A PROFILE OF SOUTH ASIA AT WORK
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and Nepal, but less than 30 percent of rural women in India and less than 20 percent in Nepal worked in the nonfarm sector at the end of the period. A multinomial logit analysis that looks at the determinants of labor participation and occupational choice shows that among workers with less than upper-secondary education, men are more likely than women to hold regular wage jobs within the rural nonfarm and urban sectors. In contrast, female workers with upper-secondary education are more likely than male workers to hold regular wage jobs (see chapter 5). Given the small percentage of women who participate in the labor force, the share of working-age women in better jobs is still much lower than the share of working-age men in better jobs, even at the highest levels of education. The lower level of educational attainment among women is one reason why they are less likely than men to be in better jobs. More than half of the female workforce in five of the eight countries in the region has no education. Occupational segregation and lower pay for the same jobs and qualifications are other likely factors.
sector, the gender gap has widened over time, increasing from 10 percentage points in 1983 to 16 percentage points in 2010 in India, for example (figure 3.22). A cohort analysis for India, Nepal, and Pakistan provides further evidence that women are generally stuck in agriculture across all countries in the region (figure 3.23). This analysis tracks participation in the rural nonfarm sector for the same age groups of male and female workers for 8–10 years beginning in 1999/2000. Several findings emerge. First, for every age cohort, women were less likely than men to work in the rural nonfarm sector. Second, younger men were more likely than older men to leave agriculture for the nonfarm sector and stay there. In all countries, the cohort of men that was 15–24 in 1999/2000 had the largest share of nonfarm labor by 2009/10 (40 –55 percent), followed by the 25–34 cohort. Among men in cohorts other than 15–24, and in some cases 25–34, the share of workers in the nonfarm sector by the end of the period declined or remained the same. Third, younger women were more likely than older women to exit agriculture in India
FIGURE 3.22 Percentage of rural workers in the rural nonfarm sector in South Asia, by gender and country 100 90
90 80
73
70
64
61
60 percent
70
66
58 54
49
50
49
42 40
40
35 28
30 22 20 12 10
36
31 25
30
28
23
21 10
8
11
13
16
15
39
16
15
19
4
0 2003 2007
2002 2005
1998 2004
1999 2008
2000 2009
2000 2008
Bhutan
Bangladesh
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
male
1983
1994 2000 2004 2010 India
female
Source: Authors, based on data from national labor force and household surveys.
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