Chapter 7 Gender And Work

Chapter 2 Gender Difference in Other Countries 1.1Introduction Here we take a broad description of the economic status of women as compared to men throughout the world, with special attention paid to women’s labor market activity and the forces that influence it.

1.2The Economic Status of the World’s Women There are a number of measures that, by general agreement, are regarded as useful indicators of women’s economic status: 1. Women’s labor force participation. 2. The degree of occupational segregation by gender 3. The female-male earning ratio. 4. Women’s educational attainment. 5. the fertility rate. 6. The allocation of housework. 7. The Women’s role in government as well as their standing before the law.

1.2.1Labor Force Participation It is the considered the most important indicator of women’s economic status. 1

While it is true that women perform a great of deal of work in all economies, the total amount and the allocation between household and paid work differ substantially. Paid work is deemed to be particularly important because it provides women with status in their own right, allow for greater power and influence in decision making within the family and raises the family’s standard of living overall. Labor force participation is influenced not only by the age range of the population but also influenced by age distribution of the population, the typical school leaving and retirement age, the prevalence of market work itself versus family based activities. Lowest : 29 % in Middle East Highest : 77 % in Russia

Saudi Arabia : Statistics not available.

Part of the explanation for differences in labor force activity by gender is that countries and more generally, regions are in the various stages of economic development, ranging from agricultural to industrial and post-industrial.

One hypothesis that receives some support from the evidence is that the relationship between economic development and women’s labor force participation rates tends to be U-shaped.

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That is , female labor force participation is high in the stages of subsistence agriculture, when women tend to be heavily involved as family workers.

But then declines during the early stages of economic development as the nature of agricultural work changes and the focus of much production moves out of the household and into factories and offices. The female labor participation rate is now at the bottom of the U-shaped.

As the countries become more developed and women’s education and opportunities in white-collar employment rise, their labor force participation once again increases.

1.2.2Occupations In considering women’s economic status, it is interesting to go beyond examining to what extent women participate in the labor market and also consider what jobs they have.

It appears that across all cultures and at all times, occupations have been gender segregated to a greater or lesser extend.

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Nature of the job could be a main reason : metal working and fishery tend to be male activities, while cooking, laundering have been predominately female.

However, with the exception of certain occupation mentioned above, there is a general pattern is that while occupation tend to be gender segregated, they vary as to whether they are dominated by men or women.

Factors include social norms, traditions and religious beliefs.

One common features of women’s employment is that it tends to be in lower-paying jobs.

There is also evidence that occupational segregation has declined in recent decades, albeit not in all countries or all regions.

1.2.3Earnings The available evidence indicates that women everywhere earn less than men, although there are large variations in the extent to which this is the case. 4

Example: In advance countries: In 1998 : Japan : female- male earning ratio : 0.64 : 1 : Sweden : 0.90 : 1

Developing countries: Problem with data availability and reliability.

Factors for the observed variation: The extend of occupation segregation, Gender differences in educational attainment, Labor force attachment, Labor market discrimination, Government policy. General reward for skill, like education and experience. Employment in the male-dominated occupation

1.2.4Educational Attainment Women’s educational attainment is also important as an indicator of women’s economic status.

It also allows women to make better informed decisions about affairs in their own household, their community and their nation. 5

Gender differences in educational attainment are fairly small among economically advanced countries, but vary considerable in across all countries.

Illiteracy rates provides another useful measure of educational attainment.

An important factor that contributes to low levels of educational attainment for both men and women in the poorest countries is that large number of children do not even attend school, because many of them are helping out at home while others are employed as child labor.

1.2.5Fertility There is also a strong relationship between fertility, educational attainment and labor market activity.

Fertility rates are an important indicator of women’s economic status because with few children, women have greater opportunities to engage in production for pay.

If birthrate are high, women have more incentive to remain full-time homemakers.

As women invest more in education and increaser their participation in market work, particular when it is away from 6

the household, the opportunity cost of bearing children rises, thereby providing an incentive to reduce the number of children.

Fertility is at time related to explicit government policy, as well as religion and ideology.

Example : Government policy – generous child allowances, paid parental leaves and subsidized day care.

1.2.6Housework The roles of women and men in the labor market are interrelated with their roles in the household.

There is a continuation of unequal division of household responsibilities, potentially influences both the amount of leisure time men and women have and their achievement on the job.

This unequal division of housework is also true across the other economically advanced countries.

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1.2.7Women’s Role in Government and Their Standing Before the Law Women’s roles in government and their standing before the law also serve as important indicators of their status. Greater representation of women among public officials is widely thought to increase the extent to which women’s issues receive attention from the government, and greater equality before the law affects, among other things, women’s right to inherit and own property, as well as their rights within the family and in case of divorce.

Although women today have the right to vote in virtually all countries, they continue to be substantially under represented in public postiions.

Example: As of the Year 2000, only 17 women had ever been elected heads of state and only 25 women had served as prime minister.

Interpretation and Implications

1. There is a substantial variation in the status of women among different region and even across countries. 2. Economic factors influence the status of women as compared to men. 3. Non economic influences also play an important roles as well. 8

4. Women’s economic status is important, not only for themselves, but also for the their children as well. 5. In both developed and developing countries, women who have their own income tend to allocate it differently than men. Women spent a higher proportion of their income for their children, specially daughters. It promotes greater equality between boys and girls. Girls are more highly valued and better treated when women are working for pay. Thus, it should have a long-term effect of providing a better start for children of both sexes and quite possibly enhancing girls’ status relative to boys, lessening the gender disadvantage that girls and women currently face.

6. Women’s status continue to remain low in may countries. 7. In some countries, women face some new and growing difficulties: Example : In Jordan, Pakistan and India, women have continued to be victims of ‘honor killing’ in retaliation for being suspected of having an extramarital affair or having had premarital sex. In India, though illegal, girls continue to be forced into child marriage.

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In recent civil wars in Bosnia and Sierra Leone, women has been systematically raped as part of the ‘warfare’.

Perhaps the most serious threat to the population of may developing countries, men and women alike, is the HIV/ AIDS epidemic. In some parts of Africa, there are more than 5 times as high among teenage girls as for teenage boys.

1.3A Comparison of the United States to Other Economically Advanced Countries. The same trend that have occurred in the United States since the 1970sWomen’s rising labor force participation, Improvement in the female- male wage ratio, A modest reallocation of housework among men and women, Declining marriage rates, Rising ratio of divorce, Cohabitation, Births to unmarried mothers,.. have also occurred in other economically advanced countries, although of vary degree.

Reasons

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The goal of Swedish government policy has been to women and men, as far as possible, in the same way.

Anti discrimination legislation is also expected to affect labor market outcomes. – Equal employment opportunity All economically advanced countries, have mandated paid leave for mothers or for both parents.

Workers are guaranteed their jobs when they return and may work part-time until the youngest child is eight.

Only a few countries provide subsidized child care, but some of these have committed a large amount of resources for this purpose.

1.3.1Labor Force Participation Women’s participation increased appreciably, while men’s participation decreased somewhat in all of the economically advanced countries.

However, there were substantially cross-countries.

High labor participation rate in Sweden is not surprising in view of all their policies intended to encourage women to enter and remain in the labor force. 11

At the same time, it should be noted that women at home caring for their young children, who are covered by Sweden’s generous parental leave policy, are considered to be in the labor force.

1.3.2Occupations Although Sweden has the highest women labor participation in the economically advanced countries, it also has the highest sex segregation by occupation. Most of the women in Sweden are employed in traditionally female clerical and while –collar jobs, mostly in the government sector and in health care.

1.3.3The Gender Wage Gap Women are still paid lesser than men but the ratio of women’s to men’s earning has risen over the years.

1.3.4Demographic Trends Fertility rate has fallen in most economically advanced countries, averaging about 1.5 children per couple.

Marriage rates have declined in all countries since the 1970s.

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Wives in Japan have a particularly strong cultural obligation to care for both their own and their husbands’ elderly parents.

1.3.5Housework In all countries, men do considerably less housework than women. However, with the exception of Japan, mean are increasing spending more time in housework and fewer hours in market work.

1.4Developing Countries Women in developing countries face major challenges and difficulties as a result of the extremely low income level of these countries.

More than three-fourths of the world’s population lives in these countries, but they received only 15 % of the income, whilst the wealthiest 20% receives 85 % of the income.

Developing countries are generally characterized by: 1. An extremely low standard of living, 2. High rate of infant mortality, 3 Short life expectancy and, 13

4. High rate of illiteracy. 5. High fertility rate.

1.4.1Education as the Pathway to Employment Illiteracy rates among women in these developing countries continue to be substantially higher than among men.

Women’s education attainment has been historically lower than men for several reasons:

1. The opportunity cost of sending daughters to school is often greater in terms of productive output forgone because, in many cases, girls do more household work and market work than boys. 2. Sons will become the breadwinners and in most cultures are expected to support their parents in their old age, while girls marry into another family and have no independent means to support their parents. 3. In some culture, education beyond a minimal level, may actually reduce a woman’s chance of marrying. 4. Education is likely to postpone marriage which could defer and possibly reduce the bride-price when she marry. Education is the key to improving the well-being of women, their families and the country as a whole. 14

The situation is changing. There is growing awareness that education is not only the key to independence and empowerment for women, but that it gives them both the incentive and ability to reduce their fertility, as well as the opportunity to better contribute to their families.

In terms of private benefits, education enhances women’s potential for entry into the labor force, raises their potential earnings and also increases women’s productivity in the home.

For one, they will be able to read labels and instructions, informed about nutrition and health care, and birth control.

Parental education has a significance influence on children’s schooling, with some evidence that mother’s schooling has a particular important impact on daughters.

1.4.2Fertility and Population Control Fertility and population control in developing countries are critical linked not only to women’s economic status but to the economic viability of these countries,

Methods used: 15

1. voluntary use of contraceptives 2. Coercive ( using force or threats ) population control enforced by government 3. Sex education. 4. Strict limits on the number of children couples are permitted to have.

Expanding women’s education is an exceptional promising solution to control population growth.

A major concern is that in a handful of countries efforts to control fertility, have substantially increased the ratio of men to women in the population.

1.4.3Child Labor Girls often face particular challenges in developing countries be cause of gender bias in parental investment in education and, in some case, even bias in the basic nutrition they receive.

Compounding this, many girls as well as boys in developing countries are engaged in economic activity, defined as doing work on a regular basis for which they receive pay or that results in output the family sells in the market.

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Female child laborers tend to be underestimated in numbers because are employed as domestic workers in other people’s home, outside the realm of the official statistics.

1.4.4Micro – credit for Women : Lifeline or Mirage? Most people are well aware that in a modern economy, large and small, are heavily dependent on credit.

In developing countries, the amount needed are often rather small, but have nonetheless been beyond the reach of millions of poor people and particularly, poor women.

There is a growing interest in self-employment as one solution to this problem and in the role credit can play in facilitating it.

In recent years, both government and non-governmental organization have begun to recognize the contribution that the extension of even very small loans could make toward increasing the earning and raising the standard of living of the poor.

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