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For years, the public narrative around India’s employability crisis has focused on declining job readiness, the widening skills gap, and the mismatch between what institutions teach and what industries need. But hidden in the data is a counter-trend that rarely finds its way into mainstream discussion: women, on average, are more employable than men.

The numbers speak for themselves. From 2020 to 2023, women consistently outperformed men on employability scores, reaching 53.28% in 2022 and 52.80% in 2023, compared to men’s 47.28% and 47.20% in the same years. The trend dipped briefly in 2024 and 2025, before bouncing back sharply in 2026, when women registered 54%, overtaking men at 51.5%.

This shift is not an anomaly or statistical fluke. It reflects an underlying reality that one critical sector has quietly understood for decades: electronics manufacturing.

Why Electronics Manufacturing Has Always Known This “Secret”

Walk into any major electronics manufacturing facility, Foxconn in Sriperumbudur, Samsung in Noida, Xiaomi’s EMS partners across Tamil Nadu, and you’ll notice a striking pattern: women dominate the shopfloor.

Factories in this sector have long recognized three qualities that women bring to high-precision production environments:

1. Superior dexterity and focus: Modern electronics assembly involves repetitive, detail-intensive tasks - PCB soldering, component alignment, visual inspection. Women, according to supervisors and plant managers, consistently perform these tasks with fewer errors and higher throughput.

2. Workplace discipline and loyalty: The sector reports significantly lower attrition rates among women compared to men. Operators often stay longer, maintain steadier attendance, and show higher reliability in shift-based environments.

3. Lower IR incidents and a more stable workforce: Electronics manufacturing thrives on predictability. Fewer conflicts, lower absenteeism, and smoother team dynamics translate directly into productivity gains. Across India and East Asia, factories with a higher percentage of women have historically reported more stable operations.

What the data shows today at a national level is simply a reflection of what the shopfloor has known for years: women make exceptionally strong industrial talent.

Yet, Barriers Persist - And They Are Structural, Not Skill-Based

Despite consistently outperforming men on employability scores, women face obstacles that have little to do with capability:

• Lack of safe transportation, especially for late or early shifts

• Cultural norms that discourage factory work or long-hour jobs

• Limited exposure to technical skilling in electronics, robotics, and industrial automation

• Narrow career pathways - many remain stuck as operators, with fewer transitioning into supervisors, technicians, or process specialists

• Drop-off after marriage, largely due to childcare responsibilities and poor workplace support

These barriers highlight a crucial point: India’s challenge is not female employability. It is female workforce participation.

A Mindset Shift - And Why Apprenticeships Can Be a Game Changer

If women are more employable, why don’t they form a larger share of the industrial workforce outside electronics manufacturing?

The answer lies in perception.

In many families, especially across Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, factory work is still viewed with suspicion. Parents and guardians are more comfortable with “education” than “employment,” even if both involve the same building.

This is where degree apprenticeships create a structural advantage.

Apprenticeships reinterpret industrial work as a learning-while-earning pathway. The model:

• Offers structured on-the-job training aligned with university degrees

• Allows women to enter the workforce under the umbrella of education

• Reduces employer risk, enabling companies to hire more women

• Provides families with confidence that their daughters are “studying with stipend” rather than taking up a “factory job”

• Creates a smooth transition from apprentice → operator → technician → supervisor → engineer

Electronics companies have implicitly used apprenticeship-like models for years—multi-level operator training, technical modules, and skill progression tracks. But the formalization of degree apprenticeships now offers a national framework that could replicate this success across industries.

For women, apprenticeships are more than jobs - they are mobility ladders, unlocking long-term careers in manufacturing, logistics, EV, semiconductors, and more.

A Future Built on What We Already Know

India is aggressively positioning itself as a global electronics hub under PLI schemes, semiconductor investments, and mobility manufacturing expansion. The talent demand will surge—and women will be central to meeting it.

Expect the next decade to bring:

• Greater women participation in automation, testing, and quality engineering

• More companies designing gender-friendly shift systems

• Wider adoption of apprenticeships to build trusted entry pathways

• A rise in women supervisors and technicians, not just operators

• Stronger ecosystem collaboration to support women from smaller towns

India’s employability story is changing and women are leading that change. The real question is whether industries beyond electronics will learn what one sector has always known: when you invest in women, productivity doesn’t just rise, workforce stability follows.