Our urban spaces are not women-friendly; the need to ‘be careful’ or ‘return before dark’ keeps women off the roads from jobs, and away from the informal economy
India’s rank in the Global Gender Gap Report 2025 is 131st out of 148 countries, behind Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. India’s gender challenge is real, the economy is growing but gender inclusive growth remains evasive. We see this on the street and in our day-to-day lives. Is the visibility of Indian women in public life more symbolic than substantial? While we do have catchy campaigns and slogans like ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, why are we helpless when it comes to obliterating deep-rooted societal norms that restrict women’s movement, choices and participation in the workforce?
India’s female labour force participation rate remains dismally low, women are largely invisible in decision-making roles, whether in boardrooms, politics, or in public services. Urban spaces remain male-dominated with safety concerns continuing to inhibit women’s presence in streets, transport, and nightlife; while in rural areas, traditional gender roles are rigid, limiting women to unpaid, unrecognised domestic and agricultural work. India’s gender paradox is baffling. Our urban spaces are not women-friendly, the need to ‘be careful’ or ‘return before dark’ keeps women off the roads, from jobs, and away from the informal economy that drives visibility.
Overseas in markets and factories or government offices and construction sites, women are visible in every sphere. In Vietnam, whenever I walked through the streets of Hanoi, sat at a café in Da Nang, or drove through Ho Chi Minh City, I was amazed to see the visibility, presence, and participation of women in public spaces, workplaces and civic life. Women ran shops, drove buses, swept streets, managed hotel desks and even rode motorbikes to deliver food. They were everywhere, in uniforms, in casual clothes, in formal clothing and they were not merely present, most often they led! At my Hanoi hotel, the woman at the front desk, a veritable factotum ran the entire hotel with such aplomb and poise that I couldn’t resist asking her whether she owned the hotel. “How I wish I was the owner” was her response.
No doubt, Vietnam stands out globally for its high female labour force participation rate, higher than in most advanced economies. According to the International Monetary Fund, Vietnam with a population of 100 millions has a female labour force participation rate of over 70 per cent, in contrast to India, with 1.4 billion people, having a significantly lower rate of 41.7 per cent. Paradoxically, with a population 14 times larger than Vietnam, India should have had larger percentage of working women. Yet, despite having ten times the number of working-age women as compared to Vietnam, they are less visible in workplaces, streets, public transport, and in leadership roles, reason why we see fewer of them running shops, riding scooters, managing offices, or working factory floors.
Even though the percentage of Indian women working-age population employed stands at 40.3 per cent in 2023–24, they perform low-paying, informal jobs, with more than 90 per cent working in the informal sector. Fewer Indian women work per capita and many who do work are in casual or home-based jobs. Women, it seems must first fight for the right to be seen, before they can be heard and for more visibility to happen, India needs safer cities, equitable education, workplace diversity, and social campaigns that normalise female visibility across classes. Visibility is not just about numbers but about presence, access, representation, and social norms.
Vietnam too didn’t start perfect, hostility against the French, the Americans and later in Cambodia and China, swept millions of men into military service or early graves, forcing women to come out into the open. In the absence of men, women stepped into every role: farmers, teachers, logistics personnel, medics, and even guerrilla fighters. Work in Vietnam is not gendered. A woman selling cement on a sidewalk won’t raise eyebrows. A female traffic cop commanding a congested intersection invites no comment. Working women are considered as contributors, unlike in India, where a woman working outside the home risks judgement and gossip, due to deep-rooted cultural, structural, and economic barriers that limit women’s visibility in formal, high-paying, and leadership roles.
So where are the men in Vietnam? They are around too although their presence doesn’t dominate or displace but plays supportive and less visible roles, whereas in India, men are seen everywhere, hogging public space, leadership roles, often blocking rather than balancing the presence of women. No doubt India has made notable improvements, the labour force participation rate has doubled in the last six years, yet there is a need to improve women’s participation in economic activities.
Remember a marginal rise can yield significant economic and social outcomes, women’s contribution that currently accounts for only 18 per cent of our GDP could get a boosted to 30–37 per cent!
(Priyan R Naik is a columnist and an independent journalist based in Bengaluru.)