Improving the measurement of rural women's employment: Global momentum and survey priorities

Abstract

This paper sets out a survey research agenda on the collection of data on rural women’s employment, to inform gender-sensitive design and targeting of rural employment policies and programs. Stylized facts are presented from nationally representative surveys across countries, including labor force surveys and multi-topic household surveys with a focus on employment. The first set of recommendations in the paper cover topics that can currently be incorporated in national surveys, based on recent international guidance and survey data initiatives. This includes improving the counting of rural women’s work and employment in agriculture and contributing work, comparing self-reporting as opposed to proxy response; adding questions related to labor underutilization; and modifying and adding questions on constraints to seeking better economic opportunities. The second set of recommendations cover survey methods that still need to be explored through research and testing. This includes how to better elicit unpaid work burdens in surveys and the links with time in employment; how community survey data can complement individual data on complex topics like wages and access to childcare; and developing a survey research agenda around measuring work amid rural economic transitions, including individual-level data on work-related migration across surveys, skills development and access to technology. Contextual factors associated with work and employment also need to be considered in survey design.