Gender equality and women empowerment is one of the most important agenda in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. It is very difficult to justify economic development without full participation of women workforce in any economic activities of state or a nation. Women constitute almost 50 percent of the total population and its contribution in the manufacturing sector or overall formal sector of the economy in developing countries of the world is very low to its counterpart male workforce. On the contrary, women employment in SEZs sector (earlier known as Free Trade Zones or Export Processing Zones) in many developing countries witnessed around 70 percent or even higher. India also witnessed high women workforce participation in the EPZs/SEZs sector compared to the overall formal sector of the economy. Giving so much importance to the female employment by EPZs/SEZs, and the contribution of exports through EPZs/SEZs also increasing to overall exports as well as to the country's gross domestic products (GDP). We can fairly say that for last 4/5 decades, many developing countries of the worlds started their exports-oriented industrialization process with less gender discrimination compare to overall formal sector of the economy. Purpose of this study is to describe and explain the degree of feminization of exportoriented industries with special reference to SEZs located in Gujarat state. Time series data of special economic Zones of Gujarat state from 2010-11 to 2019-20, (10 years) reveals that there is a decreasing trend of women’s share in employment in SEZs sector of the state.

Keywords : Gender, Equality, Empowerment, Employment.