The importance of the service sector as an engine of growth has been one of the most highlighted aspect in all discussions on globalisation. The claim of gender neutrality associated with the benefits of the sector is central in debates on its prospects. However, the growth within the service sector and its employment prospects are not uniform. There is considerable variation in terms of the degree of informality and the intensity of work associated with different occupational categories within the sector. The service sector is highly heterogeneous. At one end of the spectrum, there are the better skilled and better paid jobs, largely in segments such as IT, real estate and finance, and at the other end are less skilled/unskilled and poorly paid jobs, comprising largely of domestic work. There is, therefore, a need to examine not only the employment and growth figures but also the quality of employment generated and the distribution of overall employment gains in the sector across various categories of workers.

Women’s Employment in Services

As per the NSSO estimates, the service sector accounts for about 7 per cent of female employment in rural areas and 49 per cent in urban areas. The share of female employment in the sector in rural areas increased from 15 per cent in 1999-2000 to 17 per cent in 2004-05. For urban areas, the share has been almost stagnant at around 18 per cent.

The broad categories of industries that are part of the service sector are trade, hotels and restaurants; transport, storage and communication; finance, insurance, real estate and business services; and community, social and personal services. Of these sectors, community, social and personal services account for the largest share of women’s employment, increasing from 7 per cent in 1993-94 to 8.6 per cent in 2004-05. Trade, hotels and restaurants account for the second largest share, of about 4 per cent, dominated by women in petty retail trade.  

Of the various service sector jobs, domestic services assume central significance for women’s employment, showing an absolute increase of about three million workers from 1999-2000 to 2004-05. The increase has been largely in the urban areas, where the share of women employed in domestic services shows an increase of more than double from 16 per cent to 34 per cent. The share of women in the entire sector also showed an increase from 64 per cent to 76 per cent.

Service sector employment is characterised by less remunerative categories, such as retail trade and domestic work that employ a substantial number of women. These sectors are driven by the stereotyped notions of women’s work, are largely gendered, and show no signs of any change in gendered patterns in the sector. The work in these segments is also more exposed to various forms of gender-based discrimination. In fact, the overall growth of domestic service and of women’s role in it are indicative of how women are affected by the development process. Wages for this sector are among the lowest and are not governed by any minimum wage regulations in many states.  

Women’s Employment in IT

Though the IT and ITES industries currently account for a miniscule proportion of the total female employment in the service sector, this segment has assumed exceptional significance in discussions of the sector not only in terms of employment prospects but also in its description as gender neutral. In the light of its projected potential, of claims to providing better jobs for women and creating new employment opportunities, it becomes a critical segment when exploring various gender dimensions.

Gender disaggregated employment data at the macro level suggests a high participation of women in the industry, in the range of 20-40 per cent, with marked signs of improvement over the years. However, the participation of women in the sector is still much lower than that of men even in the ‘women friendly’ ITES segments of the industry. The NSSO employment and unemployment unit level data provide some broad estimates for the sector, though some overestimation is bound to happen as some of the disaggregate classifications also capture employment, which falls beyond the IT categories. In spite of these limitations, these estimates could help in understanding the broader sectoral patterns and trends.

Within the IT segment, many women are engaged in software development and database activities. Much of the work carried out under software development in India comprises simple programming through following specified directives. This does not require much creative skill or knowledge. Specifically, these activities involve the development of order-made software from specific users and easy-order and ready-made (non-customised) software consultancies. The work does not require any specific skill because it involves the provision of data in a certain order/sequence for the user. This is mostly repetitive and monotonous. Software consultancy has shown an increased share of women, from 35.90 per cent in 1999-00 to 50.48 per cent in 2004. There is also a substantial increase in the share of women in database activities — from 7.39 per cent to 40.72 per cent — which constitutes the bulk of the ITES occupations. There are generally very few women in hardware design and consultancy. Moreover, there are signs of a decline in the share of women in this sector from 29.75 per cent in 1999-00 to 0.35 per cent in 2004 — indicative of a growing male domination in hardware work.

From the macro data as well as micro-level studies, it is clear that women are concentrated in the end-user, lower-skilled IT jobs related to word processing or data entry, and make up small percentages of managerial, maintenance and design personnel for networks and operating systems. This increased concentration of women in low-end jobs can be seen as an outcome of existing notions of women’s work. The feminisation of this segment is often related to the assumption that women possess the social skills to undertake emotional labour required for interactive service work. The existing gendered understanding of women’s ability to empathise also leads to assumptions about women’s ability to endure repetitive and routine jobs, which are actually similar to employment in assembly-line manufacturing. Another important reason for the feminisation of the low-end segment of the industry is the high ‘worker burnout’, which demands a workforce that can be replaced easily, and where young women become the most preferred targets due to exploitation of phases such as marriage and childbirth in women’s life cycle.

Jobs in the ITES industry such as those in call centres were initially construed as less demanding in terms of manual effort and, thus, more appropriate for women. However, the findings of many recent studies testify against this ‘stress-free’, ‘women-friendly’ image.  Long working hours, night shifts, repetitive and monotonous work, the stress of low-end work, the lack of scope of career growth and the absence of job security and other social securities characterise the working conditions of the sector, and make employment in this sector in no way better than the traditional sweatshops of the manufacturing sector.

Flexible work schedules and high workloads are found to reinforce gender inequalities with respect to moving up in the ladder of organisational hierarchy. Studies show that women workers often fail to cope with the workload, especially in situations with a ‘double burden’ — the family and the workplace — of work. Women continue to be burdened with traditional expectations of serving particular roles in the family and in society, which makes meeting the demands of longer hours more difficult. These gendered expectations are often reflected in the appraisal and promotional front. Women are often assumed as ‘unable’ to take up important responsibilities, and hence are not assigned important tasks or considered for promotions, eventually resulting in a low proportion of women at the higher levels. Thus, although women employees are found to rise in the corporate ladder faster than men in the beginning of their careers, only a few reach significantly powerful positions. Furthermore, emerging empirical research suggests that a few women prefer to continue in lower-level jobs and are not actively seeking any vertical mobility due to household commitments.   

The gender imbalance of the sector is further evidenced by the high turnover rates of women, the oft-cited reasons being increased stress, lack of career prospects and the inconvenience of shift work. This sort of ‘push attrition’ is more prominent among women workers and is often found to coincide with their engagement, marriage or pregnancy.

Besides the visible signs of labour market segmentation and sex-based stereotyping,  studies have shown that the sector also brings in and augments a digital divide within the workforce, where access as well as on-the job benefits (such as skill up-gradation and training) are largely skewed towards young and educated women from well-off sections of urban areas. 

Because of the very character of the workforce and work arrangements, collective bargaining and formation of workers’ organisations in the sector remain a major challenge. The near absence of collective forums and trade unions in the sector has considerable implications for women’s employment  not only in terms of the quality of employment, but also in addressing gender-specific concerns such as sexual harassment.