Female Labour Market Participation Research Articles

Towards Gender Equality in The Cambodian Labor Market – Gender Gaps Prevent Females from Stable Income Generation

Cambodia has enjoyed a decade of macroeconomic stability and growth and is increasingly integrating with the region. Nevertheless, a few topics remain challenging as Cambodia strives for middle-income status by 2030. One of these is gender disparity in the labor market. While Cambodia has one of the highest female labor market participation rates in Asia, most women still face horizontal and vertical gender inequality. Such gender disparities in the labor market negatively affect the macroeconomic efficiencies of developing countries as well as stable income generation of females. As the social development of modern civilizations is based highly on gender equality, gender stereotypes are likely to prevent Cambodia from transforming into a society of equal opportunity. While a previous World Bank quantitative research report provided statistical insights into gender-related inequality in Cambodia (Gavalyugova & Cunningham 2019), many constraints underlying gender inequality in the labor market remained largely unclear. In order to develop new programs concentrating on increasing female involvement in the labor market, it is necessary to investigate the problems and challenges women face when entering the labor market in Cambodia. To contribute to filling this knowledge gap, this study collected and analyzed qualitative data. Qualitative focus group discussions and key informant interviews were held to gain a deeper understanding of mechanisms underlying gender disparities in the Cambodian labor market.

Feminization of Resistance: Reclaiming the Affective and the Indefinite as Counter-Strategy in Academic Labor Activism

‘Feminization’ is used either quantitatively to indicate an increased female labor market participation or qualitatively to refer to labor devaluation and to types of work that supposedly require “feminine” skillsets. This article cautiously hews to the qualitative interpretations but suggests an affirmative reconstruction of the concept in the context of collective action. It argues that contemporary grassroots academic labor movements rely more explicitly on collective emotions and aim at building long-term bases of solidarity, instead of performative activism and mass mobilizations. This ‘affective turn’ in academic labor activism is argued to signal a “feminization of resistance”, characterized by a pronounced propensity for affective and relational groundwork. This argument is substantiated in view of the Network for Decent Work in Academia (NGAWiss), a nation-wide precarious researchers’ network in Germany, and the New Faculty Majority (NFM), an adjunct advocacy group in the US. The aim is twofold: first, the article contributes to a better understanding of contemporary labor activism by elucidating the precarious collective’s incremental achievements, often ignored by the outcome-oriented labor movement literature. Second, by reframing it as a mode of affective resistance, the article extends the analytical scope of the term “feminization”.

Childcare Infrastructure in the Nordic Countries as a Way of Enabling Female Labor Market Participation

This paper provides a legal analysis of how barriers for increased gender equality in the labor market can be mitigated through the inclusion of childcare infrastructure, primarily paid parental leave, regulation of maternal and paternal leave, and universal childcare. The five Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland are used as case studies.

Migrant-native differentials in the uptake of (in)formal childcare in Belgium: The role of mothers’ employment opportunities and care availability

Objective: we explore migrant-native differentials in the uptake of formal and informal childcare and whether this is induced by lower demand for childcare versus differential access to (in)formal childcare compared to natives.
 Background: The rise in female labour market participation in recent decades has challenged parents to negotiate work and family responsibilities and organise childcare. Belgium is among the European countries with the highest availability of formal childcare, but maternal employment and uptake of childcare are substantially lower in migrant populations.
 Methods: Combining linked microdata from the 1991 and 2001 censuses with contextual data on childcare availability at the municipality level, we use multinomial logit models to study childcare use and type of childcare arrangement among parents having a young child in 2001. As access to childcare and maternal employment are mutually endogenous, we use estimated employment opportunities.
 Results: We find considerable migrant-native differentials in childcare use, as well as substantial differences between first and second generation migrants. Second generation mothers of Turkish, Moroccan and Eastern-European background are less likely than natives to use childcare, and more likely to rely on informal arrangements if childcare is used. Controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and differential availability of (in)formal childcare largely accounts for differences in childcare use, but Turkish and Moroccan women remain less likely to use care and first generation Turkish mothers remain more likely to use informal care as opposed to formal childcare.
 Conclusions: While differences in socio-demographic characteristics, labour market opportunities and availability of (in)formal care provide a partial explanation, partial migrant-native differentials in childcare use persist for specific groups, suggesting that other factors inhibit the uptake of formal childcare.

The double penalty: How female migrants manage family responsibilities in the Spanish dual labour market

Objective: This study examines the convergence of employment behaviour and work-life balance of foreign-born women with those of native-born Spanish women between 2014 and 2018.
 Background: The changing role of women in the labour market is a central development of the past century. However, the study of female labour market participation has focused on native women, typically with a college education.
 Method: We use the Spanish Labour Force Survey and its 2018 ad hoc module on the reconciliation of work and family life to compare the working behaviours of native and migrant women. We use a matching algorithm to construct a sample of native workers with comparable human capital and living arrangement characteristics.
 Results: The segmentation of the Spanish labour market leads to the concentration of female immigrants in specific occupational niches with precarious employment conditions, regardless of the length of their stay in the country. The country’s employment and care regime forces female migrants to deal with their care responsibilities differently than their native counterparts: i.e., migrants are more likely than natives to interrupt their employment to fulfil household duties, and are less likely to engage in part-time work and to outsource care provision to family and professional caregivers.
 Conclusion: Female immigrants are doubly penalised as both immigrants and mothers.

How trade diversification and economic growth affect gender inequality in female labour market participation? The case of India

PurposeThis paper attempts to investigate through empirical exercise how the chances of female employment opportunities rise in a developing country like India, against the backdrop of changes in institutions that are associated with globalization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a simultaneous equation model through a growth equation, gender equation and globalization equation to identify the factors impacting female labor market opportunities in India, based on annual time series data 1991–2019.FindingsThe major results of this study are as follows: (1) It is social globalization that positively impacts gender equality in employment opportunities apart from economic growth and trade diversification; (2) Evidence of “feminization of labor force” in the context of trade diversification is found; and (3) Equal gender opportunities reflect in equalizing outcomes in the labor market.Practical implicationsGrowth strategies need to be constructed in such a way in India that it has redistributive implications and benefits women. The state agency needs to optimize the productive base of human resources and increase women's empowering capability through social and legal sanctions.Originality/valueThe uniqueness of the present paper lies in contributing to the existing literature on how gender inequality impacts trade diversification and how trade diversification impacts gender.

Does birth spacing affect female labor market participation? Evidence from urban China

This paper investigates the impact of birth spacing on female labor market participation in urban China. Employing household panel surveys between 1989 and 2011 and exploiting variations in time intervals between the first and second child, we find that spacing births at longer intervals significantly increases female labor market participation. The effects of birth spacing are robust to various examinations that consider nonlinear specifications, selection on observed and unobserved variables, and the plausibly exogenous instrument. The heterogeneous analysis suggests that the effects of birth spacing are more pronounced in women with a daughter as the first birth, women with late first birth, and less-educated women. We examine potential mechanisms and document that women with longer birth intervals are likely to invest more in continuing education and have better health status.

Are we all in this together? Alleviating the childcare constraint for women in economic crises

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to advocates the use of gendered economic policies to stimulate a post-COVID-19 recovery. It alerts on the risk of ignoring the female dimension of the current crisis and of resorting again to austerity programs that, like the ones enacted after the 2008 crisis, would hit women and mothers disproportionally harder than other groups.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use data from the British Household Panel Survey on female participation and account for gendered constraints and enablers missed by mainstream economics. Using a sequential empirical approach, the authors simulate various welfare policy scenarios that address factors, such as childcare costs, personal and social nudges, that could help women back into the labor market in the aftermath of a crisis.Findings The authors found that incentive-type interventions, such as subsidies, promote female labor market participation more effectively than punishment-austerity type interventions, such as benefits' cuts. Policies oriented to alleviate childcare constraints can be sustainable and effective in encouraging women back to work. Considering factors wider than the standard economic variables when designing labor market policies may provide fruitful returns.Originality/valueThe sequential methodology enables to estimate current and counterfactual incomes for each female in the sample and to calculate their prospective financial gains and losses in changing their labor market status quo, from not employed into employed or vice-versa. Welfare policies affect these prospective gains and losses and, by interacting with other factors, such as education, number and age of children and social capital, prompt changes in women's labor market choices and decision.

Gender Differences in Retirement Behavior: How Family, Work, and Pension Regime Explain Retirement in Chile

AbstractWhile there is vast research on the Chilean pension system, its financial sustainability, and overall effects on the economy, the literature is scanter about gender differences in retirement and its determinants in the context of a high-income developing country with low rates of female labor market participation and less generous welfare provisions. This study seeks to address these gaps. Employing data from the Longitudinal Social Protection Survey (LSPS), we conduct survival analyses to (a) estimate differences in the risk of retirement between men and women, and to (b) investigate how the decision of retirement is influenced by family, work/socioeconomic factors, and pension regimes. Our analyses focused on the age of the first pension receipt. We carry out supplemental analyses on whether pension receipt leads to permanent exit from the labor market. Our results showed that women have a higher risk of receiving their first pension and retire earlier than men. We found that different work experiences prompt women to leave the labor market earlier than men. These results differ from prior research in developed countries that indicated that in countries with low female labor participation rates, women retire later than men.

The Alabaster Ceiling: The Gender Legacy of the Papal States

We investigate the legacy of the former Papal States on modern female condition by comparing Italian municipalities located in a narrow band across the border between the former Papal States and the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany. While in the Papal States gender inequality was particularly severe, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany experienced a relatively stronger female emancipation. We find that one century after the fall of the Papal States, in the municipalities formerly ruled by the Pope, there is lower female labour market participation and employment when compared to their counterparts in Tuscany, while we do not detect any discontinuity for males. We also find that in the former Papal States there is less political support for the legal right to divorce, historically advocated by women emancipation movements.

Reformas alemãs das pensões e do mercado de trabalho e o potencial aumento da desigualdade social entre trabalhadores de idade mais avançada e pensionistas

Policymakers in all European countries have implemented reforms aimed at delaying retirement and extending working lives mainly to mitigate financial pressure on public pay-asyou-go pension systems and to increase the supply of skilled labour. This could be a reason for an increase of older workers’ labour force participation. This increase was particularly strong in Germany. In the paper at hand, we will answer two research questions: i) how can this steep increase in German older workers’ employment rate be explained? Furthermore, and related to this: ii) have policies for longer working lives fostered inequality? We base our analysis on an extensive literature review and descriptive data analysis. We conclude that the rise of the employment rate of older workers in Germany has several causes. First, the German labour market has performed very well, so that the policy debate has shifted from unemployment to a lack of (skilled) labour. Second, there is a strong increase of female labour market participation. Third, due to cohort effects, today’s older workers are healthier and better skilled than their predecessors. Finally, the pension and labour market reforms aimed at delaying retirement had an effect. However, we also find that lowskilled and low-income workers increasingly have to delay their retirement due to financial reasons. It seems that social inequalities in the retirement transition are increasing in Germany.

The Effect of Housework on Wages: A Study of Migrants and Native-Born Individuals in Germany

To increase labour market participation among migrants, an increase in female labour market participation is important, with wages being a significant incentive. In research on the gender wage gap, the consideration of housework has been a milestone. Gender differences in housework time have always been much greater among migrants than among native-born individuals. Based on data obtained from the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1995 to 2017, this study questioned whether housework affects the wages of migrant full-time workers differently than those of their native-born counterparts. To consider the possible endogeneity of housework in the wage equation, the analysis estimated, in addition to an OLS model, a hybrid model to estimate within effects. Significant negative effects of housework on wages resulted for migrant women and native-born individuals. The effects for migrant men were significantly smaller or insignificant, which could not be explained by threshold effects. The greater amount of time spent on housework by migrant women than by native-born women will in general lead to a larger wage decrease due to housework for migrant women than for native-born women. The results further showed that the observed variables explained very little of the migrants’ gender wage gap, in contrast to the gap of native-born individuals. Human capital returns, including education and work experiences, were much lower for migrant women than for native-born women, whereas differences in housework equally contributed to the explained share of the gap for both groups, indicating the greater relevance of housework for migrants’ wage gap.

The weight of patriarchy? Gender obesity gaps in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The worldwide obesity epidemic has impacted women more heavily than men. These gender-based differences are particularly pronounced in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where gender obesity gaps on average exceed 10 percentage points. This paper examines one of the explanations, namely the role of female empowerment on gender gaps in obesity. We study the effect of several measures of female empowerment including female labor market participation on gender obesity gaps over a time span of 41 years (1975-2016) in a sample of 190 countries. We document that after controlling for a number relevant controls, gender obesity gaps are only associated to measures of female empowerment in the MENA region but that this is not true worldwide. We then use an instrumental variable approach in order to illustrate that the causality runs indeed from empowerment, proxy it by both labor market and political participation to gender obesity gaps and not vice versa. Our results reveal that a one percentage point increase in female labor market participation (female MPs in national parliament) predicts a 0.2 (0.09) percentage point decrease in gender gaps in obesity in the MENA region.

Gender and mobility: Qatar’s highly skilled female migrants in context

ABSTRACT Very little is known about the life experiences of highly skilled female migrants and almost nothing about them outside of Western contexts. This paper attempts to address this knowledge gap by examining the experiences of highly skilled migrant women working in the Persian Gulf monarchy of Qatar. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a sample of highly skilled migrants in Qatar, the paper examines the experiences of highly skilled migrant women in the Gulf in order to understand how their experiences compare with male counterparts, and the ways in which these experiences are gendered as a result of marital and family status. It also examines how the kafala labor sponsorship system differentially conditions highly skilled female versus male labor market participation, thereby producing very different professional and personal migration experiences. Finally, the paper highlights the importance of intersectionality on migrants’ lived experiences, as it finds that social, cultural, national, and geographical categories are important when thinking about the mobility of highly skilled women.

Women’s Participation in Domestic Duties and Paid Employment in India: The Missing Links

The global estimates indicate a low participation of women in the labour force and prominent gender gap at 50 percentage points evidenced in regions like South Asia as reported by the International Labour Organization. Within the South Asian context, India has witnessed a decline in the female labour market participation from 34.1% in 1999–2000 to 27.2% in 2011–2012 as per the National Sample Survey Organization. Also, the domestic duties participation for women in India has increased. Women perform a large number of economic activities but most of their contributions remain underestimated with underreporting of women’s work. The present paper is contextualized within the emerging labour process theories to understand the gender differentials in employment trends in India. There is an attempt to analyse women’s unpaid work with specific emphasis on their participation in household and related activities (domestic duties), thereby exploring intra-household dynamics and role of socio-cultural norms in interpreting gender roles in the household. The paper engages with intersections of caste, marital status and household size to understand women’s constraints to participate in paid employment within the emerging labour processes in the contemporary society.

Long-term care in Spain: a reform failure or the regulation of a development path?

PurposeSpain departed from the Southern European tradition of residual long-term care services with the 2006 reform. The paper aims to present the main traits of the reform and its implementation, explores the reasons that may explain why the reform happened and to which extent and why it fell short of expectations.Design/methodology/approachThe article draws on available literature on the reform and on administrative data to present a complex and nuanced view of the reform process and its limits.FindingsThe reform was actually a measure to enhance and rationalize a preexisting process of social care services development, rather than the creation of a completely new care system. A rapid increase in female labor market participation since the 1990s and the looming demands of a late baby-boom and the subsequent fertility crash appear to be two key factors that explain both the previous development and its bolstering by the reform. The budgetary constraints of the Great Recession and governance problems, linked to a complex and sometimes dysfunctional multilevel governance arrangement, help to understand why the reform bogged down. Nevertheless, the overall balance is more nuanced, and significantly more services are provided 12 years after the reform.Originality/valueWhile many assessments of the reform have been negative, putting it into a larger context of social care development, the 2006 Dependency Act has contributed to a significant increase in expenditure and coverage. The impact of budgetary restrictions has been important, but other factors, such as governance arrangements, may explain more of the problems of the implementation.

What, where, and how: drivers of welfare attitudes toward work-family reconciliation policies in South European societies

ABSTRACT With increasing female labour market participation, welfare states in Europe have aimed to reorient their policies in order to face a newly emerging social risk – difficulties to combine work and family roles. Yet, they differ in the extent of this adaptation, which has been associated with multiple factors including the influence of cultural values or ideas towards care. In this article, we employ the European Social Survey (Round 8) to examine whether and how not only self-interests but also values influence public willingness to pay for extending state’s work-family reconciliation policies in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, where care provision traditionally was in the family. Although South European welfare states are often considered to be similarly influenced by traditional gender and family values, the findings of this study contribute to the evidence that there are important differences between them.

Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Innovation: International Evidence

AbstractUsing a novel database of firm patents and board characteristics across 45 countries, we examine both within- and cross-country determinants of board gender diversity and its relation to corporate innovation. Boards are more likely to include women in countries with narrower gender gaps, higher female labor market participation, and less masculine cultures. Firms with gender diverse boards have more patents and novel patents, and a higher innovative efficiency. Further analyses suggest that gender diverse boards are associated with more failure-tolerant and long-term chief executive officer (CEO) incentives, more innovative corporate cultures, and more diverse inventors, characteristics that are conducive to an improved innovative performance.

Can Childcare Benefits Increase Maternal Employment? Evidence from Childcare Benefits Policy in Japan

We estimate the policy impacts of the resumption of income thresholds for childcare benefits (CB) policy in April 2012 on female labor market participation, expenditure on childcare services, and child health outcomes using the Longitudinal Survey of Newborns in the 21st Century in Japan. We use a regression discontinuity design and find that the reduction of CB payments in households where the annual income of the higher-earning exceeded their threshold encouraged mothers to start working as part-time workers or self-employed, both in terms of intensive and extensive margins of labor supply.Furthermore, we find that some mothers who started working as part-time workers because of the cuts in CB used to work full-time before giving birth and quit after giving birth. Even though the mothers resumed work outside the home, expenditure on childcare services and child health outcomes were little affected. Our results imply that the CB payments had a negative income effect on employment of mothers who used to work outside the home before giving birth and might prevent some mothers from pursuing their lifetime careers, especially among higher-income households.

Economic Development and Female Labour Force Participation in Tamil Nadu: A Test of the ‘U’ Shape Hypothesis

This paper analyses the trends and pattern of women’s employment in the state of Tamil Nadu and its districts in order to find out the applicability of the “U” curve shape of female labour supply using NSSO and census data on employment for the period 1983 to 2018. Top five and bottom five districts on the basis of district level per capita income and female literacy are selected as sample districts. The results show that there has been a significant growth in GSDP of the state during 1983 and 2018, but there is no corresponding improvement in female work participation rates. Women’s employment has fallen particularly during the period 2011 and 2018 and rural areas have registered a greater withdrawal of women from workforce. The “U” curve hypothesis does not find empirical evidence and support in the case of Tamil Nadu. Strong negative effect of income and weak substitution effect of expansion of female education and lack of job opportunities have contributed towards an inverted “U” curve. If suitable measures are not taken to improve female labour market participation, then Tamil Nadu cannot harvest the benefits of demographic dividend.