Share Of Female Employment Research Articles

International linkages and female share of employment: Plant-level evidence from a developing country

This paper examines the relationship between international linkages (i.e. exporting, importing, and foreign direct investment) and the share of skilled, unskilled, and total female workers employed in Indonesian manufacturing plants. We utilize plant-level panel data and estimation procedures that account for endogeneity and selection issues to achieve the study objective. Our analysis suggests that foreign ownership and exporting activities lead to a higher share of both skilled and unskilled female employment. However, these effects are more substantial for skilled female workers than for unskilled female workers. The results are robust to the use of different econometric methods and empirical specifications.

Trade Liberalization and Female Employment in the East African Community

The United Nations reported that just 47 per cent of women of working age participated in the labour market in 2020, compared to 74 per cent of men. Although there have been significant changes in the Gross Domestic Product and trade structure, structural changes in employment have been negligible in Sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in The East African Community. Despite being above the Sub-Saharan Africa average female Employment to Population, all the East African Community member states that are the focus of this study have had a declining Employment to employment-to-population ratio. The primary goal of this study is to look into the impact of trade integration on gender outcomes in the East African Community. This was achieved by combining the Phillips and Okuns law to link the relationship between unemployment and its direct and indirect variables. Annual panel data between 2000 to 2021 was utilised. The results show that trade openness has a depressing effect on the share of women employed in the agricultural sector and a positive effect on the share of female employment in the services sector. This trend could be explained by the closeness of the sectors, meaning that female workers do not need new skills to move between the agricultural and services sectors. For women to take advantage of job opportunities in the services sector that improve inequality there is a need to reskill women so that they can take advantage of higher-level job opportunities in the services sector.

Trade Reforms, Capital Investments and the Feminization of Colombian Manufacturing Industries: 1981-2000

We exploit a natural experiment provided by the trade liberalization that occurred in Colombia at the beginning of the 1990s to see its possible effects on the gender composition of the workforce across manufacturing industries. To control for the effects of changes in capital technology, our econometric panel data strategy controls for three different types of capital stock per worker (namely, machinery, office equipment and transport equipment) and compares estimates drawn from a variety of instruments. We also control for changes in market competition within different manufacturing industries with the implementation of a concentration index variable in order to measure the degree of market power. Our findings point out that the Colombian manufacturing industries that became more exposed to trade flows increased their share of female employment in a more pronounced way with respect to those that remained less exposed. This effect, however, appears to be stronger in the case of highly skilled workers. As predicted by microeconomic theory, we observe lower female shares of jobs in manufacturing industries with higher levels of industry concentration. Our results are also consistent with the literature that predicts an increasing feminization of employment as a result of a the massification of emerging computer technologies since the end of the 1980s.

Unleashing the potential: Exploring the relationship between trade liberalization and female labor force participation in Pakistan

Purpose: This study examines the impact of trade liberalization (TL) on female labor force participation (FLFP) during the trade regime period in Pakistan, using sectoral panel data of the manufacturing sector for the period of 1990-2005. Design/Methodology/Approach: We employed panel fixed effects (FEM) and Instrumental-variable (IV) regression models for empirical analysis. Findings: Our study reveals that trade liberalization and FLFP are associated. Trade liberalization increases FLFP in the manufacturing sector. The results of both measures of FLFP (i.e., the share of female employment, and female-to-male ratio) verify each other findings. Our findings are robust to the inclusion of various control variables. Furthermore, our IV analysis also confirms that liberalization has given rise to female employment in the manufacturing sector. Our policy implication is that the government should liberalize trade sectors that can help to enhance FLFP. Originality/Value: This study adds to the existing literature by exploring the association between TL and FLFP in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan by utilizing a better proxy of reductions in import tariffs for TL. The reduction of import tariffs is a policy-based measure that captures the pure impacts of trade policy as compared to outcome-based measures (i.e., trade ratios). We also consider the whole trade regime as a sample period (i.e., from 1990-2005) to examine the core impacts of the trade regime, as import tariffs drastically reduced during this period. Furthermore, we use two measures of FLFP for the analysis, i.e., the share of female employment, and the female-to-male ratio. Lastly, our use of sectoral panel data strengthens the empirical analysis.

Post-industrial capitalism and trade union decline in affluent democracies

This study examines trade union decline in light of concurrent changes in the demographic and sectoral composition of labor markets. Drawing on classical sociology and contemporary scholarship on work and employment, the author theorizes that the emergence of post-industrial work settings coupled with more socially diverse workforces make labor organizing more difficult than prior research recognizes. Operating through various mechanisms, these factors are thought to hinder the development of solidarity among workers and direct employment growth toward previously unorganized parts of the economy. Using panel data on 18 countries from 1960 to 2015, these ideas are tested with regression models that capture labor market changes indicative of post-industrial capitalism—measured by changes in deindustrialization, foreign-born population, and female share of employment. The results support the theoretical argument, with counterfactual estimates suggesting that labor market changes occurring between 1960 and 2015 reduced union density by 9 to 13 points for the whole sample.

Gender, Decent Work, and Global Production Sharing in Indonesian Manufacturing

:Global commodity chains reflect and affect gendered labor markets. This article uses the Decent Work framework from the International Labour Organization to analyze employment outcomes for Indonesian workers in manufacturing. This research investigates trends in feminized manufacturing sectors in variously sized firms. Regression analyses is used to evaluate how firm characteristics related to global production sharing effect decent work outcomes for women and men, as well as female share of employment itself. The results suggest that exports and FDI affect men and women differently and that feminization and decent work outcomes depend on how the sector is positioned along the global value chain.

Targeting Women’s Employment: Do Employment Subsidies Work? Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the effect of the 2008 employment package on the gender employment gap in Turkey. The package introduced subsidies for the employment of women in all 81 provinces. However, positive discrimination was only effective in the provinces that did not benefit from social security contribution cuts under a previous subsidy scheme. Using a difference-in-differences analysis, I find that those provinces saw a 5.1 percent higher increase in the female share of employment in comparison with provinces where positive discrimination was not in force. Moreover, the effectiveness of the package is not lower in more conservative provinces, where conservatism is measured by the percentage of early marriages, gender inequality, and gender empowerment indices. The study concludes that the 2008 employment package was successful in closing the gender gap, even in more conservative provinces. By showing that a demand-side intervention can overcome the cultural constraints, it offers valuable insights to policy-makers interested in pursuing policies related to disadvantaged groups, particularly women. JEL Classification: C31, J08, J21, Z10

Global Defeminization? Industrial Upgrading and Manufacturing Employment in Developing Countries

ABSTRACTGlobalization has for decades been associated with a rise in the female share of employment or feminization. This study finds that since the mid 1980s, export growth in developing countries is associated with feminization in some countries and a defeminization in others. Focusing on Southeast Asia and Latin America, it uses a fixed-effects econometric model to test whether the technological conditions of production (labor or capital intensity) rather than export growth account for shifts in the female share of employment in manufacturing. It finds that the capital intensity of production, evidenced by shifts in labor productivity, is negatively and significantly related to shifts in the female share of employment in manufacturing, while exports are statistically insignificant. The study concludes that an anti-female bias exists in labor demand changes that result from output or employment shifts in developing countries when manufacturing becomes more capital intensive, a process likely related to industrial upgrading.

Unbalanced Growth and Women's Homework

This paper provides an explanation for five stylized facts concerning growth and structural change in the developed economies: (i) the rising share of service employment; (ii) the increase in the female employment rate; (iii) the deceleration of this increase while approaching the male employment rate; (iv) the rising share of female employment within the service sector; (v) the slight and uncertain rise in the share of service output. To this end the paper distinguishes between market services and women's homework, and studies the effects of technical progress on the externalization of home services, which takes place through the interaction between demand for market services and supply of female labor. Baumol's (1967) result that aggregate labor growth declines in a service dominated economy is challenged when homework is considered. Finally, a policy to increase the overall employment rate by subsidizing market services appears to be effective, and can be welfare improving, even if financed by an income tax. service employment, Baumol

Export Orientation and Female Share of Employment: Evidence from Turkey

We investigate the relationship between export orientation and female share of employment in the Turkish manufacturing sector, during 1983–85, following the onset of export-led industrialization policies. Using plant-level data we find that female share of employment in a plant increases with the export to total output ratio of its sector. The contribution of the study to the literature is its use of plant-level data for a large number of plants, enabling us to control for other determinants of female share of employment, such as workers’ skill composition, at the plant level.

Secular Changes in the Gender Composition of Employment and Growth Dynamics in the North and the South

In a simple theoretical exercise, the paper shows that gender relations matter in the standard analysis of trade liberalization and economic growth. It utilizes a model with the two differential equations, phase diagram technique which enables us to examine the cumulative interaction between economic growth and changes in the female share of employment. The model shows that changes in the gender composition of employment caused by a new global division of labor between the North and the South can thwart the economic benefits customarily associated with trade liberalization in both regions.

The Distribution of Earnings in New Zealand

Changes in the distribution of individual earnings between 1984 and 1995 are examined using data from the Household Economic Survey. Several dimensions of changes in the earnings structure are considered, including measures of aggregate earnings inequality, the gender earnings gap and shifts in relative earnings by level of educational attainment. Changes in the variance of earnings are decomposed to identify more clearly the source of the tendencies towards and against greater inequality. Evidence is found of a rise in hourly earnings inequality among males over the decade. However, the effects of this trend on the total earnings distribution were offset by a rise in the female share of employment and a narrowing of the gap between male and female average hourly earnings.

Schooling, Parents and Country

Our argument is that the importance of parents' schooling and female share of employment on children's schooling will vary by gender, ethnicity and economic system. We examine this issue across Germany, Hungary and the former Soviet Union. Our results indicate that there is a direct effect of economic system. Also, the slope coefficients vary among countries, ethnicity and gender. There are also differences in the human capital formation across ethnic groups and gender. While there is some assimilation across generations, it is far from complete.