In the 7th episode of Back to School with PC, we feature Devika Kher, a researcher who has extensively worked on the declining female labor employment in India. In this episode, Devika speaks to us about the history, economics, politics and the everything of women in the workforce.  

She shares with us fascinating insights of how the industrial revolution was detrimental to women's fight for equality and how it took a couple of world wars and the washing machine to help make progress.   

Devika tweets @DevikaKher and Blogs at http://medium.com/@DevikaKher 

Timeline:  

1:18 How has society progressed on gender equality in the last century and a half? 

4:25 Understanding the role of RBG in forwarding Women's rights 

6:20 What are the obstacles hindering a 50% participation of women in the work force? 

8:04 Economic case for Higher Women participation for everyone 

11:10 Women participation in developing vs developed countries 

12:12 Understanding the reasons for decrease in India's Female participation rate in labour? 

17:20 How do we solve this problem of decrease in Female participation rate? 

22:11 Understanding the dynamics of India's female participation rate through the U shaped curve 

26:35 Effect of the Covid Pandemic on Unemployment to both the genders 

29:25 Understanding the gender pay gap and the narrative? 

31:36 Pink Collar Jobs and the effects of occupational segregation? 

36:52 The efficacy of Corporate Diversity 42:40 What makes Devika hopeful? 

... 

Happy Listening :)  

Shownotes: 

RBG Documentary: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80240086

Hans Rosling: Factfulness: https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814

Hans Rosling: Washing machine: The magic washing machine | Hans Rosling

Women and Labor Market Changes in the Global Economy: Growth Helps, Inequalities Hurt and Public Policy Matters: ZafirisTzannatos

Chinmay Tumbe: A history of Migration: https://www.amazon.in/India-Moving-Migration-Chinmay-Tumbe/dp/0670089834

Report on Maternity benefit by Teamlease: https://www.teamleasegroup.com/maternity-report

Freakonomics: The true story of the gender pay gap: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-true-story-of-the-gender-pay-gap-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/

Documentary on Female Cab drivers in Mumbai: https://drivingwithselvi.com/

Namita Bhandari: Women in workforce in India Women in Labour

Amit Verma: Seen and Unseen podcast with Namita Bhandari: Ep. 132: Women at Work