200
WO R L D D E V E LO P M E N T R E P O RT 2 0 1 2
BOX 5.1
Closing the access gap—Recent advances in female labor force participation (continued) B OX F I G U R E 5 . 1 . 1 Participation rates—Converging 52
world
64
East Asia and Pacific 51
61
Latin America and the Caribbean
70 75 80 81 82
South Asia
33 26
86 75
Middle East and North Africa
21
0 2009
52
35
Middle East and North Africa
83
high-income countries
36
South Asia
81
52 45
Latin America and the Caribbean
77
Sub-Saharan Africa
57
high-income countries
86 69
Europe and Central Asia
58
Sub-Saharan Africa
82 80
East Asia and Pacific
67
Europe and Central Asia
78
world
50
50
100
female labor force participation rate,%
1980
76
0 2009
50
100
male labor force participation rate,%
1980
Source: World Development Indicators 2011.
transaction costs associated with market work, particularly among women. Changes in education have also facilitated women’s integration in the labor market. More educated women have traditionally exhibited higher participation rates than their less educated counterparts; so as education levels have increased around the world, more women have ventured into paid work. In Latin America, this increase in human capital explains 42 percent of the observed increase in female labor force participation since 1975.b Similarly, changes in family formation have increased the labor market attachment for young women and women with small children. Marriage has traditionally been associated with a decline in female labor force participation, followed by further reductions once children are born. In the Arab Republic of Egypt, women who had just married in 1997 were 40 percent less likely to participate in the labor market than those to be married within a year of the survey (19 versus 29 percent), whereas 10 years later the gap between the two groups had narrowed substantially (32 and 27 percent, respectively), suggesting that some women rejoin the labor force several years after marriage.c Increases in the age of marriage and declines in fertility are thus likely to have contributed to higher participation rates in most countries and regions. That said, the impact of economic development and changes in education and family formation on female labor force participation varies across individuals, countries, and regions and ultimately depends on institutions, formal and informal, as well as on individual preferences. Where changes in markets and institutions have aligned to strengthen incentives and erode constraints to participation, women have joined the labor force in large numbers. In contrast, where other constraints existed—particularly in informal institutions—or where market and institutional changes generated opposing forces, the impacts have been much more muted.
For instance, sustained economic growth has failed to boost participation in South Asia, while significant improvements in education have had only a limited impact on participation rates in the Middle East and North Africa. In both cases, social norms for women’s role in the economic sphere may have weakened the connection between stronger incentives to participation in market work and actual outcomes. Similarly, following the transition out of communism, female labor force participation in Eastern Europe declined from (a relatively high) 56 percent to 50 percent in 2008. The decline likely reflects institutional changes associated with the regime change, whereby participation in market work ceased to be a mandate for most women, and with the retrenchment of some support structures for working mothers, such as child care. More broadly, both formal and informal institutional structures can hinder (or support) female labor force participation. In many countries across all regions, legislation regulating market work, such as restrictions on hours and industry of work, treats men and women differently. Countries that impose these restrictions on women also have on average lower female labor force participation (45 percent, compared with 60 percent in countries with no restrictions) and higher gender participation gaps (45 percent, compared with 25 percent in counties with no restrictions). In addition, regulation of parental benefits and retirement can also affect female participation. Most countries provide some sort of maternity leave, but benefits vary considerably in the number of days, the percentage of leave that is paid, and who pays for it. Fewer countries provide paternity leave, often under more limited conditions. Differences in parental leave between men and women could increase the perceived cost of employing women and therefore diminish their employment opportunities. And while earlier retirement ages for women workers have, in many cases, been motivated by protective instincts, they can create dis-