How Are Women Faring in the Bangladeshi Labour Market? Evidence from Labour Force Survey Data

Abstract

In Bangladesh, despite increased participation in the labour market in recent decades, women are still lagging behind men by a significant margin, with the former being concentrated chiefly in low-paid agriculture as well as in the lower stages of the occupational ladder. With the help of the latest labour market data of 2016–2017 coupled with 2011 census data, this article attempts to examine gender segregation through sectoral and occupational lenses. Our econometric estimation of different sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, construction and service) reflects the importance of gender-centric factors such as care burden and marital status along with local employment opportunities in constraining women’s labour market engagement. Besides, decomposition analysis highlights that unfavourable returns to endowments play a crucial role in females’ concentration in relatively low-productive sectors. Sectoral and occupational segregation indices reflect a high degree of segregation between men and women. Thus, against the backdrop of the concentration of women in low-skilled jobs and a low-productive sector, this article expects to provide important policy insights for boosting female employment in relatively high-productive sectors and high-paid occupations while utilizing the structural shift in the labour market of Bangladesh. JEL Classifications: J16, J21, J71, J62, C25, O53