Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on women’s employment in India. With the nationwide lockdown of 2020 millions of women lost jobs in both formal and informal sectors. Simultaneously the burden of unpaid care work at home increased significantly pushing many women out of the labour force. This paper examines the gendered dimensions of the employment crisis during COVID-19 highlighting how structural inequalities digital divides and weak policy responses combined to deepen gender disparities. It argues that the pandemic created a “she-cession” in India reversing decades of progress in women’s workforce participation and underscoring the urgent need for gender-sensitive recovery policies.