Tamil Nadu’s Global Women Summit to rethink how women enter and stay in the workforce

For millions of women in Tamil Nadu, joining the workforce is only the first hurdle. Staying on, advancing, and balancing paid work with care responsibilities stand as more complex challenges. The upcoming Global Women Summit 2026 aims to place these realities at the centre of policy conversations, bringing together the state, industry, and civil society to think of ways to reimagine women’s work.

‘The Global Women Summit 2026 — SheLeads’, scheduled for January 27 and 28 at the Chennai Trade Centre, is poised to become one of Tamil Nadu’s most significant platforms for shaping the future of women’s work and economic participation.

Organised under the Tamil Nadu Women Employment and Safety (WESAFE) Project, the summit will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, civil society groups, and women professionals to discuss practical ways to help women enter and grow in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, and leadership.

At the centre of this initiative is IAS Officer Asha Ajith, Project Director of the Tamil Nadu Women

Employment and Safety Project and Head of Tamil Nadu Rural Transformation Project. She calls the summit a strategic extension of her goals, with actions grounded in evidence-based research.

“The project is aimed at improving the female labour force participation of women, especially in emerging sectors,” she says. “Tamil Nadu as a state has been performing well with respect to women’s participation in the workforce. It stands at around 43%, which is above other states.”

Yet, she emphasises that participation is only the first step; retention, career progression and equitable access to quality jobs are equally important. “The dialogues in the summit will focus on result areas like skilling, placement support, entrepreneurship and incubation—all of which are related to emerging sectors.”

The summit will explore how policy and practice can drive women into high-growth arenas like tech and advanced manufacturing. “We’ll look at what the state has already done, what more needs to be done, and the best practices available elsewhere,” she says.

These conversations will happen alongside discussions on leadership, innovation and the future workforce.

Beyond formal employment, Tamil Nadu’s women are also increasingly becoming entrepreneurs and business creators. According to state economic surveys and ecosystem tracking, the number of women-led startups and small enterprises in the state has grown significantly (over 6.22 lakh women-led startups registered on the Udyam portal in the past three years), positioning Tamil Nadu as a hub for women entrepreneurship.

The summit’s agenda also takes a holistic view of the barriers that limit women’s economic participation.

“One thing that came out during our baseline was that a majority of women’s time is spent on care, whether for children or elderly family members,” says Ajith, and adds, “One result area of the project is to take care of the care economy, how the state can facilitate better childcare services, affordable elderly care, and accommodation for women migrating to work.”

Safety is an integral part of these conversations, as concerns around harassment, mobility, and secure workplaces continue to shape whether women are able to join, remain in, and progress in the workforce.

“Tamil Nadu has been doing well with respect to women’s safety, but we want to have conversations on how we can improve it further, at workplaces, public places, and in mobility spaces,” says Ajith.

The success of the summit will be seen in actions and policies that close these gaps, says the IAS officer.

“The major metric will be the actionable policy decisions we make in each area— what gaps we identify in existing schemes and how to plug them to make the schemes more effective.”