Formal Labor Force Research Articles

Impact of the World Bank and IMF Policies on rural women's human rights in sub-Saharan Africa

abstract Over the past decades, national governments across sub-Saharan Africa have implemented World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies. The liberalisation of the market and reduced expenditure on public services under these policies may have effects on rural women who, as a result, might have to pay more for agricultural inputs, have access to fewer public services, and may lose the opportunity to participate in the formal labour force. This article aims to study the impact of World Bank and IMF policies on rural women's human rights and first reviews the literature on the World Bank and IMF policies and their gendered impacts, then focuses on the impact of these policies on rural women's human rights in sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of education, labour force and food security.

Work, Welfare, and the Informal Economy: Toward an Understanding of Household Livelihood Strategies

Drawing on data from a survey of family households in nonmetropolitan Pennsylvania, this paper examines how households construct livelihood strategies through partieipalion in the formal labor market, government assistance programs, and informal work (for cash, barter, and savings/self provisioning). Throughout, special attention is paid to influence of household income. The results show that participation in a varied livelihood strategy is common. Greater formal labor force participation is shown among higher-income households, and greater participation in assistance programs is shown among lower-income households. Engagement in the informal economy, however, is shown to differ little by household income. Multivariate models are used to explore key correlates of participation in various livelihood strategies. Implications for future research and efforts aimed at poverty alleviation and community development are then discussed.

The Need for International Family Policy

SUMMARY This article reviews the policies of the United Nations with regard to families where mothers are working in developing countries. The focus is child care, which is being passed over in United Nations' efforts on gender mainstreaming and empowering women as well as ignored in United Nations' statements on poor children. This is especially problematic because globalization is now drawing poor and working class mothers into the formal labor force where combining child care with productive activity is no longer possible. The history of Care, Health and Education for Children in Poverty, an organization located in South Asia, provides a grassroots example. Popular goals of privatization, sustainability and local control are putting poor children at risk in the developing world.

Neopatriarchy, Islam and female labour force participation: A reconsideration

This article reconsiders the cross‐national determinants of female labour force participation in Islamic settings. It explores a neopatriarchal perspective using in dicators of the role of the government and the political role of women. The study shows that government plays a significant role in determining female employment. Islamic ideology as a cultural variable also contributes significantly to the model. Thus, the results indicate that Islamic ideology per se is not the only factor determining female labour force participation; the political atmosphere and economic development also contribute. In main stream sociology, Muslim countries have usually been classified as outliers on gender relations and demographic factors. These countries generally have lower‐than‐average levels of female labour force participation (FLFP) and higher‐than‐average levels of fertility and mortality relative to non‐Muslim nations at the same level of economic development (Weeks, 1988). For example, in 1995, female employment in Islamic countries was 21.7% while other Muslim and non‐Muslim developing countries, it was 38.1% (World Bank World Tables, 1999). The popular press and much of the academic literature interpret Islam as the “secluder” and “excluder” of women which, in turn, inhibits women’s integration into the formal labour force. What is missing from the analysis is the role of the state in those societies as the main employer and investor. In many Islamic societies, the patriarchal system has never been weakened but rather modernised into a system referred to in this study as the neopatriachal state (Moghadam, 1992; Sharabi, 1988). Neopatriarchy will be defined in this article as traditional patriarchy, especially embedded in religion, which gets appropriated by the state to reinforce its rule. In the following section the meaning of each of these factors and how they affect female employment opportunities is explored.

The Disciplinary Apparatus of Welfare Reform

In 1996 President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), to end welfare as we know it. PRWORA, euphemistically referred to as welfare to or simply welfare reform, has fundamentally changed the status of women within U.S. capitalism. Historically, women’s roles in the sexual division of labor have been to reproduce the laborer (cook and keep house) and reproduce the labor force (have children). If women had to work in the formal labor force, then society demanded that they hold jobs appropriate to their gender. There has always been a gender-based social discipline of women whether they were wage earners or homemakers. It is interesting to note that still today beauty contests, sexual harassment, and compulsory use of birth control pills are all forms of discipline enforced on women in many third world factories. Of course, sexual harassment is common in the workplaces of the rich capitalist countries as well. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Women's Employment and Family Stability In Nigeria: A Survey of Working Women In Ibadan Metropolis

The study examined the experiences of working women in Ibadan metropolis and its impact on family stability. A total of 156 working women, both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, participated in the study. Since the majority of Nigerian women are engaged in the informal sector, a larger proportion of women from the informal sector were sampled (i.e 101 respondents ), while 55 respondents were for the formal sector. Results indicated that most women with dependent children go out to work for financial reasons, that is, to augment family income. Also, regardless of the sector of the economy a woman worked, her working responsibility does not prevent her from performing her primary role in the family. The findings indicate that a woman has to put in extra effort to cope with housework and work outside the home, more especially when the husband is not really helpful in this regard. It was also observed that the basic factor inhibiting women's entry into the formal labor force is their low educational background. Finally, it was established that family stability or instability is not a result of women working outside homes or not. Rather, it is a function of understanding between couples. Other factors might have aided or contributed to family instability, such as: cultural differences, barrenness, family influences, amongst others. IFE Psychologia (2003) 11(2), 192-213

The medium run effects of educational expansion: evidence from a large school construction program in Indonesia

This paper studies the medium run consequences of an increase in the rate of accumulation of human capital in a developing country. From 1974 to 1978, the Indonesian government built over 61,000 primary schools. The school construction program led to an increase in education among individuals who were young enough to attend primary school after 1974, but not among the older cohorts. 2SLS estimates suggest that an increase of 10 percentage points in the proportion of primary school graduates in the labor force reduced the wages of the older cohorts by 3.8–10% and increased their formal labor force participation by 4–7%. I propose a two-sector model as a framework to interpret these findings. The results suggest that physical capital did not adjust to the faster increase in human capital.

Population Policy Dilemmas in Europe at the Dawn of the Twenty‐First Century

The article discusses issues raised by persistent below‐replacement fertility in Europe. The continent's demographic predicament is highlighted by comparing age structures and relative population sizes between populations in and outside Europe—such as those of Russia and Yemen and those of an enlarged 25‐country European Union and a 25‐country hinterland to the EU in North Africa and West Asia—during the past 50 years and prospectively up to 2050, based on United Nations estimates and projections. Potential geopolitical aspects of the population shifts are considered. European policy responses to them are found largely wanting. With respect to the key demographic variable, fertility, explicit pronatalism is rejected by most European governments. A set of policy measures that commands wide support, with the hoped‐for side effect of raising birth rates, seeks to make women's participation in the formal labor force compatible with childrearing. The effectiveness of such measures, however, is likely to be limited. Continued below‐replacement fertility, higher immigration from outside Europe, negative population growth, and loss of demographic weight within the global population are safe predictions for the Europe of the twenty‐first century.

MAN WORKS FROM SUN TO SUN, BUT WOMAN'S WORK IS NEVER DONE: INSIGHTS ON RESEARCH AND POLICY

Gender equity and equality in health and human development are key national and international goals. To achieve these goals, the androcentric definition of work needs to be addressed. The current definition is driven by the globalized capitalistic model, which equates "work" with generating income or the production of goods. Indeed, employment in the formal labor force has become the de facto definition of work. Women's work, unpaid and reflecting the gendered role of caring for others, does not fit the economic mold and is, therefore, devalued. The health and social welfare sectors rely heavily on the unremunerated work of women to reduce their budgets, ignoring the unequal burden of care shouldered by women worldwide. Research on women's health has also been hampered by the dichotomous nature of work as employment. Changing the definition of work to value explicitly women's work could significantly impact social, health, and research policies.

The Medium Run Effects of Education Expansion: Evidence from 
 a Large School Construction Program in Indonesia

This paper studies the medium run consequences of an increase in the rate of accumulation of human capital in a developing country. From 1974 to 1978, the Indonesian government built over 61,000 primary schools. The school construction program led to an increase in education among individuals who were young enough to attend primary school after 1974, but not among the older cohorts. 2SLS estimates suggest that an increase of 10 percentage points in the proportion of primary school graduates in the labor force reduced the wages of the older cohorts by 3.8% to 10% and increased their formal labor force participation by 4% to 7%. I propose a two-sector model as a framework to interpret these findings. The results suggest that physical capital did not adjust to the faster increase in human capital.

Commitment to Work Among Welfare‐Reliant Women

The purpose of this article is to describe the work of welfare‐reliant women and to reveal commitment to work in the experiences of 84 welfare‐reliant, rural women interviewed for this study. Understanding the domains where welfare‐reliant women exhibit commitment to work may help policy makers, trainers, and employers design and implement interventions that enhance chances of success for these women in the formal, paid workforce. Discussion focuses on the women's formal labor force participation in the past and desire for wage work in the future; barriers to labor force participation, both personal and in the rural job market; informal work and the work of care; support networks; survival strategies for making ends meet while receiving welfare; and the stigma of welfare receipt.

Formal sector job growth and women’s labor sector participation : The case of Mexico

This paper looks at the effects of demand and supply on the determinants of labor sector (school, home work, informal, and formal) participation between Torreon and Tijuana, Mexico for married and single women. Comparisons between the two cities are used to capture differences in labor demand. Torreon is a traditional city with an agri-industrial base and Tijuana is a border city with large export processing ( maquiladora) and tourism sectors, both of which demand female labor. Factors influencing labor supply include both individual and household characteristics. Married women, given the strong cultural tradition of working in the home, do not significantly increase their paid labor participation with higher labor demand or changing characteristics of the household. Personal characteristics have the greatest impact on labor sector participation. Single women do, however, increase their formal sector participation with additional employment opportunities and respond to household needs by moving in and out of the paid labor market. Results indicate that increases in labor demand in Mexico from the NAFTA could expand formal sector labor force participation of single women.

HOODFAR, Homa, BETWEEN MARRIAGE AND MARKET: Intimate Politics and Survival in Cairo

HOODFAR, Homa, BETWEEN MARRIAGE AND MARKET: Intimate Politics and Survival in Cairo. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, 320 pp., $16.95 softcover / $45.00 hardcover. This wise and scholarly ethnographic work is the result of a field study conducted among more than sixty households in three densely populated areas of downtown Cairo between 1983 and 1994. Using the domestic nuclear household as the unit of analysis the author clearly shows how the financial and cultural constraints of the wider society shape survival strategies of working class families and how, in turn this broad range of activities affects their own standard of living as well as the economy itself In contrast to the many studies of Islamic societies with their emphasis on limitations imposed by religious ideology, Dr Hoodfar contends and sets out to prove that women's low level of participation in the formal labor force is more often the result of rational economic assessment of the real costs and net benefits than the result of patriarchal pressures and reluctance to flout Muslim customs of seclusion. As a trained anthropologist and an Iranian woman, raised in Tehran, the author is able to evaluate choices in terms, seldom grasped by Western ethnographers, unfamiliar with the highly elaborated female arenas of power characteristic of sex segregated societies. Using the colorful and culturally apt metaphor of a game of backgammon, to illustrate the way in which strategies, involving a combination of luck and assessment of available options, must take into account pre-existing and possibly shifting conditions, the author gives a multidimensional historical, demographic, social and economic overview of Egypt, the city of Cairo and the Gulf States. This enables the reader to evaluate more fully decisions made by the subjects of the study. Since aspects of this context changed considerably over the eleven year course of the study, the author prefaces each chapter with relevant updates, such as the opening up or closing of job markets and setting up or the dismantling of government programs. This is particular helpful, for example, in understanding the decision of men, who leave their families in Cairo to seek lucrative employment in the Gulf States and of women, who sometimes find it more profitable to invest time in going after subsidized food, health and education benefits than to seek paid work. The author uses therefore a very broad definition for the economic contribution of women to the household income, which avoids simplistic, symbolic equations of housework with work done by men, and involves instead an analysis of the financial impact on the household of all domestic food preparation and preservation, childrearing as a long-term investment, cash-saving activities of all kinds and dealing with public institutions. …

Ties that bind: US suburban residents on the social and civic dimensions of work

This paper describes how individuals from eight middle class suburbs in the US expressed the social and civic dimensions of the meaning of work during interviews conducted for Boston University's Middle Class Morality Project. A modified grounded theory approach was used to analyze the interviews from this project, which incorporated aspects of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The paper first examines where individuals located their social ties and discusses the recentering of social ties in work and work organizations among these suburban North Americans. Stories and talk of work are then analyzed to illustrate individuals' constructions of the civic and social meaning of their work. The conclusion considers more broadly how the movement of women into the formal labor force, the growth of nonprofit sector jobs, and the increasing prevalence of team-based organizations relate to these dimensions of the meaning of work. I suggest that culturally constructed divisions between the spheres of home, work, and community that emerged during industrialization may be weakening as the social and civic dimensions of work become more salient in a post-industrial era.

The Gender Division of Labor and Family Change in Industrial Societies: A Theoretical Accounting

This paper explores the reasons for the plethora of well-known changes that characterize the family as social institution in the closing decades of the twentieth century, changes sometimes labelled a second demographic transition (Lesthaeghe, 1992) . Our purpose is to develop theoretical explanation of the processes that link economic expansion in the decades since the end of World War II to number of family changes shared by industrial nations: to explain how macrostructural change affects individual decision making and the gender division of labor, resulting, at the aggregate level, in cross-nationally similar changes in the structure and functioning of the family as social institution. We will not be concerned with explaining differences among nations on any variables. Our central thesis is as follows. Since the post-World War II recovery, industrial nations have undergone profound transformations in their economies that have had the net impact of significantly expanding the demand for women's participation in the formal labor force, specifically in service occupations. The timing and extent of this transformation have been variable cross-nationally, but nearly all nations that were industrialized prior to that war had begun to experience it by the early 1970s. In turn, the array of family changes observed in recent decades is function of social psychological processes resulting from major shift in the gender division of labor by which women have come increasingly to resemble men in their rates of labor force participation, within context where men have not come to resemble women in their domestic/familial work. In the first section of this paper we present change data for 21 industrial nations for the decades 1960 to 1990 for variables concerning the labor force, post-secondary education and four family-related phenomena. These data will be used to demonstrate the fact that, regardless of cross-national variation in the extent and timing of change, there is overwhelming uniformity in the direction of change. In the second, longer section we develop process model that attempts to explain these uniformities among industrial nations. I. Documenting Change: 1960-1990 In this section, after describing the sample, we first examine percentage change in the sizes of four labor forces: total, total service in(ustry, [emale ana female service industry. We next present data on change in post-secondary school enrollment rates of women. Finally, change rates in the following family-related variables are presented: total fertility, first marriage and first birth rates for three age cohorts, and divorce rates. The Sample Our sample consists of 21 industrial nations. They comprise all those listed in the World Development Report as Industrial Market Economies, plus the highest three of those listed as Middle Income, for 1960 (World Bank, 1981: Tables 5, 6 and 7). National rankings were based on three measures: GNP/capita, GDP/capita and per capita energy consumption. In our tables, nations are listed in the rank order provided by this report. We chose the 1960 rank order because, wherever available, that year constitutes our base year for examining changes in labor force, education and family variables. It is likely that, with the exception of some nations that did not have market economies after World War II, virtually all nations that were substantially industrialized prior to that war are included in the sample. We have omitted all non-market economy nations because the available data are less reliable and because our later discussion presupposes level of individual freedom not generally available in those nations during the decades in question Labor Market Expansion and The Demand for Women's Labor Later in this paper we will argue that the impetus for family change originated in the expanding demand for women's labor that arises in industrial nations from economic expansion generally and from expansion of service occupations specifically. …

Aging trends -- the Philippines.

This report presents a description of the trends in growth of the elderly population in the Philippines and their health disability education work status income and family support. The proportion of elderly in the Philippines is much smaller than in other Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. The elderly population aged over 65 years increased from 2.7% of total population in 1990 to 3.6% in 1990. The elderly are expected to comprise 7.7% of total population in 2025. The proportion of elderly is small due to the high fertility rate. Life expectancy averages 63.5 years. The aged dependency ratio will double from 5.5 elderly per 100 persons aged 15-64 years in 1990 to 10.5/100 in 2025. A 1984 ASEAN survey found that only 11% of elderly rated their health as bad. The 1990 Census reveals that 3.9% were disabled elderly. Most were deaf blind or orthopedically impaired. 16% of elderly in the ASEAN survey reported not seeing a doctor even when they needed to. 54% reported that a doctor was not visited due to the great expense. In 1980 67% of men and 76% of women aged over 60 years had less than a primary education. The proportion with a secondary education in 2020 is expected to be about 33% for men and 33% for women. 66.5% of men and 28.5% of women aged over 60 years were in the formal labor force in 1990. Women were less likely to receive cash income from current jobs or pensions. 65% of earnings from older rural people was income from agricultural production. 60% of income among urban elderly was from children and 23% was from pensions. Family support is provided to the elderly in the form of coresidence. In 1988 68% of elderly aged over 60 years lived with at least one child. Retirement or nursing homes are uncommon. The Philippines Constitution states that families have a duty to care for elderly members.

From Hoes to Hoes: State Policy, Agricultural Mechanization, and Women's Work Under Central Planning

In this paper, I reexamine the finding that the collectivization of agriculture in Eastern Europe resulted in its feminization. Using Bulgarian data, I find that, despite an increase in women's formal labor force participation, women remained concentrated in the least-mechanized, low-wage jobs. I argue that the Bulgarian state did little to break the pattern of women's responsibility for household labor and weak income opportunities. Despite its claim of promoting gender equality, the Bulgarian state incorporated women's subordinate role into a development strategy based on the extraction of surplus from agriculture.

Cross-National Variation in Occupational Sex Segregation

I examine the relationship between the occupational distributions of men and women in 25 industrial countries and selected social, economic, and cultural factors. Recent research suggests counterintuitive international patterns of occupational sex segregation: low levels of segregation in some traditional countries like Japan and Italy, and high levels in the progressive countries of Scandinavia. I argue that the same economic structures that are associated with women's greater integration into the formal labor force also contributes to a deepening institutionalization of gender within the occupational structure. This may occur through the incorporation of women's traditional tasks into the formal economy, and/or through the hierarchical andfunctional differentiation of economic activity in highly industrial societies. Results indicate that some primary structural characteristics of modern economies (a relatively large service sector and a large employee class) are associated with greater female concentration in clerical, sales, and service occupations. However, other social and cultural characteristics of these countries low rates offertility and more favorable ideological environments -partially offset these segregative forces. Furthermore, the actual penetration of egalitarian principles into the labor market appears to be mediated by the structure of interest articulation, with corporatist systems showing greater propensity toward segregation.

Women's Physical Activity and Pregnancy Outcome: A Longitudinal Analysis from the Philippines

We assessed the effects of physical activity on pregnancy outcome in 2741 Filipino women identified during pregnancy as part of a two-year longitudinal study. Specific elements of physical activity hypothesized to be relevant to pregnancy outcome were posture, energy expenditure, and physical stress. Variables were developed for nine household and 48 formal and informal economic activities. Analyses were stratified by whether the woman performed formal waged work outside of the home, income-related activity at home, or was economically inactive. Results show that traditional definitions of physical activity and work based on participation in the formal labour force ignore a sizeable amount of home economic production, as well as the physical demands of housework. We saw no difference in risk of low birthweight or preterm delivery in economically active compared to economically inactive women. However, we found that increased amounts of standing activity affected pregnancy outcome in certain groups of women. Accurate assessment of the effects of physical activity during pregnancy must examine specific components of the activity, rather than relying on formal employment as a proxy for exposure.

Sex Differences in Early Labor Force Experience: Harbinger of Things to Come

The increased participation of youngsters in the formal labor force raises questions about how early in individuals' occupational histories sex differences in labor force participation, and the rewards thereof, begin. Analysis of current and retrospective data obtainedfrom 3,101 suburban 10th and 11th graders about theirfirst and subsequent jobs shows that (a) adolescents' first jobs are significantly segregated by sex; (b) girls work fewer hours per week than boys; (c) girls typically earn lower hourly wages than boys; and (d) hourly wages are higher in job types that are dominated by males. In general, differences are maintained over youngsters' early job histories. These findings mirror well-known facts about sex differences in the adult occupational structure and are interpreted in terms of differential opportunity and differential socialization. It is well-known and well-documented that fewer adult women than men are employed; that employed women work fewer hours than men, even if both hold full-time jobs; that adult working women are clustered, in higher proportion than men, in lower paying occupational categories; and that even within the same broad occupational category (e.g., the professions, sales jobs) women earn less than men (U.S. Bureau of the Census). These striking social and economic realities raise questions that have not received adequate attention to date. When does the pattern of lower female partici*This study is part of a larger program of research on the costs and benefits of early work experience to adolescent development. The research was funded by the National Institute of Education; dissemination of policy-relevant papers is supported by the Ford Foundation. The authors, who are Co-Principal Investigators of the research program, share equal responsibility for preparation of this report. We thank staff members of the Adolescent Work Project for their assistance in the cleaning, coding, and analysis of data. We owe a special debt to Margaret M. Marini for her extensive review of an earlier version of this paper and the revision to which it led. Linda S. Gottfredson and Aage B. Sorensen also made helpful suggestions on the initial draft. Address correspondence to the authors, Program in Social