What’s Holding Back India’s Economic Ambitions?

“Many countries have followed a similar economic trajectory: As they develop, women increasingly enter the workforce, further fueling the country’s upward climb,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“It happened in China, Japan and South Korea in the latter half of the 20th century. The U.S. saw its female labor-force participation rate—the percentage of women age 15 and up who are working or actively looking for work—grow from 32% in 1948 to 59% by 2000.”

“India, which overtook the U.K. last year as the world’s fifth largest economy, hasn’t followed that path. Since 1990, its female labor-force participation rate has hit a peak of only 31% in 2000, according to data from the World Bank. Last year, it was 24%.”