# **1. Introduction**

India’s low female labor force participation, especially in urban areas, is now extensively documented. There has been a swathe of studies over the last decade, especially since the National Sample Survey’s (NSS) 68th Round established a decline in women’s employment over the period 2004-05 and 2011-12. Some have called this a ‘conundrum’ (Das and Zumbyte, 2017: 2), asking why women should opt out of the labor market, despite being better educated in recent years and during a period when India had registered high levels of growth that would indicate better job opportunities. Increased urbanization itself is associated with better job opportunities across the board, and one would expect younger women to benefit from market work more than their mothers’ generation had, at least in cities and towns. But in fact, women’s employment in cities and towns in India has never crossed the 25 percent mark, as Das and Zumbyte (2017) point out, and urban women’s labor force participation has historically been much lower than that of their rural counterparts.

The large number of studies conducted since 2010 have focused almost entirely on the supply of female labor. The onus by implication, is on female workers and their families, who decide whether women should stay home or go into paid work. Some of the research has highlighted the role of the demand side in exerting an influence on women’s employment (Chatterjee, Murgai and Rama, 2015:8). Smaller studies and qualitative work have alluded to active discrimination against women in hiring and if hired, of their poor treatment in the workplace (Kumari, 2014; Tripathi and Yadav, undated). Still others have argued that in fact, the demand and supply of female labor may be mutually reinforcing (Das and Desai, 2003; Das, 2006). However, in the absence of large-scale surveys that can capture the demand for female labor, it is difficult understand what may be happening to such demand.

This paper is based on a unique survey of 618 firms, carried out in 2015, in three of the largest cities in the state of Madhya Pradesh (India) – Bhopal, Indore and Gwalior. Each of the cities has a long history - Bhopal is the state capital; Gwalior has traditionally been the hub of educational institutions; and Indore has a large array of small and large industries. Madhya Pradesh (MP) itself is emblematic of India’s Hindispeaking heartland and can be seen, in many ways, as representing north-Indian culture and norms. The paper fills a void in the policy literature, as it assesses the relative role of culture, as signified by attitudes of employers, and of firm characteristics, in hiring women. It is part of the World Bank’s dialogue with the Government of MP in higher education and the extent to which educational attainment leads to more jobs for women.

# **2. What do we know about jobs and women’s employment in Madhya Pradesh?**

As pointed out earlier, MP is a good representation of north India in many ways. Figure 1 shows that the labor force participation for urban women in MP is a little above 15 percent and fairly close to the urban Indian average of 19 percent. Most employed women in the cities and towns in MP work either in regular jobs or in non-farm self2