Gender Equality and Dignified Jobs

Gender equality in the workforce will not happen on its own

We need more women in the workforce. In India, women’s participation in the formal labor force is a mere 19%, lower than most neighboring countries, and in 2021, 85% of venture capital went to all-male founding teams.

Women are too often shut out of the formal economy and forced to rely on other household members or unpredictable piecework to earn an income, or work as invisible workers in exploitative or dangerous industries.

Women can invest in others. While the burden of extreme poverty falls more heavily on women, research has shown again and again that when women earn an income, they are more likely to invest in their families, lifting up more than just themselves. They send children to school, they buy nutritious food, and they repair dilapidated housing — all reversing the vicious cycle of extreme poverty to create one of upward mobility.