Abstract
Female labour force participation (FLFP) stands among main gender equality issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Although making up about half of the total working-age population, less than one third of women is active. High female economic inactivity is argued to relate to the pertaining traditional views on gender roles in the society. This article investigates whether such views impact the activity of women. Furthermore, the article investigates whether perceptions of the existence of gender stereotypes on the labour market influences women’s economic activity. Finally, the article investigates whether differences of such an impact exist between young and adult women and how they are being manifested. The research model is based on a log-log regression analysis performed on a sample of 1,213 interviewed women through the 2017 wave of the National Survey of Citizens’ Perceptions (NSCP-BiH). Our findings indicate that traditional views on women’s role in society act as an important moderator of woman’s economic activity, and hence, shape the overall labour environment and economic development in BiH. Although perceiving that the BiH labour market is biased towards men, women in BiH are not discouraged by such a stance when their labour market participation is considered.
Highlights
Gender equality leads towards growth in investments, productivity, human capital and income per capita, and decreases the level of violence during international disputes and crisis whereby leading towards more democratic and peaceful state of international behaviour (Lagerlof, 2003; Braunstein, 2011; Caprioli, 2003; Wu & Cheng, 2016)
According to the statistics presented by the World Bank and International Labour Organization (ILO), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is ranked as the 165th country in the world when it comes to its women’s labour force participation rates in 2017 (35.2% as per ILO estimate)
BiH’s Gender Action Plans (GAP) covering the periods from 2006 to 2011 and 2013 to 2017 emphasised that the main causes behind women’s inability to achieve equality in the labour market include the prevalence of traditional notions of women’s role in society; leaving a job to care for children; a higher demand for a younger workforce; earlier retirement age for women compared to men; lack of special vocational guidance programmes for women; men tend to be preferred during hiring; and widespread low education levels and access to information among women from rural areas (GAP for BiH, 2006–2011, 2013–2017)
Summary
When comparing index sub-categories, BiH is the 116th country in the world out of 144 included in the analysis where economic participation and opportunities for women are considered (World Economic Forum, 2017). Due to such disappointing evidences, women in BiH are pushed towards marginalisation and an unenviable position within the society, which is, by many, characterised as patriarchal and traditional. The Analysis stresses that, there is an increasing number of legislation addressing women’s subordinate roles, the implementation of these documents is lagging behind At this point, there is no law governing nor fostering greater labour market participation of women, which is seen as one of the main gender equality issues in the country (USAID MEASURE-BiH, 2016). Our research model is based on a log-log regression analysis performed on a sample of 1,213 interviewed women
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