What is
Womenomics?
Technically Womenomics is a term used
in economics lately for the entry of women into the workforce and leadership roles.
Throughout history, women have been considered less resourceful and
underutilized. This is even in the case
of highly educated women also, they do not much contribute directly to the
economics in various countries. So, the term usually intends to change the
public attitude, new governmental policies, and economic anxiety.
Kathy Matsui- the woman who made womenomics poplar.
Suggestions : The Place of Women in India
Who introduced
the term Womenomics?
Among Leaders, Womenomics
was started by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. However, originally the term was introduced in
a report published by the chief Japan strategist Kathy Matsui and her Team in
1999. The report was published in Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Research Division
titled as ‘ Womenomics: Buy the Female Economy’.
In the article,
it was argued that if Japan’s female participation increased, that could boost
the country’s real GDP growth to 2.5 percent per annum from 2.2 percent.
The team
continued their research for two decades advocating the workforce equality and
making policy recommendations to close the gender gap in Japa,
There were further
reports published in Goldman Sachs Research – ‘ Womenomics: Japan’s Hidden Asset
(2005)’ , womenomics 4.0: Time to Walk the Talk in 2014, and Womenomics 5.0.
Since it gained
the attention of the Japanese government, and in 2012, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
advocated and implemented the term. Due to his policies, female labor
participation increased.
Why Womenomics is important?
Usually, the traditional role for men
is to earn. He has to go to work and the woman takes care of the home and the family. In
societies that follow this system- men get additional anxiety as in today’s
world a single person can not earn for the need of many.
Also, women are capable of
contributing in society but due to the restriction and usual social norms
their education, skill, and economic contribution never get the reward and
compensation.
Their lives also go waste around the kitchen only, while they might be useful in finding the cure of cancer at the
same time.
Families are important but, the role
of women in economics can not be ignored.
The problem faced by women at workplaces
Women face a lot due to gender-specific roles and social norms and above that, if they go to work there are workplace biased they have to face.
For example, women are underpaid and were
not assigned full-time job in some countries like Japan.
All over the world, in most the
countries, women are not on the board of the companies or in higher positions
and leadership roles.
What did Womenomics achieve?
Womenomics- helped women to work more,
for example providing the solution to the problems -as women as a mother. How
can they take care of the baby as well as their career?
Womenomics plan also
contained reforms like removing tax penalties for working mothers and
introducing new baby subsidies to help them return to the workplace as it
remarkably brought the economic development upward as well as helped in addressing issues where the aging
population is on rise.
In the latest report – Womenomics 5.0,
after 20 of research Kathy Matsui mentioned that women's participation could lead
to 15 percent GDP boost in Japan. Since her, the first report Women's
Participation surpassed the US and
Europe.
It helped in providing generous
parental leave, improved gender transparency, and labor reforms.
Even though the term evolved in Japan, the policies will help the entire world.
Womenomics in India's Context
Mostly Asian countries, South East
Asian Countries, and Eastern, and Middle Eastern Countries- have similar gender
roles for women. Countries can learn that women's participation in the economy is
crucial.
Indian parliament
strived to take various steps like passing maternity benefit bill yet Labor
Force Participation Rate has been falling. According to the data of the National
Sample Survey, the participation rate of women fell by 11 percent from
2005 to 2011.
Most of the work done by women remains
unpaid in the house and in supporting families as women are expected to take
care of the families without being paid.
Pay gap is also substantial, and yet
women don’t get equal pay for equal work. However, MGNREGA remains the exception to
it. Women need to be skilled, the pay parity has to be removed, and women have
to be encouraged to join leadership roles like politics.
The Challenge
The country has cultural
hurdles where roles assigned to women are keeping them away from
contributing to society. The LFPR pattern shows U shaped relationship with
women. As women get more education, the LFPR initially falls. That means they
are restricted at home.
Women staying at home are often
considered to increase a family’s social status, explaining part of a negative
association between family income and women’s economic participation.
That means the more prosperous the family women have, the lesser opportunity to get the
jobs women receive.
The facts are
that other, compare to other emerging markets; female labor
participation in India has dropped. Many women work in low-productive jobs often without social benefits. Women don’t join jobs
because of a lack of suitable jobs and lack of marketable skills.
There is strong
evidence according to an OECD paper which quantitatively estimates key
determinants of low participation of women in the job market in India. It
confirms the strong impact of socioeconomic factors, especially in the south and
west India in reducing participation. In East India cultural factors such as
religion dominate as happened in Nagaland, where the state government
tried to provide 33 percent reservation for women and due to protest the bill
could not be passed in the state. Moreover, stringent labor laws
also discourage women's participation.
