Research indicates AI poses a disproportionate threat to Indian women's workforce participation due to their high concentration in automatable service roles and informal employment. Without inclusive skilling and transition safeguards, AI could accelerate job displacement, deepen the economic gender gap, and erode parity gains.
A dominant reason for women exiting the workforce is health and well-being challenges, often surpassing childcare. This is driven by the "double shift" of paid work and significantly higher unpaid domestic burdens, leading to stress, burnout, and health issues.
The research calls for urgent intervention to avert an AI-led gender displacement crisis, emphasizing that women's employment must not only grow but also be defended against AI's impact.
Main Topics: AI's gendered impact on employment in India, women's workforce participation barriers, health and well-being challenges from unpaid labor, need for skilling and policy interventions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) could disproportionately undermine Indian women's workforce participation because it strikes at two structural realities of the domestic labour market, women's concentration in automatable service roles and their overwhelming presence in informal employment, according to research conducted by talent strategy firm Avtar Career Creators.
India's near parity in higher education sits atop a low participation base, with about 80% of women in informal work and one of the world's largest female business process outsourcing cohorts concentrated in highly automatable roles.
Without inclusive skilling, reskilling and transition safeguards, AI could accelerate women's workforce displacement, deepen the economic gap and erode parity gains, as per the research.
Health and well-being also emerged as a dominant reason for women's exit from the workforce, often outpacing domesticities or child care as the stated cause. The widespread "double shift", with unpaid care burdens unchanged, keeps stress high and sleep low, precipitating burnout, anaemia and other well-being challenges that push women out of the labour market.
The National Time Use Survey, conducted by the National Statistical Office, found that women spend 289 minutes per day on unpaid domestic chores, compared to 88 minutes for men.
Avtar Career Creators research also analysed data from 350 companies. Women's employment needs to not only exceed current numbers but also mount a strong defence against the relentless onslaught of AI.
Indian women, as compared to their counterparts in many neighbouring countries, face disproportionate vulnerability, far more than men, to job loss, according to Saundarya Rajesh, managing director, Avtar Career Creators.
"This AI-led gender displacement crisis requires urgent interventions to be averted," she said.
India's near parity in higher education sits atop a low participation base, with about 80% of women in informal work and one of the world's largest female business process outsourcing cohorts concentrated in highly automatable roles.
Without inclusive skilling, reskilling and transition safeguards, AI could accelerate women's workforce displacement, deepen the economic gap and erode parity gains, as per the research.
Health and well-being also emerged as a dominant reason for women's exit from the workforce, often outpacing domesticities or child care as the stated cause. The widespread "double shift", with unpaid care burdens unchanged, keeps stress high and sleep low, precipitating burnout, anaemia and other well-being challenges that push women out of the labour market.
The National Time Use Survey, conducted by the National Statistical Office, found that women spend 289 minutes per day on unpaid domestic chores, compared to 88 minutes for men.
Avtar Career Creators research also analysed data from 350 companies. Women's employment needs to not only exceed current numbers but also mount a strong defence against the relentless onslaught of AI.
Indian women, as compared to their counterparts in many neighbouring countries, face disproportionate vulnerability, far more than men, to job loss, according to Saundarya Rajesh, managing director, Avtar Career Creators.
"This AI-led gender displacement crisis requires urgent interventions to be averted," she said.
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