Women's work — routes to economic and social empowerment

This project looks at what we know about the nature of women’s work in developing countries. The project will consider policy paths for the creation of productive jobs for women that are properly remunerated  and thus create a route to women’s economic and social empowerment.

Recent progress in narrowing gender gaps in education, health, and political representation has not been matched by similar improvements in labour market outcomes for women, or more broadly, women’s economic empowerment. Global data shows that there has been no increase in female labour force participation and no decrease in the gap between men and women. Women typically occupy the worst-paid jobs with the least protection, and attitudes toward gender often hinder access to better opportunities. (See policy brief and blog for more information)

Women’s work differs from men’s as women are more likely to be unpaid for their work in family enterprises, and women are primarily responsible for household and caring tasks. Such combined responsibilities to contribute to their family enterprises, earn income in typically low-paid jobs, and care for the household can negatively affect women’s physical and mental wellbeing.

For women to be economically and socially empowered, it is necessary to increase both the quantity and quality of jobs for women, and address gender barriers in accessing job opportunities and segregation in labour markets. Further, the achievement of gender equality in labour market outcomes critically depends on the adoption of policies that address the ‘double burden’ that low-income women in particular face —earning income for the family as well as caring for other household members.

Key questions
  • What explains uneven female labour force participation across the Global South? Why have we seen low rates of female labour participation in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, as compared to other regions in the developing world?
  • What types and patterns of growth are most conducive to employment creation for women? How do the twin forces of globalization and labour-saving technical change affect job creation and destruction for women as compared to men?
  • How do gender discriminatory social norms affect women’s economic opportunities and their work experiences? How does economic, political and social change lead to shifts in behaviour and in gender norms, and how can economic empowerment programmes support processes of change for more egalitarian gender norms?
  • What types of public policies are more likely to enable women to obtain productive and remunerative jobs? How can gender-sensitive social policies be devised for low-income settings that address the ‘double burden’ of women’s work?
Watch this space

All papers, data, opinion pieces and opportunities to engage relating to this project will be available on this webpage. The project will be launched by the means of an inception workshop held at the University of Gӧttingen on 22 February 2019, which will set out the research agenda and modalities of the project going forward.

UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The project centrally addresses SDG5 (Gender Equality) and SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

Follow the conversation at #womenswork

 

SDG5 - Gender equalitySDG8 - Decent work and economic growth

 

Team

Internal focal points: Kunal Sen and Maria Lo Bue

External focal points: Ashwini Deshpande and Janneke Pieters

Project support: Kati Hirvonen

Communications: Timothy Shipp

 

Quicklinks

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    Journal Article
    Women’s Work – Routes to Social and Economic Empowerment

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Journal Article
    Local crime and early marriage

    This study analyses whether living in a locality with high crime against women affects the probability of early marriage — that is, marriage before the legal age of marriage of girls. Using a nationally-representative longitudinal dataset and...

    Journal Article
    The rise in women's labour force participation in Mexico

    This study estimates the relative importance of alternative supply and demand mechanisms in explaining the rise of female labor-force participation (FLFP) over the last 55 years in Mexico. The growth of FLFP in Mexico between 1960 and 2015 followed...

    Policy Brief
    How to create decent work for women

    Despite advancements for gender equality in some spheres, labour market outcomes for women continue to be worse than for men. Gender gaps in pay, labour force participation rates, and measures of job quality are stubbornly persistent and continue to...

    Journal Article
    Norms that matter

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Journal Article
    Female education and marriage in Pakistan

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Journal Article
    Heterogeneous impact of internet availability on female labor market outcomes in an emerging economy

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Journal Special Issue
    Women’s Work

    In recent decades, trends in female labour force participation rates have been very heterogeneous across developing countries, despite widespread economic growth, fertility decline, and narrowing gender gaps in education.However, globally, gender...

    Working Paper
    Empowering youth: the impact of comprehensive sex education on teenage pregnancy in Ecuador

    This paper analyses the impact of comprehensive sex education on teenage pregnancy rates in Ecuador, specifically examining its implementation in schools.The inclusion of sex education as a mandatory cross-cutting theme in the updated and...

    Journal Article
    Motherhood and flexible jobs

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Working Paper
    Gendered implications of the waves of COVID-19 and economic upgrading trajectories in digital value chains

    Women play a critical yet under-researched role in global digital agri-food value chains, especially in smallholder production, which affects how they are able to economically upgrade (improve crop yields and product quality, and increase product...

    Journal Article
    A macro analysis of gender segregation and job quality in Latin America

    Part of Journal Special Issue Women’s Work

    Presentation
    UNU-WIDER at the American Economic Association's Annual Meeting

    Research from the Women's work – routes to economic and social empowerment project is presented at one of the largest annual gatherings of leading economists in the world.

    Fri, 6 January 2023
    New Orleans Marriot, Preservation Hall Studio, 555 Canal St, New Orleans, United States
    Past event
    Journal Article
    Gender and vulnerable employment in the developing world

    This study investigates gender inequality in vulnerable employment: forms of employment typically featuring high precariousness, inadequate earnings, and lack of decent working conditions. Using a large collection of harmonized household surveys from...

    Working Paper
    Parental risk preferences, maternal bargaining power, and the educational progressions of children

    We analyse the effect of parental risk preferences and a novel measure of maternal bargaining power over educational expenses—elicited via lab-in-the-field experiments in rural Côte d’Ivoire—on the educational progression of boys and girls. Data from...

    Blog
    Reducing inequality — the great challenge of our time
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    Early in October 2022, international and Colombian researchers gathered together for three days at the UNIANDES campus, located at the foot of the...

    Displaying 16 of 82 results

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    Theme: 2019-23, Transforming societies

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