Bangladesh Women
IV
WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT IN BANGLADESH: CONUNDRUMS AMIDST PROGRESS
Summary
• • • • • • • • • • • Women’s work participation rates have doubled in Bangladesh since 1995 but they are still extremely low at 26 percent. The dramatic growth in women’s employment is led by the health and community service sector. Younger women’s employment has seen the largest increase. Higher education is an important predictor of both entry into the labor market and wages. Micro credit has had direct and indirect impact on employment. Compared to other countries, agriculture does not employ as many women in Bangladesh. This explains a large part of the low participation rates for especially poor women. Occupational sex segregation is a likely deterrent to moving across jobs for women. Only 10 percent employed women and 22 percent of employed men aged 20-55 receive any cash wages. Poor access to wage work more generally also explains why women choose to stay out of market work. Women earn about 60-65 percent of what men do in the agricultural labor market; 81.5 percent of this difference is unexplained and could be due to labor market discrimination. Some regional patterns appear counter-intuitive and need deeper investigation. Serious data and measurement issues have hampered the understanding of labor force participation rates in Bangladesh
4.1 Bangladesh in the South Asian Context: It is well known that women’s employment in South Asia is lower than in any other part of the world except perhaps the Middle East. Bangladesh is at the lower end of the South Asian spectrum and intuitively to those who know the country this seems inexplicable, given that key catalysts of female employment, viz. secondary school education and fertility rates, have had such impressive performance. Unlike other countries in South Asia, however, there has been a sharp growth – an increase of almost one and a half times - in women’s employment in Bangladesh in the last decade (1995-2003) coinciding with
WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT IN BANGLADESH: CONUNDRUMS AMIDST PROGRESS
Summary
• • • • • • • • • • • Women’s work participation rates have doubled in Bangladesh since 1995 but they are still extremely low at 26 percent. The dramatic growth in women’s employment is led by the health and community service sector. Younger women’s employment has seen the largest increase. Higher education is an important predictor of both entry into the labor market and wages. Micro credit has had direct and indirect impact on employment. Compared to other countries, agriculture does not employ as many women in Bangladesh. This explains a large part of the low participation rates for especially poor women. Occupational sex segregation is a likely deterrent to moving across jobs for women. Only 10 percent employed women and 22 percent of employed men aged 20-55 receive any cash wages. Poor access to wage work more generally also explains why women choose to stay out of market work. Women earn about 60-65 percent of what men do in the agricultural labor market; 81.5 percent of this difference is unexplained and could be due to labor market discrimination. Some regional patterns appear counter-intuitive and need deeper investigation. Serious data and measurement issues have hampered the understanding of labor force participation rates in Bangladesh
4.1 Bangladesh in the South Asian Context: It is well known that women’s employment in South Asia is lower than in any other part of the world except perhaps the Middle East. Bangladesh is at the lower end of the South Asian spectrum and intuitively to those who know the country this seems inexplicable, given that key catalysts of female employment, viz. secondary school education and fertility rates, have had such impressive performance. Unlike other countries in South Asia, however, there has been a sharp growth – an increase of almost one and a half times - in women’s employment in Bangladesh in the last decade (1995-2003) coinciding with