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How do maternity leave and discriminatory social norms relate to women's employment in developing countries?
Abstract and Figures
The vast majority of developing countries still lags behind the ILO standard (14 weeks) for the duration of maternity leave. In some countries social norms and policies converge to create a double discrimination: on one side, women are discriminated at the family level, while on the other side, governments do not support the cost of maternity leave. Government-funded maternity leave has a greater positive effect on women's employment outcomes in countries with higher levels of discrimination. Increasing women's participation in paid employment is a fundamental step towards women's economic empowerment and improving development outcomes. The benefits of increasing women's labour force participation extend well beyond improving the economic status of women themselves. Gender inequality in labour force participation has a significantly negative impact on economic growth (Klasen and Lamanna, 2009) and conversely, increasing women's labour force participation is a driver of economic growth. Therefore, understanding the determinants of women's employment outcomes, and in particular female labour force participation is, important not only to tackle persistent gender gaps but also to enhance economic growth and accelerate progress on development goals (OECD, 2012). The role of family policies such as maternity leave as a factor shaping women's employment outcomes has been examined for advanced economies, but rarely for developing countries. Yet, as policy-makers are increasingly introducing interventions support women's economic participation in developing countries, family policies are an emerging area of research focus. At the same time, discriminatory social institutions – defined as laws, social norms and practices that restrict or exclude women and girls from opportunities and resources -have gained currency as a framework for understanding the barriers to women's economic participation. Previous OECD Development Centre research has found social institutions that discriminate against women as a key factor explaining women's employment outcomes. What is not yet understood is how discriminatory social institutions and family policies interact to influence women's employment outcomes.
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... Childbearing and family responsibilities have been argued to be constraints on women's labour force participation. To respond to these challenges countries introduce maternity and paternity leave in their family policy package as one way to reduce the pressure for women to leave the labour market, as well as to improve the welfare of children and parents (Cerise et al. 2013). But once that leave period has ended, there remains the need for children to be cared for on a daily basis, and the lack of affordable access to trusted and quality childcare in Indonesia is exacerbating the work-care conflict that drives women's decision to exit the workforce (Setyonaluri and Utomo 2016). ...
... The presence of government financial support could facilitate women's participation in the labour market. Countries with high levels of discriminatory practices against women within the family circle are less likely to support the cost of maternity leave, such as in South Asia countries (Cerise et al. 2013). Gender discrimination within the family induces practices that limit women's likelihood to work, such as early marriage, women lacking access to assets, and women being given most, if not all, of the responsibility for childcare. ...
This study assesses the actual experience of women workers in accessing statutory maternity leave in terms of duration, benefits and job protection in metropolitan Indonesia. A survey was conducted and collected 479 samples in Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya from married women of childbearing age (20–49 years) who had a pregnancy or birth while employed between 2015 and 2019. Under the Indonesian labour law, women workers are entitled to maternity leaves up to three months. In the absence of maternity benefits in the social security system, employers are required to pay full wages during maternity leaves. However, this study found that such an employer liability scheme does not always allow women workers to enjoy their rights.
... Family policies as implemented by many countries may have several objectives such as improving child health and securing their welfare, reducing poverty, increasing fertility rates and others. 59 Specifically, the maternity leaves as introduced by governments act as a form of incentive to female employees 60 to be able to have children and work at the same time. ...
The changing roles of women today from traditional family caregivers to multitasking financial providers require specific protection to preserve their natural role as mothers. Such protection which include job security, health, maternity leave, maternity benefits, and others are to ensure that women are able to balance multiple roles. Pressures on any of their roles may adversely affect society and the economy in terms of labour market, when expectant mothers go off-ramping or when women choose to exercise their fertility decision-making. Many studies indicate a negative relationship between maternity policy and fertility which proves that women need support to serve both functions. There is also a difference in terms of the maternity policies between developed and developing countries which indicates a diverse approach in addressing the issue even though both face the same declining fertility rate problem. Islam does not object to the idea of career women in general. However, a set of guidelines has to be followed to preserve the sharīʿah. Among others, Islam promotes the maternal nature of women by encouraging them to continue breastfeeding when they are on-ramping. Thus, this paper intends to assess the fertility decisions made based on the women’s understanding of their firm’s maternity policy by conducting survey interviews. Even though the study finds that maternity policy does not directly affect the fertility decisions of the women involved, there are still recommendations to be made to improve current maternity policy practices by firms in general to promote a healthier working environment for women.
... At the macro-level, the literature highlights the role of social norms including the norms with respect to the maternal body. Social norms partially set the parameters of what decisions, choices or behaviours are considered acceptable or unacceptable in society and therefore play a key role in defining and influencing gender roles and relations (Cerise, Eliseeva, Francavilla, Mejia, & Tuccio, 2013). Social norms point out that women, mainly after having given birth, are very likely to reduce their work volume (Ruitenberg, 2014). ...
This study examines the identity transition of women when they become mothers and return to work. Twenty-two first-time mothers were interviewed at two points in time: just after giving birth and on re-entry into employment after maternity leave. The findings suggest that this transition is influenced by multiple factors on different levels which include individual factors, such as partner support and career aspirations, organisational factors such as family-friendly work practices and role models, and societal factors such as social norms and attitudes towards the maternal body. The findings highlight the importance of context by stressing the interrelated nature of factors on micro-, meso- and macro-level in order to better understand the identity transition to motherhood.
... Paid maternity leave not only serves to preserve the health of a mother and her newborn, but it also provides a measure of job security guaranteeing that women of childbearing age have access to jobs and maintain their wages and benefits during maternity. Using 2010 data on female labour force participation and the 2012 Social Institutions Gender Index (SIGI), Cerise et al. (2013) estimate a linear regression model for understanding how women's employment is related to maternity leave and discriminatory social practices. They found that government-funded paid maternity leave has a greater positive effect on female employment in countries with higher levels of discriminatory social practices such as in Africa allowing children from poor households to begin primary education on a more equal footing with those from rich homes. ...
From the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, 68 years ago, to the Millennium
Declaration 15 years ago, and to
the Sustainable Development Goals today,
global attention remains focused on promoting
human rights and eliminating
discrimination and inequitable outcomes
for women, men, girls and boys. However,
despite widespread recognition of women’s
rights and the benefits that accrue to all of
society from equitable treatment and access
to resources and opportunities for women
and men, inequalities persist. At the regional
and national levels, there is growing recognition
that as African women attain higher
measures of economic and social well-being,
benefits accrue to all of society; despite
this growing understanding, removing inequalities
for women has not kept pace.
Significant gaps between men’s and women’s
opportunities remain a major challenge and
a severe impediment to structural economic
and social transformation that is still the goal
of all African countries.
The evolving development landscape
– with its emerging opportunities, vulnerabilities
and shocks – makes it imperative
for Africa to accelerate the advancement
of sustainable and equitable human development.
This can be achieved by building
economic, social and environmental resilience
for women and men, enhancing their productivity,
and accelerating the pace of structural
economic transformation in the region. This
report explores where and how progress in
gender equality has been made and how best
to accelerate the pace of gender advancement
in Africa. Its focus on gender equality comes
at a time of tremendous change across the
continent, including recent dynamics of social
and economic transformation that have
resulted in significant strides in Africa’s
human development.
Overview
This report pinpoints the intersection
between political and economic processes,
and presents a clear agenda for action.
The agenda provides an approach to help
African countries more forcefully confront
the challenge and accelerate progress on
gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The agenda on gender equality can support
progress toward Africa’s Agenda 2063 and
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
While SDG 5 focuses specifically on gender
equality, addressing gender issues more vigorously
and comprehensively will expedite
efforts by governments and other stakeholders
to achieve many, if not all, of the other SDGs
due to the role and position that women play
across all of society and all sectors.
Analytical approach
From UNDP’s perspective, gender inequality
from the standpoint of human development is
addressed by improving women’s capabilities
and opportunities, and contributing to better
outcomes for present and future generations.
The nexus between gender equality and human
development is based on three overlapping
concerns:
• economic: more productive work at home
and in the marketplace as employers, employees
and entrepreneurs;
• social and environmental: better health,
education, cessation of physical and sexual
violence against women, and sustainable
resource use for present and future generations;
and
• political: more equal voice and representation
in decision-making and resource
allocation.
The analytical approach taken in the report
is to examine the challenge of gender equality by pinpointing the interaction between political,
economic and social processes that either
impede or contribute to advancing women’s
empowerment. A ‘political economy’ perspective
is used to understand the way ideas,
resources and power are conceptualized,
negotiated and implemented by different
social groups in relation to gender inequality
– whether in the workplace, the marketplace,
or at home.
It is important to emphasize that the preparation
of this Africa Human Development
Report was a highly collaborative effort
between the UNDP Regional Bureau for
Africa and many different agencies, institutions,
practitioners and researchers. It was
also prepared in close collaboration with the
African Union Commission. As a result, it not
only focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, but also
includes the Arab states of North Africa. The
report preparation process included in-depth
quantitative research and analysis, a qualitative
interactive study, consultations with numerous
organizations throughout Africa as well as an
Africa-wide online survey.
The sections below highlight some of the
key points found in the chapters of the report.
Progress and challenges in
African human development
The report reviews current progress in
African human development using the different
indicators that UNDP has constructed to
capture various aspects of human development,
including gender inequality. Using UNDP’s
different human development indicators, there
is wide variation in values and ranking across
the African region and between the different
African sub-regions. Overall, Africa has one
of the fastest rates of improvement in human
development over the past two decades but
also has the lowest average levels of human
development compared to other regions in the
world. At the same time, not all African countries
have low human development. Seventeen
African countries across the five sub-regions
have attained medium and high human development
– five countries each from Southern
and North Africa, four in Central Africa, two
in West Africa, and one in East Africa. The
highest human development levels in Africa
are in Algeria, Libya, Mauritius, Seychelles,
and Tunisia. Thirty-six African countries (out
of 44 countries worldwide) are classified in
the low human development group.
Countries with initially low levels of human
development are making large gains. The following
countries have made the largest gains
since 2000: United Republic of Tanzania,
Burundi, Mali, Zambia, Niger, Angola, Sierra
Leone, Mozambique, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
Countries that began with initially low levels
of human development are growing faster,
on average, which indicates that they are
catching up. However, the pace has slowed
since 2010.
Calculations using the UNDP gender
indices indicate significant gender inequality
in almost every African country. Gender gaps
in income and non-income dimensions mean
that women often experience lower human
development outcomes than men. On average,
African women achieve only 87 per cent of
male human development levels.
Social dimensions of gender equality
The social dimensions of gender equality
involving trends in health and education are
key determinants of women’s equality and
empowerment. Overall, gender inequality in
social services translates into fewer opportunities
for women, in particular, and society, as
a whole, to achieve well-being. During the last
decades, many African countries have seen
the expansion of their citizens’ capabilities in
the basic areas of health, education and other
social services. These improvements have
included women and girls, and today they
have greater access to education at all levels,
have better health, safely give birth to their
children, and achieve higher life expectancy.
Yet, many women face severe deprivations
in their health due to such factors as early age
marriage, sexual and physical violence, and
the continued unacceptable high incidence of
maternal mortality.
The spectrum of violence affecting women
includes domestic violence, intimate partner violence, rape, genital mutilation, intimidation,
and additional threats to women´s personal
security in periods of war and conflict.
With respect to education, it is remarkable
that near gender parity has been achieved in
primary school enrolment. However, gender
discrimination is still significant in secondary
and tertiary education. The reasons why
children do not attend school vary, but they
are often associated with poverty, ethnicity,
social exclusion, living in a rural area or slums,
geographic remoteness, disasters, armed conflict,
lack of basic facilities and poor-quality
education. These barriers often interact with
gender to create even greater disadvantages
in learning opportunities.
Women in African economies
Another key determinant of gender equality
is defined by women in the workplace and economic
decision-making. Significant economic
and workplace disparities between men and
women continue to be the norm rather than the
exception in many African countries. These
inequalities are found across Africa in terms of
access to economic assets, participation in the
workplace, entrepreneurship opportunities,
and use of and benefits from natural resources
and the environment.
In addition, women are more likely to be
found in vulnerable employment with weak
regulation and limited social protection due
to differences in education and the mismatch
between women’s skills and those demanded
by the labour market. This in turn pushes
women into the informal economy. It is estimated,
using survey data for 2004 to 2010,
that the share of non-agricultural informal
employment in sub-Saharan Africa is about
66 per cent of all female employment.
Increased female participation in the labour
market has not meant increased opportunities
in high paying jobs or enterprises. A gender
wage gap outside agriculture is pervasive
across all labour markets in sub-Saharan
Africa, where, on average, the unadjusted
gender pay gap is estimated at 30 per cent.
Thus, for every $1 earned by men in manufacturing,
services and trade, women earn 70
cents. Gaps in earnings between women and men are influenced by parameters such as age,
occupation type, education, parenthood and
marriage.
Because social norms and beliefs assign
African women and girls the primary responsibility
for care and domestic work, women,
on average, spend twice as much time as men
on domestic work - child and elderly care,
cooking, cleaning, and fetching water and
wood. In sub-Saharan Africa, 71 per cent of
the burden of collecting water for households
falls on women and girls.
As the economic status of women improves,
so does the economic status of entire families
– a major factor in reducing the blight of
inter-generational poverty and low human
development. For example, ownership or title
to land represents an important source of
equity and collateral for women in obtaining
credit and accessing other forms of productive
assets. Lack of access to land deprives
African women of an important economic tool
for improving their livelihoods.
There is a high economic cost when women
are not more fully integrated into their respective
national economies. Gender inequality
in the labour market alone cost sub-Saharan
Africa about USD 95 billion annually between
2010 and 2014, peaking at USD 105 billion
in 2014. These results confirm that Africa
is missing its full growth potential because
a sizeable portion of its growth reserve –
women – is not fully utilized.
African women in politics and
leadership
Another key driver in advancing gender
equality is the role of women’s political
voice and leadership. Women’s political participation
and representation in governance
have long been taken as key indicators of the
general level of public sector effectiveness
and accountability in a country. When more
women are involved in politics and leadership
positions, women’s rights, priorities,
needs and interests are less likely to be ignored
or silenced.
Significant progress has been made in advancing
women’s participation in holding
elective office and in positions of leadership in the public and private sectors. Some countries
have seen the successful election of women
to their parliaments and other elected offices,
but existing social and political structures still
proscribe women’s full potential in helping to
equally shape the national and local economic,
social and political agenda.
In addition to making progress in politics,
women have also made advances in leadership
positions in such areas as the civil service,
trade unions and the private sector, but here
again progress in achieving gender equity is
still lagging due to a combination of political,
economic and social resistance to change.
In the private sector, the general perception
that male enterprises out-perform female
ones is not supported by data nor does it justify
the gap in leadership. Although the trend is
improving, the percentage of firms with a
female top manager still ranges between 7
and 30 per cent. Narrowing the private sector
leadership gender gap relies on increasing
the pool of women with tertiary education in
science and technology-related fields.
Peace processes are another principal
ground for decision-making and for the
exercise of power and influence. However,
historically women’s formal participation has
been limited despite the profusion of peace
agreements across the continent. In the last
decade, women’s roles in conflict resolution
and peacebuilding have shifted considerably
from when women could only informally
impact negotiations for cessation of hostilities
or peace agreements. There is a growing
recognition that women should be an integral
and formal part of any peace negotiations
process, given women’s role in securing and
maintaining peace.
The role of legal and social norms in
gender equality
Existing legal and social norms, and
their interactions have a major effect on
gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The underlying importance of legal and social
norms cannot be overstated in such areas
as access to economic services, health and
education, as well as the role they play in influencing
gender-focused violence, childhood marriage and other socio-cultural barriers to
gender equality.
African states and regional bodies have
put in place a wide array of legal norms,
precedents and legislation promoting gender
equality. The challenge is not in fine-tuning
existing legal standards, but rather, in ensuring
that standards are advocated, accepted
and integrated into national laws and
regulations, and then fully implemented and
enforced. It is the gap between legal rights
and expectations, on the one hand, and prevailing
practices and behaviours embodied
in social and cultural norms, on the other
hand, that pose a fundamental challenge for
accelerating gender equality and women’s
empowerment.
Many social norms have very important
and positive roles in creating strong family
and community bonds, as well as establishing
conditions for trust and support in times of
crisis and hardship. Other social norms,
however, continue to have a negative impact
on the attainment of gender equality, despite
existing laws and standards. Such prevailing
social norms and gender stereotypes
that assign different standings, roles and
privileges for women and men prevent
progress towards gender equality. About
one quarter of Africans did not embrace
the concept of gender equality, i.e. they
disagreed or strongly disagreed with the
fundamental notion of equal rights between
men and women. This calls for proactive
awareness and advocacy on gender equality
in Africa.
The impact of social norms that limit women
has also been shown to have deleterious effects
on men and boys, and communities as a
whole, essentially holding everyone back
from achieving higher human development
and impeding societies from realizing their
full development potential.
Policy and programme
approaches to addressing
gender inequality
African governments have used a range of
policy and programme approaches to address
gender inequality. These include broad macro- and sectoral-level efforts that have
sought to address gender inequality through
a combination of policies and institutions.
Examples include fiscal policy (including
public expenditures and subsidies), legal
and regulatory measures and set-aside
programmes, as well as other targeted interventions.
But the record of success is mixed,
and there is ample room for expanding
such efforts, both in scope and scale. In
this regard, much can be learned from the
experience of Latin America and Asia.
Most African countries have followed international
practice by setting up institutions
for the advancement of women. These new
organizational mechanisms for gender issues
have taken many forms, including thematic
ministries or ministerial departments for
women, designated in some countries as lead
institutional mechanisms. Developing effective
institutional models towards more equal
societies must be understood as a shared
responsibility across multiple ministries and
involving the private sector and civil society.
African governments have begun using
various kinds of social protection programmes
(including cash transfer and subsidies)
to promote gender equality and poverty
reduction. Still, there is considerable room
for expanding a number of cash transfer
and social service programmes that would
have a direct impact on improving women’s
economic and social well-being. These include
paid maternal leave, provision of childcare
services, and some form of income support
or cash transfers for women’s unpaid work,
usually taking place in the home or in the farm
field.
Gender-sensitive reviews of existing legislation
in the areas of family law, land law,
labour and employment law, and customary
law are necessary to identify and remove
ongoing gender discrimination.
Likewise, the legal environment within
which women and men engage in society
underscores the fact that more effective
non-discriminatory labour institutions,
family-friendly policies and work environment
standards could contribute greatly
towards reducing women’s economic and
social disadvantages. In an estimated 28 per cent of African countries, customary law is
considered a valid source of law – even if
it violates constitutional provisions on nondiscrimination
or equality.
In order to better apply international and
regional legal norms for gender equality,
many African countries may therefore need
to more fully articulate, implement and
enforce existing laws, statutes and regulations
that could have a profound impact on
improving women’s access to equal rights
and entitlements. Reconciling national laws
and regulations with customary laws and
traditions remains a monumental challenge.
An agenda for action to
accelerate gender equality
The 2016 Africa Human Development
Report offers some key conclusions and
overriding themes that provide a strategic
framework and agenda for action aimed at
a more results-oriented and comprehensive
approach to addressing gender inequality.
Four broad ‘pathways’ are suggested that offer
policy and programme guidelines to accelerate
gender equality and fully integrate gender
into the broader human development agenda
and help achieve the Sustainable Development
Goals and the African Agenda 2063.
Pathway 1:
Supporting the adoption of legal reforms,
policies and regulations to advance women’s
empowerment through the formulation and
full implementation of a combination of
laws and regulations, policies and programmes
that provide equal opportunities for all,
regardless of sex.
Pathway 2:
Supporting national capacities to promote
and increase the participation and leadership
of women in decision-making in the
home, economy and society. In this regard,
public and private sector institutions as well
as civil society organizations (CSOs) should
commit to implementing UNDP’s Gender
Equality Seal (GES) in Africa. Pathway 3:
Supporting capacity to implement multisectoral
approaches to mitigate the impacts
of discriminatory health and education
practices can generate collaboration across
ministries and with the private sector and civil
society.
Pathway 4:
Supporting women to gain ownership and
management of economic and environmental
assets can help tackle factors that
propagate socio-economic exclusion, poverty
and inequality.
With these four pathways in mind, there
is an overriding strategic question facing
African governments wishing to accelerate
women’s rights and entitlements: Assuming
the political commitment to do so, how can
African leaders and policy-makers more
forcefully address gender inequalities in the
face of other competing national priorities?
Due to the pressure on leaders and policymakers
to maintain the pace of economic
growth, diversify the economy for integration
into global markets, meet the rising demands
of a growing middle class, address shocks
and vulnerabilitys and meet national security
concerns, policy-makers must take tough and
often competing decisions on the use of scarce
resources.
To provide some policy guidance for
African leaders concerned with this ongoing
dilemma, six strategic considerations are
offered as an organizational framework for
action in addressing gender inequality. This
organizational framework coincides with
the argument put forward that accelerating
gender equality and women’s empowerment
simultaneously represents a practical operational
approach for African governments to
tackle the challenge of achieving the SDGs
and move forward on the AU’s Agenda 2063.
To the extent that gender inequalities are
addressed, then, in effect, progress will be
made across the wide spectrum of development
goals found in the SDGs. Addressing
gender equality is not separate from addressing
the SDGs.
From this perspective, the six strategic
considerations are outlined below.
Using gender equality as an organizing
policy lens for formulation, planning and
implementation of the development agenda.
It is a false assumption that giving higher
priority to gender equality means giving
lower priority to other development priorities.
Focusing on gender issues is not a zero-sum
choice, where choosing one priority comes at
the expense of another. Whatever the policy
objective – inclusive growth and economic
diversification, revitalizing the agricultural
sector, improving national health services,
eradicating extreme poverty, tackling climate
change – if 50 per cent of the population,
that is, women and girls, are not benefitting
equally from the policies and programmes,
then the latter cannot be considered a success.
Discarding this false assumption and addressing
gender equality is no longer about
‘adding’ in special policies and programmes
for women or having separate women’s ministries
or agencies, but, instead, ensuring that
all policies and programmes are intended to
achieve equal outcomes for both men and
women.
Tackling destructive social norms directly.
Reversing the social norms that impede
women’s and girls’ equal opportunities will be
a long-term and difficult process. Pushing to
deconstruct harmful social norms and cultural
barriers is no doubt a morally demanding,
socially difficult and politically risky course
of action, or more precisely, multiple and
overlapping courses of actions. African
leaders and policy-makers therefore need to
understand the long-term nature of deconstructing
harmful social norms and replacing
them with positive social norms. In many
instances, the approach will entail reconciling
legal and social norms.
Using plans and budgets to prioritize
gender equality. African governments will
invariably need to identify and then implement
a strategic set of policy and programme
choices that are deemed priorities in the national context, that have the highest
likelihood of making important changes,
that can work synergistically, and that have
the best chance of being successfully implemented.
The objective is to suggest that
African governments must have a prioritization
process for achieving gender equality
given the tremendous needs and resource
constraints facing each country. The task
does not necessarily entail selecting and
implementing a wide range of policy options,
but instead, prioritizing, in an orderly
and transparent process, among multiple
(and often contending) policy options—all
of which place competing demands on scarce
public resources.
Three guiding questions are suggested for
linking short- and long-term prioritization:
• What policies and programmes have the
highest likelihood of improving the lives
of women and bringing them into the economic
mainstream through productive
employment opportunities and improved
social welfare?
• In what ways are the views and concerns
of women, stakeholders and other recipients
being factored into the decisionmaking
process?
• In situations where resources are shifted
from one programme or initiative to
another, can the shift be justified in terms
of improved economic and social outcomes
for women and girls than would
otherwise have been the case?
Strengthening adaptive policies and
institutional capacities. Achieving gender
equality and accelerating the pace of human
development will require African governments
to incorporate a commitment to a
strong, proactive and responsible social
framework that develops policies for both
the public and private sectors – based on a
long-term vision and leadership, shared norms
and values, and rules and institutions that
build trust and cohesion. At the same time,
governments will need the capacity for flexibility
and adaptation. In complex societies
such as in Africa, the outcome of any particular
policy is inevitably uncertain. African
governments will need to follow a governance
framework that is pragmatic and able to
problem-solve and adapt collectively and
rapidly – as opposed to abandoning a course
of action in the face of unintended effects.
Adding value to data for improved
decision-making. For African governments
to fully address gender inequalities
and understand the outcomes of chosen
policies and programmes, more robust data
collection and monitoring systems will be
required. Effective capacity in statistics and
monitoring and evaluation is the ‘lubricant’
by which governments are able to perform as
an adaptive state and undertake necessary
policy change and mid-course corrections.
Data collection and analysis should not be
considered an afterthought, but rather a core
function of governmental services, which
require commensurate financial and political
support.
Assessing capabilities for monitoring
national development plans and budgets,
and the SDGs, together with traditional economic
and social statistics, is an imperative.
This represents a window of opportunity for
African governments to evaluate how their
statistical agencies and line ministries can
improve their data gathering, management
and analysis functions in order to fully capture
the gender implications of current policies
and initiatives, and how, over time, they can
be modified and improved.
Prioritizing regional and South-South
cooperation. It is important to underline the
importance of regional and South-South
cooperation in designing and implementing
gender-focused policies and initiatives.
African countries have much to learn from
each other – both what has worked and what
has not. There are also many useful lessons
that can be learned from the Asian and Latin
American and Caribbean (LAC) experience.
The focus of such cooperation should be
on sharing tools, strategies and experiences
across sectors, from large infrastructure
projects to community-based interventions –upscaling. There is considerable scope for
expanding cross-national training and study
tours, secondment of staff and other kinds of
experiential learning opportunities that place
managers and policy-makers more directly in
the fulcrum of on-the-ground change.
In summary, the report focuses on the continuing
problem of gender equality facing
African women and girls. A key conclusion
is that gender equality is not achieved by
having gender-specific ministries or womenonly
projects and programmes (although they
can be important), but rather, by tackling
gender equality as a wide-ranging effort across
multiple sectors that engage all segments of
society. The report further emphasizes the
inter-linkages between the social well-being
of women and their economic opportunities
for more productive lives. Underpinning all
of these efforts will be the necessary but
understandably difficult task of breaking
down harmful social norms and cultural barriers that have a particularly serious impact
on women and their families.
Another conclusion is that accelerating
gender equality will entail highly collaborative
efforts involving not only national and
local governments, but also non-governmental
organizations, the private sector, advocacy
groups and effective community-based organizations.
Finally, it will be important for African
governments to articulate time-bound benchmarks
to measure progress, make adjustments
as needed, and maintain a national vision of
the important ramifications that achieving
gender equality has for the entire society. The
peoples of Africa must hold themselves and
their governments accountable for making
progress on improvements within a sufficient
timeframe that does not dilute the urgent
need for action. The 15-year timeframe of
the SDGs and the first ten-year implementation
plan of Agenda 2063 represent a viable
timeframe to which African governments
have already pledged themselves.
Studies on the impact of maternity benefits on fertility, infant/child health, and women's labour force participation in developing countries are few and conflicting. However, understanding the implementation of maternity benefits is critical, since such policies have the potential to considerably enhance the well-being of women and children. In acknowledgment of the essential role played by women, governments must shift away from archaic legislation and fight for social justice, both in the organised and unorganised sectors. The Maternity Benefits Act of 1961, as amended, exemplifies the principle of social justice. Maternity Benefits should try to limit women's employment in specified institutions during specific periods before and after delivery, in addition to providing maternity and other benefits. Maternity has long been seen as a handicap condition that precludes women from working during the weeks before and after delivery. After the establishment of the wage labour system in industrial operations, many employers inclined to terminate the services of female employees when they realised that pregnancy interfered with the performance of ordinary responsibilities by female workers. As a consequence, in order to preserve their employment, many female employees were obliged to take unpaid vacation during this time period. The purpose of this research study is to examine the implementation of maternity leave in private higher educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh. This study's sample consists of 35 randomly chosen female workers from private higher educational institutions in Himachal Pradesh. The primary goal of the study is to identify the challenges that women confront while leaving for or returning from maternity leave, as well as to assess the degree of knowledge among female workers about the current regulation on maternity leave.
Peru suffers from a serious gender inequality problem in the labor market that cannot be understood by considering employment rates alone. Rather, it is also necessary to analyze the conditions under which women participate in the labor market. This study seeks to identify economic, legal, and socio-cultural barriers that women face in accessing decent employment. We use formal work as an indicator of decent employment and add an innovative non-precarious employment indicator that is relevant in the Peruvian context given that less than 25% of employed women work in the formal sector. This indicator considers the following minimum acceptable working conditions: at least the minimum legal salary and a legally defined maximum number of working hours. The study provides a comprehensive view of the barriers by using a mixed methodology that includes an econometric estimation of barriers and interviews and focus groups with working and non-working women. The results show that the main barriers that hinder access to decent work in Peru are related to gender stereotypes both in the household (where household and care tasks are entrusted almost exclusively to women) and in the labor market (where women face discrimination and sexual harassment). Given that women need to take care of their children, and given the lack of care services available, many of them end up taking low-quality jobs.
Purpose
This paper explores working mothers’ coping strategies concerning paid and unpaid work in Chile and Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aimed to understand the influence of cultural norms on motherhood and neoliberal workplace practices on mothers’ sensemaking processes and coping strategies. This study focuses on mothers living in Chile and Argentina where governments established mandatory lockdowns between March and September 2020. Drawing on the notion of neoliberal motherhood, women’s demands were analyzed when paid work and mothering duties collide in time and space.
Design/methodology/approach
Open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 women in Chile and Argentina. All interviewees had at least 1 child below the age of 6 and were working from home during the lockdown.
Findings
Neoliberal workplace demands, and disadvantageous government policies greatly heightened the dual burdens of working mothers. Women were expected to fulfill the discourses of the neoliberal worker and the good mother, while also adopting additional strategies in the wake of the lockdown. The data highlights mothers’ strategies to cope with care and work duties by adjusting to new routines involving their partners, relatives and the wider community.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the results is limited by the small sample of 17 interviewees, all from middle to middle-upper class. The changing scenario due to Covid-19 makes the collected data not sufficient to grasp the impact of the pandemic, as during the interviews (December 2020 and January 2021) the process was still ongoing.
Practical implications
Organizations should assess their role in the management of paid and unpaid work for both genders, as the neoliberal discourse views the worker as masculine, full-time, always available and productive, ignoring women’s additional care duties outside of the workplace.
Originality/value
The Covid-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to reflect on care work and gender, collective versus individual responses to care and work demands and the idea of organizing.
Since China’s transition to a socialist market system, women’s labor force participation has declined sharply. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010, the authors re-examine China’s gender gap in labor force participation with a focus on social norms. Probit model estimates of the gender gap in labor force participation probability confirm the contribution of conventional factors such as health and other human capital as important explanations for the resurgent gender gap in China. However, even after extensive controls for human-capital differences, the gap remains mostly unexplained in the data. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition analysis confirms that the gender gap in labor force participation is predominantly explained by behavioral differences between women and men. Gender-related community social norms account for 41.4 percent of the unexplained gap. The study results are robust to alternative measures of social norms and additional controls for community characteristics.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Recent studies have examined why women’s labor force participation has declined sharply in post–economic reform China, but research on the effects of social norms has been limited.
• The gender gap in participation remains mostly unexplained by differences in human capital between women and men.
• Social norms account for almost half of the unexplained portion of the gender gap in labor force participation.
• Along with expanding women’s access to education and improving their health, policies should promote favorable attitudes toward women’s employment, particularly during times of economic crisis.
Many women are discouraged from participation in some of most thriving and essential businesses, particularly in male-dominated industries. The underrepresentation of women in industries considered to be 'male-dominated'. This scenario implicated women faced plenty of challenges in the working fields. The reasons are attributed to because of the lack of family role models, stereotypes about the nature of women's work, discouraging workplace cultures and structural problems within those organisations. The study is to focus in the working field of real estate industry. The purpose of the study is to identify the possible challenges face by Women In Real Estate (WIRE) in order to verify the truthiness of scenario. A questionnaire survey is used to carry out the study. The targeted respondents are women who working in real estate industry. The data is collected and analyzed with the aid of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Based on the analysis and the factors being determined, this paper is to discuss the key factors to drive women success in real estate industry and to identify the enablers' factor in helping the professionalism advancement for WIRE in Malaysia. Nonetheless, the relationship in between the Challenges of WIRE and Factor Drive Women to Success and Enablers in Helping the Professionalism Advancement for Women was investigated using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. In conclusion, the overall outcome of investigation has manifested the positive results toward the fact findings of the scenario situation.
Assessing whether retirement systems meet their varying objectives requires analysing outcomes across different categories of beneficiaries with different working, financial, demographic, and family situations. Policymakers should therefore assess systems on the distribution of outcomes rather than average outcomes.
Much has been written about the gender inequalities inherent in labour markets and how these are reflected and reproduced in pension systems, and there is growing evidence that recent reforms have exacerbated these trends. Recent research has turned to the policy measures available to policymakers to forestall or reverse these trends, but this literature tends to overlook important administrative measures that have the potential to reduce inequalities in access that could improve pension outcomes for women within the current policy framework. This paper examines the main issues surrounding gender inequality in retirement outcomes; explores the implications of recent reform trends in light of the differential outcomes for women, including policy options to mitigate the negative impacts; and concludes with a review of key administrative measures, including streamlining affiliation procedures, improving information, and simplifying payment of contributions and receipt of benefits and better compliance of employers.
This study addresses gender differentials in labour market outcomes in developing countries. There is emerging evidence that even though women in developing countries increasingly enter the labour force, they often end up in jobs with low pay, low security and limited social mobility. We find that in addition to well-established factors determining labour market outcomes (such as education and training, care obligations and barriers to asset accumulation), social institutions are statistically associated with a gender bias in activity patterns and in occupations by sector and status. Our findings suggest that addressing discriminatory social norms, traditions and laws against women is crucial in allowing women to take up more and better jobs.
Cette étude concerne les résultats différents obtenus sur le marché du travail en fonction du sexe. Il devient de plus en plus évident que, même si les femmes participent de plus en plus au marché du travail dans les pays en développement, il est fréquent qu’elles n’obtiennent finalement que des emplois à faible salaire, précaires et à mobilité sociale réduite. Nous avons trouvé qu’en plus des facteurs bien connus qui déterminent les résultats sur le marché du travail (tels que l’éducation et la formation, les charges familiales et les obstacles à l’accumulation d’un capital), les institutions sociales sont associées statistiquement à un biais défavorable aux femmes en ce qui concerne la structure des activités et les occupations selon le secteur et selon le statut. Nos résultats suggèrent qu’il est crucial de se préoccuper des normes sociales , des traditions et des lois discriminatoires à l’égard des femmes, pour leur permettre d’accéder à plus d’emplois et à de meilleurs emplois.
The Female Stipend Program (FSP) was created in 1982 in Bangladesh to help increase the enrolment and retention of girls in secondary schools. Implemented initially in six areas only, the program was so successful that it was extended in 1994. This paper, based on a desk study of the FSP for the Bangladesh office of the Department for International Development to evaluate the program's effects, is particularly pertinent for other developing countries seeking to support girls' education as part of the effort to meet EFA and Millennium Development Goals.
This paper considers how entitlements to paid leave after the birth of children affect female
labour market outcomes across countries. Such entitlements are granted for various lengths of time and
paid at different rates, reflecting the influence of different objectives including: enhancing children’s wellbeing,
promoting labour supply, furthering gender equality in labour market outcomes, as well as budget
constraints. Although parental care is beneficial for children, there are concerns about the consequences of
prolonged periods of leave for labour market outcomes and gender equality. This paper therefore looks at
the long-run consequences of extended paid leave on female, male, and gender differences in prime-age
(25-54) employment rates, average working hours, and earnings in 30 OECD countries from 1970 to 2010. It finds that extensions of paid leave lengths have a positive, albeit small, influence on female
employment rates and on the gender ratio of employment, as long as the total period of paid leave is no
longer than approximately two years. Additional weeks of leave, however, exert a negative effect on
female employment and the gender employment gap. This paper also finds that weeks of paid leave
positively affect the average number of hours worked by women relative to men, though on condition –
once again – that the total duration of leave does not exceed certain limits. By contrast, the provision of
paid leave widens the earnings gender gap among full-time employees.
Childhood, adolescence and early adulthood remain for many girls and young women a period of deprivation, danger and vulnerability, resulting in lack of agency and critical development deficits. What happens at this crucial time in girls’ and young women’s lives can also reinforce their poverty status and that of their offspring, as well as influencing their movement into or out of poverty. In many cases, overlapping experiences of deprivation, foregone human development opportunities and abuse or exploitation perpetuate and intensify poverty for girls and young women over the life-course.Recently – in part because of the child focus of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 2007 World Development Report – there has been growing attention on the need to include girls (and boys) more prominently in development agendas. How to do this effectively, however, remains under-researched, especially in debates around chronic poverty, which have in general paid relatively limited attention to gender dynamics.This report addresses this gap by placing girls and young women centre stage, highlighting ways in which five context-specific social institutions inform and determine their life opportunities and agency. Based on the OECD’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI), these are: discriminatory family codes, son bias, limited resource rights and entitlements, physical insecurity and restricted civil liberties. We discuss the characteristics of each social institution, its gendered dimensions, its linkages to poverty dynamics and its impacts on girls and young women.We balance this with a review of promising policies and programmes aimed at tackling the discriminatory dimensions of these institutions. Social institutions are constantly undergoing change. The process may be slow, uneven and even suffer from reversals in some contexts, but the evidence that we present underscores that positive change for girls and young women is possible, even in the most challenging socio-cultural, political and economic contexts.
This paper evaluates the impact of changing property rights on the types of economic opportunities that are pursued. Ethiopia changed its family law in 2000, raising the minimum age of marriage for women, removing the ability of the husband to deny permission for the wife to work outside the home and requiring both spouses" consent in the administration of marital property. While this reform now applies across the country, it was initially rolled out in the two chartered cities and 3 of Ethiopia"s 9 regions. Using two nationally representative household surveys, one in 2000 just prior to the reform, and one five years later, allows for a difference-in-difference estimation of the impact of the reform. We find evidence that women"s economic opportunities expanded relatively more where the reform had been enacted, controlling for time and location effects. Women were relatively more likely to work in occupations that require work outside the home, in paid and full-time jobs, and in higher-paid occupations.
Examines the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time. Institutions are separate from organizations, which are assemblages of people directed to strategically operating within institutional constraints. Institutions affect the economy by influencing, together with technology, transaction and production costs. They do this by reducing uncertainty in human interaction, albeit not always efficiently. Entrepreneurs accomplish incremental changes in institutions by perceiving opportunities to do better through altering the institutional framework of political and economic organizations. Importantly, the ability to perceive these opportunities depends on both the completeness of information and the mental constructs used to process that information. Thus, institutions and entrepreneurs stand in a symbiotic relationship where each gives feedback to the other. Neoclassical economics suggests that inefficient institutions ought to be rapidly replaced. This symbiotic relationship helps explain why this theoretical consequence is often not observed: while this relationship allows growth, it also allows inefficient institutions to persist. The author identifies changes in relative prices and prevailing ideas as the source of institutional alterations. Transaction costs, however, may keep relative price changes from being fully exploited. Transaction costs are influenced by institutions and institutional development is accordingly path-dependent. (CAR)
Welfare state generosity around work-family policies appears to have somewhat contradictory effects, at least for some measures of gender equality. Work-family policies, in encouraging higher levels of women's labor market participation, may have also contributed to lower wage-levels for women relative to men, for instance. We consider the relationship between particular work-family policies and mothers' employment outcomes. Analyses use data on employed women aged 25-45 from the Luxembourg Income Study for 21 countries across Eastern and Western Europe, North America, Israel, and Australia. We estimate within each country differences in employment hours and wages for women based on their number of children. Then, we examine the association of estimated per child penalties in wage and employment hours with country-level data on leaves and childcare. Work-family policies are generally associated with positive employment outcomes for mothers, relative to childless women. Work-facilitating policies such as childcare for young children have decisively positive effects on mothers' employment hours and wages. Work-reducing policies, such as parental leave, however, can have positive effects if the leaves are moderate in length, but tradeoffs if the leaves are long.
Examines the role that institutions, defined as the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction, play in economic performance and how those institutions change and how a model of dynamic institutions explains the differential performance of economies through time. Institutions are separate from organizations, which are assemblages of people directed to strategically operating within institutional constraints. Institutions affect the economy by influencing, together with technology, transaction and production costs. They do this by reducing uncertainty in human interaction, albeit not always efficiently. Entrepreneurs accomplish incremental changes in institutions by perceiving opportunities to do better through altering the institutional framework of political and economic organizations. Importantly, the ability to perceive these opportunities depends on both the completeness of information and the mental constructs used to process that information. Thus, institutions and entrepreneurs stand in a symbiotic relationship where each gives feedback to the other. Neoclassical economics suggests that inefficient institutions ought to be rapidly replaced. This symbiotic relationship helps explain why this theoretical consequence is often not observed: while this relationship allows growth, it also allows inefficient institutions to persist. The author identifies changes in relative prices and prevailing ideas as the source of institutional alterations. Transaction costs, however, may keep relative price changes from being fully exploited. Transaction costs are influenced by institutions and institutional development is accordingly path-dependent. (CAR)