under-performance has cultural and economic antecedents, but it is starting to change. Women are making economic gains in the Indian economy, and further progress represents a tremendous growth opportunity for the country. Our work contributes to this debate by utilizing procompetitive policies as a possible channel for promoting greater participation of women in economic activity and reducing gender segmentation.

# **III. Data**

Our work examines the pattern and evolution of female labor force participation rates and gender segmentation in the manufacturing and services sectors. We begin by describing the manufacturing and services data, followed by a discussion on constructing varying measures of gender segmentation.

# **_Manufacturing_**

We use the same plant level information as much of prior research on the Indian economy, including Duranton et al. (2015). This project primarily draws upon two major sources of data – the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) for unorganized manufacturing and services and Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for organized manufacturing. Manufacturing activity undertaken in the unorganized sector, such as households (own-account manufacturing enterprises, or OAME) and unregistered workshops, is covered by the NSSO. Following the first Economic Census 1977, small establishments and enterprises not employing any hired workers (that is, OAME) that engaged in manufacturing and repair activities were surveyed on a sample basis in the 33<sup>rd</sup> round of the NSSO during 1978-79. Subsequent surveys covering OAEs and NonDirectory Manufacturing Establishments (NDME) were conducted in the 40<sup>th</sup> and 45<sup>th</sup> rounds of the NSSO during 1984-85 and 1989-90, respectively. In 1994-95, the first integrated survey on unorganized manufacturing and repair enterprises, covering OAMEs, NDMEs, and DMEs, was undertaken during the 51<sup>st</sup> round of the NSSO. Subsequently, surveys of manufacturing enterprises in the unorganized sector were conducted in the 56<sup>th</sup> (2000-01), 62<sup>nd</sup> (2005-06), and 67<sup>th</sup> (201011) rounds.<sup>29</sup> 29 Thus, the surveys on unorganized manufacturing enterprises usually covered: (i) manufacturing enterprises not registered under Sections 2m(i) and 2m(ii) of the Factories Act, 1948; (ii) manufacturing enterprises registered under Section 85 of the Factories Act, 1948; (iii) non-ASI enterprises engaged in cotton ginning, cleaning, and baling (NIC2004, code 01405); and (iv) non-ASI enterprises manufacturing bidi and cigar (those registered under the Bidi and Cigar Workers (condition of employment) Act, 1966, as well as those un-registered). Some of the surveys (such as 2010-11) covered trading enterprises and services establishments, but we exclude them for the purposes of our paper. Additionally, the NSSO excludes: (i) repairing enterprises not falling under Section ‘D’ of NIC-2004; (ii) departmental units such as railway workshops, RTC workshops, government mint, sanitary, water supply, gas, storage, etc. in line with ASI coverage; (iii) units covered under ASI; and (iv) public sector units. The sample design for the unorganized sector is a stratified multi-stage design. The first stage units (FSU) are the census villages in the rural sector and Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks in the urban sector. The ultimate stage units are enterprises in both sectors. In the case of large FSUs, one intermediate stage of sampling is the selection of three hamlet-groups/sub-blocks from each large 12