Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

92 Chapter 7
Table 7.3
Female share
in agricultural
employment by region,
1990–95 to 1996–2001
Percent
Source: ILO 2003a.
Region 1990–95 1996–2001
Developed countries 29.44 29.89
East Asia and Pacific 42.01 32.75
Europe and Central Asia 45.82 40.05
Latin America and the Caribbean 16.35 18.59
Middle East and North Africa 24.31 22.27
South Asia 37.18 30.47
Sub-Saharan Africa 46.72 33.82
countries, where they make up a higher proportion of the labor force, than in
developed countries (ILO 2004b). Youth unemployment rates were higher for
females than for males in 23 of the 41 countries with data in 2000, and the
difference was especially stark in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gender inequalities in employment
Gender inequalities persist in entry to work, conditions at work, and exit from
the labor market.
Barriers to entry into the labor market
Early marriage and early childbearing, low education, and women’s care responsibilities
(for children, the sick, and the elderly) present barriers to women’s and
girls’ employment. Early marriage and early childbearing have historically limited
young women’s access to education and thereby to employment opportunities. In
some parts of the world young women’s employment is seen as a threat to culturally
accepted gender roles, and many families fear for the safety of girls in the
workplace and traveling to and from work. Even when young married girls want
to work or need to support their families, they have few marketable skills that can
be translated into decent work. Thus most young married girls who are employed
work in home-based or other types of informal employment (Population Council
and ICRW 2000). Some studies suggest that early marriage and childbearing may
be lessening as a barrier to employment in those parts of the world where wage
employment has become rapidly available, such as in garment factories in Bangladesh
and Morocco (Amin and Lloyd 1998; Amin 1997; Cairoli 1999).
Low education has traditionally been another barrier to entry into formal
employment. Generally, the greater a woman’s education, the greater the probability
that she will enter the labor market. Cameron, Dowling, and Worsick’s
(2001) study of women’s labor market participation decisions in Indonesia, the
Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand finds that primary
education affects the probability of labor market participation only in Indonesia
but that secondary education increases the probability in Indonesia and Thailand
and tertiary education increases the probability in all countries. Similarly,
Mammen and Paxson (2000) find that postsecondary schooling has large positive
effects on women’s probability of working in India and Thailand. 3