holds women back, the question that needs addressing is--what will give them wings?

It is strongly established that skilling women through quality education, broad employment opportunities and progressive social norms are the clearest and most effective way to transition swiftly towards gender equity in work. However, despite that evidence, it is also clear that skilling efforts in India have thus far not produced the desired results, and the process needs a radical rethink.

The failures have been at multiple levels – from a lack of prioritisation of skilling women, not matching skills to jobs, to social pressures that keep women away from specific jobs. Skilling for women has typically been limited to supposedly “female sectors” like tailoring and cooking. Hence, emergent sectors like technology and logistics show a hugely lopsided ratio of male vs female workers. One aspect often overlooked is the deeply ingrained socio-economic barriers like girls and women being forced to drop out of schools and jobs and bear the weight of unpaid childcare and household work.

We need to reimagine skilling in a truly inclusive way, where women do not just fulfil an ancillary need or a checkbox for diversity but gain their rightful position as partners in progress.

● A first step towards rethinking skilling requires a comprehensive understanding of the ground realities and unique challenges women face. This calls for a women-centric approach that includes formal education and training programmes for women and creates enabling infrastructure that removes barriers for women. Imagine if we had more lady taxi drivers and eCommerce delivery people, tourist guides, real estate brokers and medical representatives?

● It is also imperative to adopt outcome-focused mindsets as opposed to mechanical, input-driven ones. This requires us to start thinking and measuring increased employability, job retention and bargaining power of the trained worker – and not just skilling hours or certificates issued.

● Another way to reimagine skilling involves designing models based on skills passed down in communities and combining them with enabling technologies . Imagine using digital technology to design and prototype clothes and jewellery.

A simple example of this could be a skilled craftswoman selling her wares through e-commerce channels. A huge barrier to this is digital access, with the data showing that barely 35 per cent of Indian women are active internet users. Therefore, to make this a reality skilling programs would need to include both digital training and access. If we fix this, traditional and digital skills would be pooled to offer solutions to realise a much wider range of opportunities for women.

● Reimagining skilling will also take a shake-up of the patriarchally-inclined corporate ecosystem wherein services or products often tend to be regressive. For instance, technology, financial and banking services can design their offerings with gender-sensitive perspectives in mind and ensure their services reach women entrepreneurs.

● Another area of action includes improved valuation of unpaid work as well as building incentives and enabling infrastructures that foster gender balance, so men share the domestic workloads.

● Historical biases in hiring, wage-setting and performance evaluations require concerted messaging that gender parity is not just socially but also an economically, smart and beneficial move.

Given the massive social and economic benefits of a gender-balanced workforce, it is imperative for policymakers, corporates and the development sector to reinvent the skills ecosystem to make it more inclusive and outcome-focused for women.

When a woman can generate income, it will fundamentally break down the profoundly regressive culture of girls being regarded as liabilities rather than assets. Once that happens, the power imbalance stacked up against women starts getting irrevocably upturned.

And the world will be a better place for that.

The author is director, Girl Capital, Children's Investment Fund Foundation

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