A conference bringing together feminist economists from China and India was successfully organised in November 2013 in New Delhi, India. It provided a forum for very interesting discussions that covered a wide range of issues and laid the basis for future collaborative work. Building on that experience, it was felt that there is scope for further and more detailed comparative investigations in specific areas. One issue that proved to be of great interest was that of gendered employment patterns. This is an area where there are strong differences across the two countries, but also sufficient similarities to make the comparison of trends worthwhile.

To specifically examine the gender-specific patterns of paid and unpaid work in China and India, Economic Research Foundation in collaboration with Tsinghua University, Beijing, organised a workshop in Kunming, China over 26-28 September 2014, with support from Ford Foundation.

Some of the themes that were covered in the workshop are:

• macroeconomic processes and women's employment
• changes in work force participation rates;
• women workers in agriculture;
• informality and women's work;
• women workers in export-oriented manufacturing;
• outsourcing, value chains and female workers
• old and new services as employers of women;
• conditions of women workers in public versus private employment;
• the care economy and unpaid work.