The low level of participation of women in the labour market and their segregation to homework may be due to discrimination in the labour market. Labour market discrimination occurs when two workers with similar characteristics are paid differently for the same job. Men and women may have different income due to differences in personal characteristics like age, education, work experience and job characteristics. It is often difficult to prove discrimination against women because women do different jobs. However, segregation of women to low-paid occupations in spite of their similar characteristics like men is itself a sign of discrimination.
According to Becker's theory of discrimination, women may face discrimination in entering certain occupations and/or accept lower wages because the employers, co-workers and customers may have a taste for discrimination (that is, they prefer male workers instead of female workers). Human capital approach or statistical discrimination focuses on the productivity differences among male and female workers. Women in general are considered to be less productive, less attached to the labour market and therefore, they earn less and are segregated to low-paid occupations. The institutional approaches concentrate on the role of culture and social norms in shaping tastes and preferences of employers with feedback effects on the supply side. It is argued that given the discrimination in the labour market, women tend to invest less in education and career job, to specialise more in homework and less demanding market work.
BANGLADESH SCENARIO: In Bangladesh, about 12 per cent of the women's employments are generated in the market, compared to about 35 per cent for men in 2000, and there has been a decline, higher for women than men. Wage employment is more important for non-agricultural activities than for agriculture, and male-female shares in total non-agricultural labour differ little - 45.3 per cent-41.5 per cent The labour market accounts for only about four per cent of women's employment in agriculture, and about a quarter for men in 2000. Since very few women work in non-agriculture (21.2 per cent), the total participation rate in wage employment is mainly influenced by the rate in agriculture (78.8 per cent). An interesting change is observed with respect to male participation rate in hired non-agricultural activities which has declined from 77.2 per cent in 1987 to 45.2 per cent in 2000 in spite of the fact that the share of non- agriculture in total work has increased from 30.1 per cent to 48 per cent during the same period. This suggests a growing importance of self-employment for men. The importance of self-employment has increased for women as well but mainly within subsistence agriculture.
The declining importance of non-agricultural work and wage employment for women has to be considered with the disparity in male-female earnings. In 2000, women received on average US dollar 1.07 per day's work compared to US$1.39 for men, i.e., about 30 per cent less. During 1987-2000 both male and female wage rates, on average, have increased but disparity has increased mainly because of the agricultural sector where gender disparity in the wage rate was more pronounced. In agriculture, women received about 42 per cent lower wage than men compared to 24 per cent in non-agriculture. This can be partly explained in terms of the role of education in agriculture and non-agriculture. While agriculture employs workers with little or no education and non-agriculture needs educated labour force, education tends to reduce gender disparity. A modest attempt has been made to see the disparity syndrome by taking into account the education of household heads and spouses. The findings indicate that illiterate female received about half of the wage rate what her male counterpart gets in 2000, while it was much lower in 1987. Data indicate that the higher the level of education of household head and spouse, the lower the male-female disparity in earning. Earnings disparity in agriculture may be due to the type of job women perform (low productive) or there may be discrimination. A study confirms prevalence of discrimination against women workers in rural labour market of Bangladesh.
Data on occupational segregation, wage disparities in different sectors and their close association with education in Bangladesh pose some interesting questions. Why are women concentrated in home-based agricultural activities? Is it due to low wage rate in agriculture? If disparities are lower in non-agriculture and in activities requiring education, why do the parents not invest in girls´ education? Social and cultural factors play a crucial role in Bangladesh.
Powerful social norms in Bangladesh tend to deter female mobility into public domain and confine them to low productive household activities that generally carry low returns. Setting aside the cultural constraint on mobility, female involvement in the labour market is also constrained by the "imposed" primary responsibilities for household tasks and childcare.
Other two important factors that influence women's involvement in the labour market are location and proximity. These factors limit women's mobility in relation to market opportunities and help to explain why location appears to be far more important in explaining returns to women's labour than for men. Usually, women from more remote areas would be the least responsive to price signals as they have the least access to transport their goods and services to the market as well as information. In addition, there are some cultural and religious barriers in different locations that do not allow female workers to go for field work even in their own farm or to go for outside work even when the family suffers from regular food insecurity problem. Since women generally are not engaged in agricultural work their productivity is low (perceived or actual) and consequently the wage rate is also low. This works as a disincentive to market work. Social and cultural factors are interacting with economic factors.
With respect to the second set of questions, it is quite possible that if household heads are educated, there is a chance that family members, especially female members, will receive proper education to vie for relatively more productive pursuits. The reasons behind the low investment in education for girls in Bangladesh may not lie in wage disparity but in the lack of suitable job opportunities (socially acceptable) and also constraints related to sending girls to schools. In recent years, because of targeted policies, gender gap in education is declining sharply even in rural areas. One of the reasons behind this positive development may be reduced wage disparity at higher levels of education. Hence, labour market does play an important role.
On the whole, the concentration of women in home-based subsistence activities and low participation in market work is mainly due to lack of mobility, weak attachment to the labour market because of household responsibility, and non-availability of suitable jobs for women.
Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. abdulbayes@yahoo.com
On women labour
Abdul Bayes | Published: January 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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