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India has added nearly 100 million women to its workforce in less than a decade, but the rise in participation has not translated into a corresponding increase in regular jobs, wages or working hours. Much of the growth has come from rural women taking up agriculture, self-employment and unpaid family work, even as the gender wage gap has widened, a new study by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has found. The female workforce increased from 104 million in 2017-18 to 201 million in 2025, with the worker population ratio (WPR) rising from 22% to 38%.
But the numbers mask a shift in the nature of women's employment, with a growing share of workers entering activities that offer limited earnings and fewer prospects of formal employment. The findings are part of ICRIER's October 2026 report, The Participation Paradox: Women's Work and Time-Use in India, 2017-18 to 2025. Drawing on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Time Use Survey, the report examines how women's employment has changed, where the additional workers are finding jobs and whether the increase has improved their economic position.
"India has expanded women's participation on the extensive margin, yet a lot needs to be delivered in terms of the compositional upgrading that would make that participation economically and personally meaningful for women," the report said. Agriculture absorbs the workforce as salaried jobs lose ground The increase in women's employment has been concentrated in rural India. The female WPR in rural areas rose from 23.7% in 2017-18 to 44.9% in 2025.
In urban India, it increased at a slower pace, from 18.2% to 25.9%. Agriculture has accounted for much of the rural expansion. The share of rural women employed in the primary sector increased from 70.7% to 73.3% during the period, while their shares in secondary and tertiary activities declined.
The report also finds that more women have entered self-employment and unpaid family work than regular salaried employment. The share of rural women working as own-account workers rose from 18.6% in 2017-18 to 37.2% in 2025. Unpaid family workers accounted for another 32.8% of rural female employment.
Also read: 'Indian-HQed, Indian owned': Pixxel CEO answers ownership row after launching US arm Regular salaried jobs, meanwhile, made up just 9.3% of rural women's employment in 2025, down from 10.5% in 2017-18. The number of rural women in such jobs did increase from 7.9 million to 13.9 million, but not fast enough to keep pace with the expansion of the workforce. The pattern is also visible in urban India, where the share of women in own-account work increased from 22.9% to 27.3%.
The report identifies garments, textiles, retail trade and domestic work among the activities absorbing women, many of which are characterised by informal employment. Women earn less and work longer days beyond paid employment The rise in workforce participation has not narrowed the gender wage gap. In fact, the difference in average monthly earnings between men and women widened between 2017-18 and 2025.
Rural women earned an average of ₹6,596 per month in 2025, against ₹14,632 for rural men. This means women earned around 45% of men's earnings, compared with 53% in 2017-18. The monthly gap increased from about ₹4,200 to more than ₹8,000.
Urban women earned ₹15,646 per month, compared with ₹25,565 for men. The report notes that wages increased for both genders, but men's earnings grew at a faster pace. Also read: 'Nobody will trust you': Supreme Court slams Centre over delay in Vedanta case Working hours have also declined, with rural women recording the steepest fall.
In 2025, they worked around 13 hours fewer per week than rural men. The report links the employment gap to the unequal distribution of domestic and care responsibilities. Its analysis of the Time Use Survey found that women spent around three-and-a-half to four hours more per day on unpaid work than men between 2019 and 2024.
The gap did not narrow even as women's workforce participation increased. The additional pressure has also affected women's personal time. According to the report, women entering paid employment reduced their unpaid work only marginally, with the adjustment instead coming from time spent on self-care and personal development.
ICRIER argues that increasing women's workforce participation will require a shift towards creating formal, better-paid employment, alongside investment in childcare, transport and other care infrastructure. It also calls for industrial and skilling policies to create pathways for women into higher-productivity manufacturing and services. Tags
Source: CNBC TV18
