South Asian Journal of Social Studies and Economics

Gender equality is a basic requirement of economic development of a country. Though India has become one of the fastest growing major economies in the world but still gender inequality is a serious concern for the policy makers. Employment along with education is a key tool to improve the condition of women in our society. Empowering women through providing equal opportunities in the labour market enable them to live a better quality of life and thereby ensuring inclusive growth of the economy. This paper is an attempt to study the gender gap in access to education and employment in India. By collecting data on various education and employment indicators from NSS reports and Periodic Labourforce Survey data, the study found that there exists a huge gender gap in access to employment opportunities and in education also. It necessitates the government to search some other underlying causes of gender gap in India in general and in education and employment in particular. Lack of access to education by female compared to male is not only the cause of less access to labour market by female. The study also added that social norms, customs, women’s traditional role, people’s attitude towards education are also related factors for gender gap in labour market.