The study situates women’s education and employment in the specific case of Kerala. In the context of female work participation, it has been generally hypothesized that economic growth and education increases female work force participation rates. In Kerala, where economic growth is higher than all India and where women are relatively more educated, experience the lowest female work participation and highest unemployment among the major States in India, especially among the educated. In the light of this contradiction, the study attempts to identify the factors that cause unemployment among the educated women in the State. The study tries to investigate how unemployment is related to educational achievements of women, conditioning on individual, household and demographic characteristics.
Analysis of macro level data on employment and unemployment shows that wide divergence exists between male and female participation in economic activities. In Kerala, while the male work participation rates improved in the last two decades, female work participation rates declined and form only half of male work participation rate. This is contrary to the general trend observed in other Indian States. Changes in the sectoral distribution of female work force in Kerala clearly shows that structural transformation of women’s economic activity have indeed taken place in the State with primary sector loosing its importance and tertiary sector taking up its place.
Using the CDS Employment/unemployment survey 2003 data, the study finds that 74 percent of educated women are unemployed in the sample. Women are found to be more educated than men across all educational categories expect diploma and secondary education. But this is not translated into gainful employment opportunities for them.
The study uses multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine the factors that influence female work participation. The study uses both individual characteristics – level of education, age, marital status, religion, place of residence – and household characteristics – economic status, husband’s education and employment – to examine the likelihood of women being in the work force. The results show that education, age, marital status, place of residence, economic status and husband’s employment turned out to be significant in determining women’s entry into the work force. Within education, diploma and professional education shows maximum odds ratio where women with diploma and professional education have six and eighteen times more probability respectively to be employed compared to women with higher secondary or secondary education. It shows importance of skill-oriented education rather than general education in improving the employability of women.
Age and marital status turned out to be the major factors determining the employment status of educated women. It has been found that work participation is higher for women in higher age groups. Odds ratio of marital status shows that single women have two times more probability to work than married women. The relationship between economic status and work participation shows that, women from low economic status are more likely to work than those from high economic status. Further, it has been found that women whose husbands are employed at medium or low status of work are less likely to enter into the labour market. Also there is considerable spatial variation in women’s employment.
The study shows that individual and household characteristics can go a long way in explaining women’s entry into labour market. Education alone does not enable women to acquire gender equity in economic participation. Women’s education has not played the transformative role so generally expected of it. Low levels of female employment and persistence of a gendered work structure have limited women’s claims to independent sources income.