The Economic Integration of Women

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between economic development and the integration of women into economic activity in 162 countries. Polynomial regression using indices of femaleness for major industrial sectors and occupational categories assesses this relationship. The data suggest no clear-cut linear or curvilinear relationship. Economic development appears to be unrelated to the integration of women into important sectors of the national economy, namely the agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors. The data suggest that economic development is also unrelated to the integration of women in production occupations and the important decision-making category of administration and management. Of the seventeen areas of economic activity examined in this article, economic development appears to be related to only two areas. Higher levels of economic development are associated with higher levels of integration of women in clerical occupations and in the transport, storage, and communication sector of the economy.