the participation rate of men attains the maximum in the age group while women of that age are mostly married and engaged in childbearing and child rearing the gender gap in lfprs is thus the highest in this age group the lfprs of women attain the maximum level later in life and decrease almost instantaneously thus there is never a steady state for women s employment peak employment comes later in life so any possible gains in increased wages are short lived while women agricultural workers still make up the majority of those employed their numbers have decreased for various reasons the share of women workers in manufacturing however has now surpassed men s