Opportunities & Constraints
Date: 9th and 10th December, 2022
Location: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Dr. Bala V. Balachandar Campus, East Coast Road, Manamai Village
Organisers: Vidya Mahambare, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and Sowmya Dhanaraj, Good Business Lab
About
Despite significant progress in recent decades, workplaces worldwide remain divided along gender lines. In many countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drop in female labour force participation and in countries such as India, women’s participation in paid work remains low. At every stage in the labour market, including job search, wage negotiations, promotion to middle and senior management, and access to and cost of finance, women tend to face barriers. Even if sometimes unintended, several such constraints stop women from developing their full economic potential.
Women carry out a large part of household work and childcare/elderly care. Further, cultural norms around the type of work women can take up restrict women’s entry into paid work, especially when jobs are scarce in industries that traditionally employ women. Low-income women workers are even more vulnerable due to a lack of control over their earnings, lack of assets, and lower intra-household bargaining power. In addition, women tend to be more adversely impacted by infrastructure constraints in transport networks, access to personal vehicles, electricity and water infrastructure, quality and affordable childcare, safety and sexual harassment during commute and at workplaces, and inadequate sanitation facilities, among others.
This conference will deliberate the above-mentioned interlinked issues in the context of India and discuss the ways to bring about change to lower barriers to Indian women’s effective participation in the labour market.
Conference Agenda
Day 1 | Friday, 9th December 2022
8:30 am to 4.30 pm (IST)
THE INAUGURAL SESSION
Senior Advocate K. Santhakumari, Regional Vice President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers and the former president of the All India Federation of Women Lawyers
Professor Suresh Ramanathan, Dean and Principal, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
KEYNOTE LECTURE 1:
Networks, Gender Norms and Women's Labor Supply: Experimental Evidence using a Job Search Platform
The Keynote Speaker | Farzana Afridi, Indian Statistical Institute (Delhi) and National University of Singapore.
SESSION 1 - JOB SEARCH TO CLIMBING UP THE LADDER
Session Chair | Divya Pandey, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
Paper 1 - Gender Differences in Job Search Behaviour: A Joint Search Perspective
Authors | Monisankar Bishnu (Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi), S Chandrasekhar (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research), Srinivasan Murali (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore)
Paper 2 - Incorporating Gender Lens: Building Evidence and Scaling Interventions for Women's Economic Empowerment in Manufacturing
Author | Anant Ahuja, Good Business Lab and Shahi Exports
Paper 3 - Women’s Participation and Career Advancement in India’s Academic Labour Market
Authors | J.V. Meenakshi (Delhi School of Economics), Sangeeta Bansal (Jawaharlal Nehru University) & Brinda Viswanathan (Madras School of Economics)
Open Discussion (Q&A)
KEYNOTE LECTURE 2:
Structural Change and the Decline in Female Labour Force Participation in India
The Keynote Speaker | Ashwini Deshpande, Ashoka University and Institute of Labor Economics, (Bonn)
Authors | Ashwini Deshpande & Jitendra Singh (Ashoka University)
SESSION 2 - GENDER, HEALTH AND CRIME
Session Chair | Shreya Biswas, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Hyderabad
Paper 1 - Corona was scary; Lockdown was worse: A mixed-methods study of perceptions on COVID-19 from urban informal settlements of Mumbai
Author | Anuja Jayaraman, Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action (SNEHA)
Paper 2 - In-group bias in the Indian judiciary: Evidence from 5 million criminal cases
Author | Aditi Bhowmick, Data Development Lab, University of Yale
Open Discussion (Q&A)
Day 2 | Saturday, 10th December 2022
9:30 am to 4.45 pm (IST)
SESSION 1 - SOCIAL NORMS AND PAID WORK - I
Session Chair | Brinda Viswanathan, Madras School of Economics, Chennai
Paper 1 - (S)he said what? Comparing self and proxy reported employment status
Authors | Rosa Abraham (Azim Premji University) Nishat Anjum (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi), Rahul Lahoti (UNU-WIDER, Helsinki), Hema Swaminathan (Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore)
Paper 2 - The Role of Mothers-in-Law in Determining Women’sWork: Evidence from India?
Authors | Madhulika Khanna (Amazon) and Divya Pandey, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)
Paper 3 - Maternity leave and labour market outcomes
Authors | Purna Banerjee (Reserve Bank of India) and Shreya Biswas, Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, and Debojyoti Mazumder (Reserve Bank of India)
Open Discussion (Q&A)
TEA/COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 2 - EMPOWERING WOMEN
Session Chair | Srinivasan Murali, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
Presentation 1 - ‘Mein Pragati’ – a story of women empowerment through financial capability building
Presenter | Maya Vengurlekar, CRISIL Foundation
Presentation 2 - Whole Numbers and Half Truths: how data can complete and complicate the story of women in the workforce
Presenter | Rukmini S, Independent data Journalist
Presentation 3 - Claiming Resources, Asserting Rights: women's collective politics at the grassroots
Presenter | Kalpana K, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Open Discussion (Q&A)
LUNCH BREAK
PANEL DISCUSSION – CORPORATE AND ACADEMIC WORKPLACES – WHAT ROLE DOES THE GENDER PLAY?
Moderator – Pratima Lakshmanan, Great Lakes Institute of Management
K Rajeshwari, Centre for Women Leadership, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai (earlier, Unilever, Nippon Paint)
Vandhana Sundaram, Diversity and Inclusion, LTIMindtree
Pon Mythili, Great Lakes Institute of Management
Upasana Jha and Alen Christin (MBA Students)
SESSION 3 - SOCIAL NORMS AND PAID WORK - II
Session Chair | Rosa Abraham, Azim Premji University
Paper 1 - Are Working Women Penalized in the Marriage Market in India?
Author | Diva Dhar, University of Oxford
Paper 2 - Gendered Experiences, life choices and paid work
Authors | Sowmya Dhanaraj, (Good Business Lab and Madras School of Economics) Vidya Mahambare, Pon Mythili, & Booshanam (Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai)
Open Discussion (Q&A)
TEA/COFFEE BREAK
KEYNOTE LECTURE 3 :
How did East Asia overtake South Asia on gender?
The Keynote Speaker | Alice Evans, King's College, London, and Faculty Associate at Harvard CID
CLOSING REMARKS
Vidya Mahambare (Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai) and Sowmya Dhanaraj (Good Business Lab)
Speakers
Kalpana K
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Vandhana Sundaram
LTIMindtree
Register
There is a nominal registration fee to attend the conference and is inclusive of both days. E-certificates of participation will be provided to all who attend the full conference in either mode.
There are two types of registrations :
- In person participation (limited seats)
- Online
The registration for In person participation includes
- An AC bus transport from designated spots in Chennai on the morning of 9th December, around 7.30 am to the campus
- An AC bus transport from the campus to Chennai starting around 5.00 pm on 10th December.
- One-night accommodation on campus
- Breakfast/lunch/dinner/tea-coffee on 9th December in campus and breakfast/lunch/tea-coffee on 10th December in campus
- The conference pack
Please note that the accommodation availability on campus is limited and will be allotted on a first-come-first-serve basis.
The fee for In Person participation is Rs 1000 + 18% GST = Rs 1180/-
The Registration for the online participation – Rs 500 + 18% GST = Rs 590/-
If you have any queries, email [email protected]
You can register using the following bank details (preferred method) or by clicking on the following link (payment gateway).
Registrations will close on 7th December 12:00am.
Name of the Bank - Kotak Mahindra Bank
Branch - Adyar, Chennai 600020
Type of Account - Savings
Account Number - 7111528072
IFSC - KKBK0000463
If the payment is done via bank transfer, participants may please send an email to [email protected] with the details.
Register NowContact
If you'd like to get in touch with us, you can do so on the below:
Phone no: +91 9677723567, Hetal S
Email: [email protected]
