Economic impact of climate change on women's labour market participation in Burkina Faso: a computable general equilibrium analysis

ObjectiveThis study examines the role of women's and their partners' gender ideology in shaping women's labor market entries, exits, and changes in hours of employment.BackgroundRecent research argues that women's gender ideology is crucial for understanding women's contemporary labor market participation. However, the role of male partners' gender ideology for partnered women's labor market participation has received less attention.MethodThe analysis uses three waves of a large‐scale household panel survey based on a random sample of individuals within Dutch households. Random‐effect models are applied to study whether women's and their partners' gender ideology are associated with women's labor market transitions and whether relevant household characteristics' associations with women's labor market transitions are conditional on both partners' gender ideology.ResultsWomen's gender ideology is associated with the probability of women's labor market entries and exits, but not with changes in women's hours worked, whereas their male partners' ideology is related only to the probability of women's labor market exits. Furthermore, the negative association of having children with changes in women's hours worked is stronger for traditional compared to egalitarian women. There is no clear evidence that gender ideology moderates the association of the male partner's labor market resources with women's labor market transitions.ConclusionWomen's labor market transitions are not only reactions to economic pressure and institutional constraints but also women's and marginally their partners' gender attitudes.

This article explores the connection between child care, active labour market policies, and women's labour market participation. Through comparative analysis, it demonstrates that the presence of child-care services has positive labour market effects on women's labour market participation. The article also discusses the current status of child-care policies and programs in Canada in light of these observed policy effects. It demonstrates the poor linkages between programs and services for children and labour market policies in Canada. It offers specific suggestions as to how governments and employers could improve the delivery and funding of child-care services to respond to patterns of women's labour market participation.

ABSTRACTChina's fertility continues to decline. Identifying the underlying explanations for that decline involves multiple and interwoven threads which we explore with data from the China household finance survey (CHFS). We examine the declining fertility in China through the lens of urban‐rural transformations, and synthesize the roles of women's education, women's labor market participation and child‐raising costs, and suggest that China is a distinctive variant of the second demographic transition. The analysis shows that urbanization and the convergence of rural and urban fertility levels have been key drivers of the overall decline in fertility rates. And it confirms what we have long known that women's education and labor market participation both negatively impact the likelihood of having children. The study also suggests that intergenerational support can serve as a basis for effective policy interventions to address China's declining fertility rate.

In the European Community (EC), women's labour market participation lags behind the rate of men's participation. In Sweden and Finland, labour participation of women was almost as large as that of men in 1995; the ratio between women's and men's labour participation was almost one. In the Netherlands, in contrast, this ratio was approximately 0.7. Countries like Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, and Portugal lie somewhere in the middle (Jaarboek Emancipane, 1997). Despite the general employment situation of women, the Netherlands is a front runner with regard to part-time work. Almost 70% of working women in The Netherlands work less than 12 h a week! In Sweden and the United Kingdom, this figure is respectively 40 and 45%. Of all Dutch working men, almost one-fifth work part-time. Denmark and Sweden come in second and third place, with more than 10% of the men working part-time (Jaarboek Emancipane, 1997). In the coming years, women's labour participation is expected to rise, especially in The Netherlands. By 2010, the labour participation of Dutch women will be up from 49% to 61% (Commissie THOA, 1995). An increase in professional child-care facilities and other institutional arrangements, along with a growing acceptance of women and men combining paid work with child-care and housekeeping, will stimulate this development. In this respect, the National Commission for Day Scheduling, which was inaugurated in 1997 by the Dutch Minister of Labour, was an important player. The commission was focused on reducing the constraints on combining paid labour with housekeeping and child care (Commissie Dagindeling, 1997). How will these developments affect the labour market with respect to transportation? So far, studies shows that the commuting distance of women is smaller than that of men (Madden, 1981; Knippenberg et al., 1990; Singell and Lillydahl, 1986; Pickup, 1981; Pratt and Hanson, 1991). One of the reasons for this difference between the sexes is the inequal distribution of housekeeping and child care over the spouses. A short commuting distance makes it easy to combine these activities. As a consequence of reducing the constraints on combining different activities, the daily journey to work of women can increase. This will be more likely if part-time jobs are exchanged for full-time jobs. Working women are less dependent on the automobile and more on public transport and walking (Pazy et al., 1996). In spite of this general observation, two-earner families are characterized by the highest car ownership and car use (Vijgen, 1993). The car offers them the opportunity to combine in a relatively short time paid labour with housekeeping and child care. Thus, an increase in women's labour market paricipation may be expected to stimulate use of the private car (Jansen, 1993; Van Schendelen and Quist, 1990). According to Pazy et al. (1996), the gap between the sexes with respect to travel patterns is already narrowing! It is no exaggeration to say that the increase in women's labour market participation will lead to an increase in the number of miles traveled by private car. This development can be a threat to the policies which aim at creating a sustainable environment. With regard to transport, these policies ncourage the use of public transport, bicycling, and walking at the expense of the automobile. In what way can the expected developments in travel patterns of two-earner households be modified to meet the demands of a sustainable environment?

The adoption of clean fuels has been associated with improvements in health and women's empowerment. However, the effects on women's labor market participation and family nutrition remain under‐investigated. This study examines the impact of adopting clean fuels on rural women's labor market participation and family nutritional status using representative survey data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Our findings indicate that households’ use of clean fuels can promote female employment through two pathways as follows: improving health and reducing cooking time, which leads to an increase in their weekly labor supply by 0.9 days and daily working hours by nearly 1 h. Moreover, this gender‐specific improvement in employment can more effectively enhance women's role in promoting household nutrition, as indicated by more diverse dietary patterns and higher protein intake. This study highlights a novel perspective that integrates domestic energy transition into broader sustainable development goals, particularly those related to health, nutrition, and gender equality.

Vocational and business training to improve women's labour market outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review

Women's massive influx into the labor market during the post-World War II period has often been described as a revolution (Smith 1979, Mott 1982, Fuchs 1988, Esping-Andersen 1990, Lewis 1992b), and dramatic changes in women's labor market status have occurred in all four countries. Women's employment, at least in theory, enhances their social entitlement because labor market status confers a variety of social rights. The centrality of entitlements based on work in the social insurance schemes of many countries and the legitimacy of these entitlements as earned rights have caused feminists to emphasize the necessity of improving women's status and claims as workers through their full integration in the labor force. Current typologies based on the breadwinner model also highlight women's entitlements as workers as the most important dimension of variation between welfare states (Lewis and Ostner 1991, 1995, Lewis 1992a). In effect, the substitution of the male breadwinner model for a universal breadwinner model has been high on the agenda of many feminists (Fraser 1994). This chapter examines how and to what degree women's labor market participation has altered their entitlement to social benefits. More specifically, to what extent have women workers been included or excluded in social provision through work related schemes? How has women's incorporation varied across the four countries? What policy constructions or mechanisms result in women workers' inclusion or exclusion? Finally, what is the defamilializing impact of women's entitlements as workers? Have such entitlements lessened married women's dependency on benefits based on their husbands' social rights? In work related insurance schemes and in the third tier of welfare provision – occupational welfare – labor market status is a prerequisite for individual entitlement.

This paper investigates the impact of economic growth on the dynamics of gender inequality in the labour market. Economic studies suggest a positive impact of female labour market participation on growth but the impact of growth on women's labour market participation is not as clear. Recent cross-country studies assume that economic growth first lowers female labour market participation and then increases it in the long-run ( the 'feminisation U') but do not give precise estimation results. This study tests the hypothesis of the 'feminisation U' based on a panel data set (combination of cross country and time series data) which allows to control for problems of endogeneity. The econometric analysis confirms the hypothesis of a 'feminisation U'. This indicates that it is not sufficient in the short-term to rely on the equalising effects of economic growth to increase the entry of women into the labour force. Active labour market policies are needed particularly in developing countries to promote women's labour market participation in the interest of overall economic growth.

The enclave model and the cultural model have often been used by sociologists to explain the patterns of participation of minority women in western labour markets. While the cultural models explain, in general, the mechanisms that restrict women's employment, the enclave models, by contrast, explain the mechanisms that facilitate women's labour market participation. Using data from the 1995 Israeli population census and assuming these theoretical models, this paper aims to examine the labour market participation pattern of three groups of women in Israel: the Muslim-Arabs, the Christian-Arabs and the Druze-Arabs. The results indicate that the participation of Arab women in the Israeli labour market is determined primarily by their ethnic and religious affiliation, education (particularly post-secondary and academic education), marital status and age. By contrast, the ethnic enclave was found to exert a differential influence: its influence on the labour market participation of Muslim women was positive, while for Christian women it exerted a negative influence. The effects of labour market opportunities on female labour force participation are also discussed.

Sex-specific protective labour laws are considered unacceptable by many analysts because it is presumed that they necessarily adversely affect labour market oppor tunities for women. This paper reviews United States research that has sought to assess the validity of this assumption and reports on the impact of these laws within Australia. It is shown that the assumption that sex-specific labour laws have a detrimental influence on female employment opportunities is not supported by United States research or Australian data. It is concluded that a reform strategy based on the assumption that these laws necessarily discriminate against women may involve loss of employee protection without necessarily producing any compen sating increase in employment opportunities for women. 1

This article uses work-life history data from the British Household Panel Survey (1991-2001) to examine married/cohabiting women's work histories and their gender-role attitudes. Findings suggest that women's employment careers are affected by both preferences and constraints. The presence of dependent children poses less of a barrier to full-time work for women with work-centered attitudes than other women. Nevertheless, women having a continuous employment career tend to be childless. Finally, there is a reciprocal relationship between gender-role attitudes and women's labor market participation, suggesting that preferences are changeable according to labor market experience.

Welfare state generosity around work-family policies appears to have somewhat contradictory effects, at least for some measures of gender equality. Work-family policies, in encouraging higher levels of women's labor market participation, may have also contributed to lower wage-levels for women relative to men, for instance. We consider the relationship between particular work-family policies and mothers’ employment outcomes. Analyses use data on employed women aged 25–45 from the Luxembourg Income Study for 21 countries across Eastern and Western Europe, North America, Israel, and Australia. We estimate within each country differences in employment hours and wages for women based on their number of children. Then, we examine the association of estimated per child penalties in wage and employment hours with country-level data on leaves and childcare. Work-family policies are generally associated with positive employment outcomes for mothers, relative to childless women. Work-facilitating policies such as childcare for young children have decisively positive effects on mothers’ employment hours and wages. Work-reducing policies, such as parental leave, however, can have positive effects if the leaves are moderate in length, but tradeoffs if the leaves are long.

The paper illustrates how socioeconomic issues impact upon individuals at a micro level and contribute towards a process of social exclusion These issues are examined with reference to one specific group: women living in dual-adult households residing in an inner city council estate in Sheffield. It particularly explores the relationship between the household, women's labour market participation and social exclusion. The relationship between the household and labour market has tended to receive limited attention within traditional urban literature. This study attempts to examine housing issues within an extended framework, utilising a range of cross-disciplinary literature from social, economic and housing disciplines. The factors which impact upon a process of social exclusion are illustrated with reference to case studies of individual women. The data for each case study were ascertained by utilising life-history analysis which allows for a sequential examination of events.

We ask about the development of childcare policies in Korea and what these mean for our understanding of the gender assumptions of Korean governments. Women's labour market participation has been increasing rapidly, with married women now much more likely to be in the labour market. The provision and regulation around support for women's employment, and especially for mothers’ employment, is a key issue and problem for Korean women and for governments. A number of policies give the impression that the Korean government is moving rapidly towards a policy for reconciling work and family based on a dual‐earner model of the family. But we argue that a close inspection of these policies suggests that the state is still playing a residual role, legislation is not effectively implemented, and government is giving way to the private sector and to the family in responsibility for childcare. Mothers’ accounts of their lives centre on a childcare war played out beneath the apparently harmonious Confucian surface, with resisting husbands supported by powerful mothers‐in‐law, and daily struggles over the management of services. The Korean government and its policy‐makers, far from moving rapidly towards a dual‐earner model of the family, are still rooted in Confucian ideals.

Purpose: This study examines the impact of religion on female labor market participation and tests the hypothesis that under a specific belief pattern, female time allocation to labor market participation should vary systematically with the change in religiosity level. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study uses a primary data set of 320 female respondents. The binominal logit model is used to estimate a categorical dependent variable. Findings: The results suggest that religious women are less willing to participate in the labor market. Conclusion: There are three different outcomes from the analysis scheme. First, the composite index of female religiosity signifies its negative impact on their labor market participation. Second, the findings of the study reveal that females with relatively higher religious education are less willing to participate in the labor market. Third, females are less willing to participate in the labor market when the head of the household is more religious. Research limitations: A larger sample is believed to help in better generalization. Practical implications: Religion shapes human behavior which subsequently influences their economic decisions. Our findings reveal a positive association between females’ formal education level and their labor market participation. This entails a government policy to facilitate women in enhancing their education level. Moreover, mainstreaming the religious educational institutes and their curriculum will resolve the misconceptions.