Dataviz on Women's Participation in Labour Force
Change in participation of women in India and comparable countries
Self-inititated
Stirred by India's most recent labour statistics I discovered that while eight in ten men are in the labour force, only four in ten women are.
This visualization highlights the gender gap in workforce participation over multiple years, emphasising the needed progress. It examines the types of work performed by women who enter the workforce and analyzes differences between urban and rural women's participation.
Information Design
What is labour force participation?
The chart places India amidst other comparable countries with a focus on labourforce data from the dawn of 21st century. It pairs this key data within the context of change in GDP of each nation for the same time period to anchor the comparison in economic development.
Coupled with this is the absolute and relative change in participation rate; both metrics are used to provide a balanced statistic. Years of highest participation are indicated visually for faster comprehension of participation trends for men and women.
This project was shortlisted for IIB 2025.
What does it show?
Contextual data
Along with data on Indian women's participation, the poster also shows data from comparable countries (mostly BRICS). It shows absolute as well as relative change to prevent sensationalising one metric.
Past data: Growth over 22 years
By showing data from over 2 decades, the charts make the growth in women's participation very evident in comparison to men's steady participation rates. This, placed next to the growth in the GDP provides context on economic development.
India-specific factors
Differences in urban and rural areas and between men and women are also shown to provide a micro perspective of India. It completes the picture by demonstrating what these women do when they participate in 'work'.
Process
Studying databases to select relevant contextual data-points to support the main dataset
Analysis of data to support the presented insight
Design and redesign of the data in suitable charts
Encoding the data + creating a legend
Moodboarding to shape the structure of the poster
