Women workers' labour market engagement and financial autonomy: the mediating role of government initiatives in Kerala, India.

This research examines the interrelationship between the labour market engagement and financial autonomy of employed women, with a focus on the mediating role of government initiatives in Kerala, India. Despite high literacy rates and progressive social indicators in Kerala, low female labour force participation points to deep-seated socio-cultural and institutional barriers. Drawing on Human Capital Theory, the Gender and Development Framework, and Empowerment Theory, the study constructs a comprehensive model incorporating cultural, economic, and policy determinants. Because the sample comprises women who are already employed, the study examines labour market engagement-employed women's active involvement in work, confidence in employability, access to job opportunities, and perceived professional growth-rather than labour force participation in its conventional sense. Using survey data collected from 1,357 women workers across five districts of Kerala and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling in AMOS 28.0, the results indicate that cultural determinants are more strongly associated with women's labour market engagement than economic factors alone. Labour market engagement is positively and significantly associated with financial autonomy, suggesting that economic engagement is linked to greater financial decision-making power and financial control among women. Bootstrapped mediation analysis further indicates that government initiatives such as Kudumbashree and the Women Entrepreneurship Mission partially mediate the association between labour market engagement and financial autonomy. Given the cross-sectional design, these findings represent empirical associations rather than causal effects. The study contributes to gendered labour economics by suggesting that employment needs to be accompanied by enabling institutional mechanisms for sustainable empowerment and equitable growth.