The Role of Research in Advancing Women Employability

Gender equality including the economic and social empowerment of girls and women, has been a longstanding global priority and remains at the core of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is a fundamental driver of social progress, economic development, and sustainable futures. While gender gap in education has narrowed over the years, disparities in meaningful work transition persist. Evidence-based insights are crucial in shaping policies, challenging biases, and designing interventions that transform the traditional employability landscape for women and girls.

According to recent Global Gender Gap Index (2024), India has made significant strides over the last decade in educational attainment, health, and survival, closing the gender gap by 64%. However, the report also underscores the ongoing challenges in achieving gender parity, particularly in economic participation and leadership representation. This piece focuses on the economic empowerment as a key pathway to attain gender parity.

Our studies have revealed positive effects of gender-responsive skilling programs that not only provide economic opportunities to females but also build their agency to carry out dialogue within the family. For example, evidence from an interim study of the vocational skilling program, Manzil in Rajasthan, facilitated the uptake of vocational courses among girls and completion of course improved by 20-percentage-points, in selected study districts. Further, conversations with business enterprises in these districts revealed the need for gender-responsive skill development programs that align with market demand and equip young girls with future-ready competencies.

Another learning study from our projects on female labour force participation in urban areas showcased an increase in women employment from lower income groups, in the logistics and retail industries, attributed to implementation of gender-focused strategies. These strategies include flexi-staffing, buddy system to support the new recruits, monetary incentives for performance and referral bonus, among other strategies.

As the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning partner of Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women (RENEW), a non-governmental organization in Bhutan, our work with women affected by sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), highlights the importance of livelihood training for survivors of violence along with rights-based education on sexual and reproductive health. Enhancing survivors’ skills through valuable vocational skills such as mushroom cultivation, weaving, tailoring, and banking helped them to gain the confidence and resources needed to secure a stable income and support themselves financially. It also built their agency to address patriarchal culture.

These evidence-driven studies amongst many other studies available globally reveal how women and girls face systemic barriers, ranging from limited access to education and skilling opportunities to structural wage gaps. Historically, market-based research has been conducted from a male-centric perspective, leading to gaps in understanding how policies and programs affect women. Gender-sensitive research corrects these imbalances by prioritizing lived experiences, collecting disaggregated data, and ensuring diverse representation in studies. In a world striving for equality, research engaging girls and women is both a mirror and a map—it reflects existing disparities while charting the path toward a more just and inclusive future. As we move forward, we must continue to harness the power of research to dismantle barriers, challenge norms, and ensure that gender equality is not just an aspiration, but a reality.

Despite some progress in economic participation, deep-rooted gender norms continue to restrict women and girls’ mobility, decision-making, and control over resources. Policies often overlook the gendered dimensions of economic access which significantly impacts their social standing and financial autonomy. Designing gender-sensitive programs and policies specifically targeting the economic needs of women, including access to credit, land, and property rights are important.

While most gender-focused work centres on empowering women, addressing the roots of gender inequality also requires transforming gender norms among men. More research is needed to understand how traditional masculinity affects both men and women, and how engaging men in gender equality initiatives can lead to better outcomes. Thus, a robust framework with well-defined gender measurement indicators is essential to ensure that gender perspectives are effectively integrated into the progress monitoring of development initiatives at both global and local levels.