Journal of African Development

The paper discusses the structural change of rural female employment in India over three decades (1993-2024) based on the unit-level data of the Employment and Unemployment Surveys (NSSO-EUS) and the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The paper examines how the sectoral structure of rural female employment has evolved between 1993 and 2024, identifies the socio-economic factors that predict rural female labour force participation and traces how their relative impacts have shifted over the period 2011-12 to 2023-24, and evaluates whether the observed U-shaped trend in female labour force participation reflects a genuine structural transformation or is instead the outcome of measurement issues and compositional effects. Using multivariate logistic regression and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the paper concludes that agricultural employment is still predominant but in decrease with non-farm sectors (especially health, social work, and professional services) taking over an ever-growing proportion of rural women. Statistically significant and economically significant predictors of female employment are religion, social group (caste), education, marital status, age, and household size. It is important to note that the likelihood of Muslim women to participate is significantly lower than that of Hindu women and the inverse relation between education and employment probability in the rural areas is an indication of the structural constraints to quality employment. The paper contributes to the current discussions on feminisation of agricultural labour and quality of the female participation in economic activities, and presents evidence-based policy implications of education, social inclusion, and family supports interventions