While some women seek political empowerment in the belief that it is panacea to all the woes of women, there are growing number of women who have climbed up the ladder of success purely on merit and proved that they are ready to rule.
This aspect of women rising in various socio-economic positions is hardly reported as the focus has been against “suppression and deprivation of rights”.
What is emerging today is of more women engaged in social activities and who work for the betterment of the society. There is wider participation of women in most occupations and also at the helm of country’s administration.
Statistics show that female employment participation has shown a general increase and gender gap in labour force participation narrowed. Even in Nagaland, the number of females clearing competitive exams is on the rise. For instance take the examples of competitive exams like State civil services exams and NSEE. These show an increase in female candidates clearing these exams. These stats are shown in the graphs.
On the entrepreneurship front, there are less women than men at the national level. However, in Nagaland there has been increasing number of female entrepreneurs in different sectors. One important factor needing highlight in context of Nagaland is that females in music industry has shown a remarkable growth and success not only in the state but also at then national level. So to ensure continued rise of the upcoming and talented women there is need to plan a comprehensive support programmes that target female-owned enterprises. There is also need to ensure that policies for female-owned enterprises target not only start-ups and small enterprises, but encourage and support the growth ambitions of all existing firms and also ensure equal access to finance for male and female entrepreneurs.
On the education front , younger women are increasingly better educated than young men. From the below graph, it is encouraging to see the female literacy rate in Nagaland has seen a 22% growth in the past two decade as compared to 16% growth in male literacy rate.
An increase in female literacy rate should be a key factor in improving the female labour market outcomes. The increase in female work force in works such as science, medicine, engineering, computer science, academic and R&D has been very significant during the past decade in Nagaland which is about 24.4% during 2011 against 14.9% during 2001. The study reveals absorption of female in other works is highest in Dimapur (63.9%) and in Kohima (41%) and Mokokchung (28.8%) districts.
This is due to urbanisation, advanced education, entrepreneurship, convenience, socio-economic awareness and job opportunities. According to the 2011 census, the female work participation rate (WPR) of Nagaland stood at 44.7% which is much higher WPR than the National female work participation rate of 26%. However women often work part-time as it facilitates combining work and family responsibilities but often at a cost to their long-term career and earning prospects. Also the gender gap in work life increases with the arrival of children.
Therefore providing government run affordable, good-quality childcare for all parents and encourage more equal sharing of parental leave, for example, reserving part of paid leave entitlements for the exclusive use of fathers will help boost female employment levels and for achieving gender equality throughout the working life.
All said and done, the statistical figures provided above, should be an eye opener and an inspiration to all a females in Nagaland are making a remarkable progress. It is therefore very encouraging that growing success of women will lead to equal participation of men and women in every walk of life ensuring a successful, strong, sustainable and balanced growth of our society.