Chandrababu Naidu wants more professional women to join the workforce. To do this, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister said in a LinkedIn post, the state will expand work from home (WFH) opportunities “in a big way, especially for women.”

The idea, he continued, is to provide “equal and full access to growth opportunities” particularly in STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine). Post pandemic, he pointed out, there has been a shift to remote work, co-working spaces and neighborhood workshops that “create flexible, productive work environments.”

Naidu’s comments are welcome for several reasons. First, it acknowledges the challenges that women face in the workplace. Second, it seems to take note of the missing women in labour force participation. And third, it seeks a solution designed to be women-friendly.

But, well-intentioned as it is, whether WFH is the magic bullet women need to enable greater workforce participation is questionable. Certainly, flexible work is one of the factors that make employment more attractive for some women, but it is not the only one.

“It is not enough for employers to provide greater flexibility,” Prof Ashwini Deshpande who heads the economics department at Ashoka University told me. “We need also to talk about sharing domestic chores that will free up women’s time to take up employment.”

WFH is not a solution, adds Prof Farzana Afridi who heads the economics department at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi “because it reinforces norms that women need to balance domestic work along with their paid work. It adversely restricts their........

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