We must look beyond the utilitarian view of education to help women reclaim their voices and roles in society

Through the decades, women have been at the centre of societal progress and are crucial for the development of our country. Yet, discussions about their role in society often refer to regressive social norms originating in the early 19th century. Early debates started in the Bengal region where education was used as a means to enforce the traditional role of motherhood and domesticity, overshadowing their true empowerment. The debate was essentially centred around tradition versus modernity rather than the actual uplift of women (Andiappan, 1979).

Pain Points

Nevertheless, attitudes towards women’s education have shifted over the last few decades, with an evident peak in the South Asian communities. Women actively started seeking higher education and creating a professional path to employment. Over the past decade, they have sought opportunities beyond caregiving and ventured into other arenas of the labour market. Nonetheless, there still exist pain points regarding the education and employment of women which need our attention.

Even in today’s modern age, deep-rooted gender stereotypes and age-old social barriers pose obstacles to women’s progress. This issue worsens due to inadequate policies, infrastructure and resources allocated to women’s education and employment. Additionally, the lack of representation in decision-making roles compounds the problem, leading to ineffective policy formulation and execution (Andiappan, 1979). One policy in the education sector that aims to address this inadequacy is the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which was a novel policy enacted in India in 2009. This policy was designed to ensure that every child aged 6-14 years has access to free education till the secondary level (Ministry of Education, nd). While the Right to Education Act changed the landscape of education in India and made significant strides in addressing the educational disparities in the country, the policy has its shortcomings.

Major Challenge

A major challenge internalised by the policy is that it provides free education to children from age six to 14 till an elementary level. With a limited scope of job opportunities in the organised sector, without a college degree, most of these students end up in the unorganised sector and fall prey to the vicious cycle of poverty and bad working conditions (Ministry of Labour & Employment, nd). This is saddening as it defeats the purpose of establishing the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. While the policy is uniform for everyone regardless of one’s gender, once again, women are at the disadvantaged end of the spectrum given the structure of the Indian society and labour market.

As a result, young students who benefited from free primary and secondary education under the RTE Act now face financial barriers when they are on the cusp of enrolling for a professional degree. These financial barriers are further painfully enhanced by the regressive mindsets regarding the education of women, especially in the rural regions of India. These factors together put women on an economic backfoot from a very early stage in their careers. Due to this, women either return to a life of domesticity or are forced into the unorganised job sector out of necessity to earn a livelihood. (Ministry of Labour & Employment, nd)

Especially in the case of South Asian communities, though women are equipped with the right to choose their preferred sector, their choice is often influenced by several temporal factors in the socio-political scenario of the country. Through the decades, though the labour force participation rate of women has declined from 30% in 1983 to 22.5% in 2012, the concentration of females in the informal sector has seen a sharp increase to their male counterparts. This situation demonstrates the unequal distribution of the benefits of economic growth across the gender spectrum.

Informal Sector

However, Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin’s “U” hypothesis argues that in the initial stages of development, there exists a greater demand for labour in the industrial sector, especially in the informal sector. Household, socioeconomics, demographic and cultural factors dictating the supply of labour play a critical role in the preference of their economic sector (Goldin, 1994). However, the increasing informalisation of employment and failure of the economy to create full and productive work for everyone with decent pay poses major challenges in the context of raising the educational levels of women in South Asian countries, leading to women in the informal sector becoming invisible to society.

Today, women continue to comprise the majority of workers (71.63%) in the informal sector, exceeding their male counterparts (ILOSTAT Data Explorer, nd). At any given year, there has always been a higher percentage of women in the informal sector as compared to men, especially in 2019. While the percentage of women in the informal sector decreased in the Covid-19 pandemic period, there was a noticeable increase as the economy recovered in 2023. This stark disparity in the composition of the informal sector calls for an effort towards creating a sustainable environment for women to operate in the formal labour market, and transition into secure jobs. They also face discrimination in terms of wages, as their work is often undervalued and not compensated equally despite performing the same task.

In this circumstance, the intrinsic connection between education and employment is glaringly evident. It’s time to move beyond this dichotomy, recognising education as a tool for liberation rather than tying women down. It is also imperative that we look beyond the utilitarian view of education. We are woven into society by patriarchal threads, which demand that we recognise the agency of women as paramount. Education, therefore, must serve not only as a means of livelihood but also as a catalyst for women to reclaim their voices and roles in society. As we navigate these complexities, policy formulations must prioritise not just the development of tangible skills but also the empowerment of women. By nurturing their education, we not only equip them with tools for economic independence but also pave the way for their rightful place in shaping our collective future.