Self Employment of Women: Preference or Compulsion?

In: Social change, Band 40, Heft 2, S. 139-156

Abstract

After the recent releases of employment and unemployment data by NSSO the hype around self employment seems to have multiplied, though there have been some attempts to uncover details of the self employed. Whether individuals take to self employment as a result of a 'push' out of the formal economy, or a due to a 'pull' towards more lucrative and advantageous employment opportunities is an intensely debated topic in the labour economics literature. The analysis in the essay reveals that self employment in the post liberalisation period is not one of new productive opportunities, resultant of a high growth economy, but of lack of employment opportunities. The growing social and economic crisis is locking vast sections of women workers into a downward spiral of more labour for less income resulting in an enhancement of gender based inequality in the world of work as a whole.