Low Female Participation Research Articles

Effectiveness of Child Care Policies in an Economy with Child Care Services

This paper describes how fertility is determined in a model that assumes the existence of child-care services. When child-care services exist, two multiple states result: a state that brings about low fertility with low female labor partici-pation, and a state that brings about high fertility with high female labor participation. This result is consistent with the positive correlation that is found between the total fertility rate and female labor participation in developed countries, as described by Ahn and Mira (2002) [1] and others. Moreover, this paper presents analyses of the effects of child-care policies, for example, a child allowance and a subsidy for child-care services policies. These policies instantaneously raise fertility. However, in a dynamic general equilibrium model, these policies might pull down fertility because capital accumulation decreases in the long run. If income growth continues in the long run, then the child allowance can always pull up fertility. However, if the income level converges to constant level in the long run, then the child allowance might pull down fertility. This result shows that the effect of the child allowance depends on whether income growth ceases or continues in the long run.

Getting Back into the Labor Market: The Effects of Start-Up Subsidies for Unemployed Females

A shortage of skilled labor and low female labor market participation are problems many developed countries have to face. Besides activating inactive women, one possible solution is to support the re-integration of unemployed women. Due to female-specific labor market constraints (preferences for flexible working hours, discrimination), this is a difficult task, and the question arises whether active labor market policies (ALMP) are an appropriate tool to do so. Promoting self-employment among the unemployed might be promising. Starting their own business might give women more independence and flexibility in allocating their time to work and family. Access to long-term informative data allows us to close existing research gaps, and we investigate the impact of two start-up programs on long-run labor market and fertility outcomes of female participants. We find that start-up programs persistently integrate former unemployed women into the labor market and partly improve their income situations. The impact on fertility is less detrimental than for traditional ALMP programs.

Getting Back into the Labor Market: The Effects of Start-Up Subsidies for Unemployed Females

A shortage of skilled labor and low female labor market participation are problems many developed countries have to face. Beside activating inactive women, one possible solution is to support the re-integration of unemployed women. Due to female-specific labor market constraints (preferences for exible working hours, discrimination), this is a difficult task, and the question arises whether active labor market policies (ALMP) are an appropriate tool to do so. Promoting self-employment among the unemployed might be promising. Starting their own business might give women more independence and exibility in allocating their time to work and family. Access to long-term informative data allows us to close existing research gaps, and we investigate the impact of two start-up programs on long-run labor market and fertility outcomes of female participants. We find that start-up programs persistently integrate former unemployed women into the labor market and partly improve their income situations. The impact on fertility is less detrimental than for traditional ALMP programs.

Population ageing in Ghana:a profile and emerging issues

Population ageing in Ghana is a consequence of a gradual fertility decline which is also occurring in many sub-Saharan African countries. Data from the 2005/2006 Ghana Living Standards Survey show that the percentage of the elderly (persons aged 60 years and above) has increased from 4.9 in 1960 to 5.3 in 1970, 5.8 in 1984 and 7.2 in 2000. Median age has increased from 17 years in 1970 to 18.1 years in 1984 and 19.4 years in 2000, implying a 14.1 percentage increase in 30 years. Socio-economic indicators show that elderly females are more vulnerable and disadvantaged than their male counterparts due in part to low educational attainment resulting in low female participation in the formal sector with its attendant low remuneration and inadequate retirement package. One important emerging issue is the branding of elderly females as witches and subjecting them to abuse and torture in certain parts of the country. This harmful practice infringes upon the human rights of these women and the government of Ghana should do well to abolish the witches’ camps. A large proportion of workers engaged in the informal sector of the economy do not contribute to the Social Security Scheme and this makes it extremely difficult for them to cater for their needs in old age particularly when the extended family is unable to provide support and care. The government of Ghana should make strenuous efforts to bridge the gap between producing a concise National Ageing Policy and its implementation.

Gender Mainstreaming Analysis At The Management Level

It was an exploratory study that was conducted with the main objectives to: provide basic information to stakeholders and planners about gender imbalance and its implications for Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KP) province and Pakistan. The study attempted to: discover the existing gender scenario in the management cadre of public sector of the province; identify barriers and problems to gender equity and equality in the management roles; and suggest ways and means to remove gender disparity at the management level in the sampled devolved departments of social sector of KP. Survey Questionnaires, interviews and stakeholders workshop were used as tools to collect data from 117 respondents of the sampled departments. Main causes of low female participation at higher level included lack of opportunities, inadequate facilities to female officers, rising element of insecurity in the province, men specific positions, discriminations and socially evolved gender bias. On the basis of results and findings a couple of suggestions like organizing gender awareness sessions, ensuring implementation of sanctioned quota, promotion of higher education for women, capacity development and incentives for potential female officers and revival of posts of female District Education Officers, have been made.

Employment situation of women in Pakistan

PurposeThis paper is an attempt to analyze the study of low female work participation rate in Pakistan due to the religious, traditional, cultural values, the colonial ideology and the evolution of social institution that restrain women entry into the labour market.Design/methodology/approachIn order to explore the objectives, the paper develops the classification of male and female age groups into three main categories, and analyze with the help of descriptive and mean methodology.FindingsThe findings of this paper show that the women are suffering from market discrimination and hence are pushed to separate low‐paid and low‐status jobs. Majority of women are employed in the unorganized sectors. Mostly, women are concentrated in sector known for low level of productivity, less income stability and low security of employment due to their dual role at home and workplace. Organized services sector is mostly government services, and provides employment to a small proportion of women. The rate of unemployment among women is consistently higher than that of men, both in rural and urban areas.Research limitations/implicationsThe statistics are reflective of two hard‐core realities. The first factor is that women with no education or with some basic education are allowed to work due to intensive poverty and high rate of inflation; and the second factor is that the existing socio‐cultural norms continues to strengthen gender discrimination and are a source of a massive wastage of the human capital available in the country.Practical implicationsAn analysis of structure of women employment reveals some qualitative improvement in the employment, due to high literacy rate and educational levels.Social implicationsIncreasing levels of female labour force participation rate is a poverty‐induced phenomenon; a larger part is to be traced by improvement in literacy and education levels of women. There is some qualitative improvement in the employment, as women's share in secure and better paid jobs in the organized sector appears to be higher. With the increase in educational levels of women, faster growth of women's employment is observed in modern sectors and white‐collar jobs. Government machinery, non‐governmental organizations and progressive political parties should focus on the education of women if they want to enhance the status of women in Pakistan by implementing special schemes and programmes for absorbing them into different occupations, particularly in organized sector so as to improve their structures of employment as well as status of jobs.Originality/valueClassification of male and female age groups is done into three main categories, i.e. age ten to 14, 25‐29 and 55‐59 for young, adult and old groups, respectively. This paper provides the clear picture of women problems and causes.

Gender roles in agricultural production in the Seychelles

This study examined the role of each member of the family in food production, investigated the type of farming activities the farm families are engaged in, gender specific roles, level of participation of the female gender, gender stereotypes and suggested the use of the information for policy advocacy and strengthening of agricultural service delivery in the Seychelles. Two investigative tools were used namely Focus GroupDiscussion (FGD) and Interview Schedule.Atotal of 100 farmers were interviewed. The study revealed that the farmers were mainly crop farmers. There were no gender specific roles or stereotypes. Men were more involved in all the food production activities except food processing. Other areas of high level women participation were marketing (81%), farm hygiene (76%), record keeping (42.9%)and purchasing of inputs(81%). Low level female participation was a result of attitudinal change, difficult agricultural land terrain, unfavorable government policy and unwholistic approach of agricultural extension services which focused on only the farmer instead of the entire farm family. To achieve sustainable food production in order to ensure food security, the extension services need a new orientation and better funding to enable it carry out its function. The government should make available cultivable lands for food production and encourage women to own their own farms by giving priority to them in land allocation.Keywords: Gender, role, production, stereotype

Cultural Factors in Women's Labor Force Participation in Chile

This article analyzes determinants of female participation in the Chilean labor force using classic determinants such as age, education, marital status, and number of children. The results indicate that the greater a woman's education level, the greater her labor participation; that older women participate more, though the rate of growth of this effect is decreasing; and the number of children that a woman has is negatively correlated to her decision to participate in the labor force. The article also examines machismo and other cultural values that influence female labor participation. The evidence suggests that the more the women have internalized machista and conservative cultural values, the less they participate in the labor market. Finally, the article concludes that the existence of these cultural factors as a group more than compensates for the positive effect of human capital variables and is statistically associated with low female labor participation in Chile.

Estimation of physician supply by specialty and the distribution impact of increasing female physicians in Japan

BackgroundJapan has experienced two large changes which affect the supply and distribution of physicians. They are increases in medical school enrollment capacity and in the proportion of female physicians. The purpose of this study is to estimate the future supply of physicians by specialty and to predict the associated impact of increased female physicians, as well as to discuss the possible policy implications.MethodsBased on data from the 2004 and 2006 National Survey of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists, we estimated the future supply of physicians by specialty, using multistate life tables. Based on possible scenarios of the future increase in female physicians, we also estimated the supply of physicians by specialty.ResultsEven if Japan's current medical school enrollment capacity is maintained in subsequent years, the number of physicians per 1000 population is expected to increase from 2.2 in 2006 to 3.2 in 2036, which is a 46% increase from the current level. The numbers of obstetrician/gynecologists (OB/GYNs) and surgeons are expected to temporarily decline from their current level, whereas the number of OB/GYNs per 1000 births will still increase because of the declining number of births. The number of surgeons per 1000 population, even with the decreasing population, will decline temporarily over the next few years. If the percentage of female physicians continues to increase, the overall number of physicians will not be significantly affected, but in specialties with current very low female physician participation rates, such as surgery, the total number of physicians is expected to decline significantly.ConclusionAt the current medical school enrollment capacity, the number of physicians per population is expected to continue to increase because of the skewed age distribution of physicians and the declining population in Japan. However, with changes in young physicians' choices of medical specialties and as the percentage of female physicians increases, patterns of physician supply will vary between specialties. Specialties less often chosen by young physicians and where males have dominated will face a decline in physician supply. These results highlight the necessity for developing a work environment that attracts female physicians to these types of specialties. This will also lead to improved gender equality in the workforce and more effective use of human resources.

Behavioural and Welfare Effects of Basic Income Policies: A Simulation for European Countries

We develop and estimate a microeconometric model of household labour supply in four European countries representative of different economies and welfare policy regimes: Denmark, Italy, Portugal and United Kingdom. We then simulate, under the constraint of constant total net tax revenue, the effects of 10 hypothetical tax-transfer reforms which include various alternative versions of a Basic Income policy. We produce various indexes and criteria according to which the reforms can be ranked. The exercise can be considered as one of empirical optimal taxation, where the optimization problem is solved computationally rather than analytically. As long as the ranking of reforms is done according to welfaristic criteria it turns out that the most successful policies are those involving non means-tested versions of basic income and adopting progressive tax-rules. When other criteria (such as the implied top marginal tax rate or the effect on female labour supply) are also taken into account, the picture changes: universalistic policies remain optimal and feasible in countries like Denmark where female participation rates are very high; instead, in countries with low female participation rates (like Italy) universalistic policies appear to be too costly in terms of implied top marginal tax rates and in terms of adverse effects on female participation, and means-tested policies such as Work-Fare or Negative Income Tax seem more desirable.

Perceptions of ICT Careers in German Schools: An Exploratory Study

This paper reports on an exploratory investigation of the perceptions of information and communication technology (ICT) as a field of study and work in German secondary schools. A total of 160 students from five secondary schools in Lower Saxony participated in the study in February 2007, and four teachers of the students were interviewed. The investigation is part of the research carried out by the authors within the Griffith University Women in Information Technology (WinIT) project, which has been studying the problem of low female participation since 1995. In this paper we discuss German school students' (male and female) and their teachers' views of ICT, its use at school and home, their influences in using technology, and their ideas about working with technology in the future. We drew on the challenges faced and opportunities available to teachers in the study to put this in context. We found that many senior secondary students have not decided what they want to do when they finish school, suggesting that the environment is ripe for them to receive relevant and useful information that may help them to choose to study tertiary ICT courses. By dispelling negative ICT perceptions and allowing students to make an informed choice as to whether to take up a career in ICT, we can hopefully encourage more students into this ever-growing and exciting industry.

Introduction

The movement of mothers, including those with young children, into paid employment outside the home has been one of the defining economic and social developments of recent decades. Further expansion is endorsed in the EU's Lisbon targets for enhancing the performance of the European economy, identifying low female participation as a major source of the US-EU employment gap. But this development brings its challenges. Women still provide most of the care for children (and other dependants) often curtailing or reorientating their labour market participation in order to do so. The reconciliation of work and family has therefore become a major new focus for social policies towards gender equality. At the same time employers have been expanding part-time jobs, and beginning to introduce other ‘family-friendly’ developments...

Gender equity and fertility intentions in Italy and the Netherlands

Fertility levels have fallen drastically in most industrialized countries. Diverse theoretical and empirical frameworks have had difficulty in explaining these unprecedented low levels of fertility. More recently, however, attention has turned from classic explanations, such as women’s increased labour market participation, to gender equity as the essential link to understand this phenomenon. The increase in women’s labour market participation did not prompt an increase in men’s domestic duties, which is often referred to women’s ‘dual burden’ or ‘second shift’. Institutions and policies within countries also facilitate or constrain the combination of women’s employment with fertility. This paper provides an empirical test of gender equity theory by examining whether the unequal division of household labour leads to lower fertility intentions of women in different institutional contexts. Italy constitutes a case of high gender inequity, low female labour market participation and the lowest-low fertility. The Netherlands has moderate to low gender inequity, high part-time female labour market participation and comparatively higher fertility. Using data from the 2003 Italian Multipurpose Survey - Family and Social Actors and the 2004/5 Dutch sample from the European Social Survey, a series of logistic regression models test this theory. A central finding is that the unequal division of household labour only has a significant impact on women’s fertility intentions when they already carry the load of high paid work hours or children, a finding that is particularly significant for working women in Italy.

PROTOCOL: Personal assistance for non‐demented older adults (65+) with impairments

PROTOCOL: Personal assistance for non‐demented older adults (65+) with impairments

Children, Kitchen, Church: Does Ethnicity Matter?

Gender role attitudes are well-known determinants of female labor supply. This paper examines the strength of those attitudes using time diaries on childcare, food management and religious activities provided by the British Time Use Survey. Given the low labor force participation of females from ethnic minorities, the role of ethnicity in forming those attitudes and influencing time spent for traditional female activities is of particular interest. The paper finds that white females in the UK have a higher probability to participate in the labor force than non-white females. Non-white females spend more time for religious activities and, to some extent, for food management than white females, while there are no ethnic differences for time spent on childcare. The ethnicity effect is also heterogenous across different socio-economic groups. Hence, cultural differences across ethnicities are significant, and do affect work behavior.

Reasons for the Lack of Women’s Participation in Pakistan’s Workforce

Pakistan has come a long way since 1947. Th e progress made in terms of industrialization and electronics has only been outdone by military research. However, there are still a few issues hindering further progress. One of the key issues that has been tackled numerous times is that of gender inequality and the causes of low female participation in the active workforce. Terms like “gender imbalance” and “lack of women’s empowerment” have become attached to Pakistan, oft en tarnishing its image as a modern nation in the international community. According to UNDP reports on Human Development in South Asia, the active participation of women in Pakistan’s workforce remains a debatable subject, despite numerous conferences and studies on the topic. Th e UNDP, ILO, UNESCO, and WHO have funded numerous research conferences on women in Pakistan, both locally and internationally. Th e aim of this study is to review the status of gender inequality in Pakistan and to highlight the main causes of the lack of women’s participation in Pakistan’s active workforce.

Kontekstuelle og tværnationale komparative analyser

Contextualisation of cross-national comparisons
 
 Most social scientists agree that it is necessary to analyse social phenomenon in context. However, the notion of context is most often used loosely and arbitrary. Therefore, this article invites to reconsider the notion of contextualisation, and it is argued that a contextual approach entails that social relations must be given primacy in the analysis of social phenomenon.
 A contextual model is developed in order to understand the marked differences in female labour force participation in Denmark and Italy. It is argued that we find low female participation rates in Italy due to a familial social system (traditional family, residuel welfare state, closed labour markets) which corresponds to a centripetal female orientation, while we find high female labour force partici-pation in Denmark due to a contractual social system (dual family, institutional welfare state, open labour markets) which corresponds to a centrifugal female orientation.

Preface to the special issue

Why are there fewer women in careers related to math, science, and technology? Why does this phenomenon appear robust across a number of countries? Why, despite a concentration of research into this question over the last 25 years, and numerous policy documents and educational efforts, do we still see gendered representation in these careers in the 21st century? Although women have been making gains in entering traditionally male-dominated professions, and in entering the workforce in general, gender differences persist. Females are both less likely to choose careers in those fields, and also to leave them if they do enter them (American Association of University Women, 1993; National Center for Education Statistics, 1997; National Science Foundation, 1999). A resurgence of interest into the question has been prompted in part by a general shortage of people entering so-called ‘‘STEM’’ careers (in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). At the same time, researchers concerned with gender equity have continued to question the reasons for women’s lower representation in STEM. Ever since Lucy Sells voiced social concerns about lower female participation in math courses in her identification of math as the ‘‘critical filter’’ limiting access to many high-status high-income careers (Sells, 1980), others have also argued that many females prematurely restrict their educational and career options by discontinuing their mathematical training in high school or soon after (Bridgeman & Wendler, 1991; Heller & Parsons, 1981; Lips, 1992; Meece, Wigfield, & Eccles, 1990). A major impetus for our Special Issue was to draw together researchers who are each utilizing multi-wave longitudinal data to address this central issue from a variety of perspectives. A unique feature of this Special Issue is our inclusion of studies that represent multiple waves of longitudinal data. Rather than speculating about how processes may unfold over time to produce certain outcomes, longitudinal studies allow us to draw strong conclusions regarding those processes, and to tease apart and test out a range of theoretical models. Empirical bases are large-scale longitudinal

Do time use patterns influence fertility decisions? A cross-national inquiry

Birth rates are falling throughout the western world. There is no definitive answer as to why this is so. This paper investigates whether time use analysis could offer a useful perspective. It explores the way parenthood affects time allocation in four countries with different work-family policies, using data from the Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS) World 5 series to compare the impact of children on adult time in Italy, Germany, Norway and Australia. It considers whether fertility decisions may be influenced by i) the gap between parents and nonparents in total paid and unpaid work undertaken, ii) how paid and unpaid work is divided between mothers and fathers, and iii) the proportion of total male and female work time that is paid before and after parenthood, and conducts multivariate analysis to isolate the effects of nationality, sex and parenthood. The study is very preliminary, but the results suggest that domestic gender inequity and low female workforce participation are associated with lower fertility and may affect parity progression. Further research using more extensive and detailed time use analysis could make an important contribution to understanding of fertility decline.

Motherhood and wages

This article examines labour force participation rates and wage rates according to gender and parenthood in a selection of European countries. Since the ranking of European countries according to their labour force participation rates does not coincide with the ranking of countries according to gross and net hourly wages in purchasing power parities according to gender and parenthood, countries with low female participation rates may face selection into employment effects in women's wages. A review of mostly single-country studies on women's wages shows that for the Scandinavian countries it is still unclear whether care-related leave has consequences for human capital accumulation, whether these consequences are overcome later in a career or not, and whether leave affects wages by signalling. The effect of working part-time on women's wages has not been a focus of research in Scandinavian full-time economies but British studies make clear the negative effects of working part-time on British women's wages. No such clear effect is found in the Dutch part-time economy. There is still a child pay gap in the UK. No such effect is found in the Netherlands nor in Scandinavian countries.