Gender Norms and Female Work Participation in Bangladesh Niaz Asadullah, University of Malaya Zaki Wahhaj, University of Kent

Motivation Large and persistent gender gaps in labour force participation in developing countries, especially South Asia and the Middle East (ILO 2011); Economic theory suggests that as fertility declines and female schooling increases, gender specialisation in household work versus market work should decline (e.g. Galor and Weil 2000); but in many developing countries fertility has declined rapidly in the last 40 years; education gender gap has narrowed rapidly; … but no comparable movement in the gender gap in employment.

Motivation cont’d. Therefore, the need to consider the alternative hypotheses for the gender gap in labour force participation: gender differences in preferences? (e.g. Thomas 1990, 1993; Lundberg, Pollak and Wales 1997) U-shaped relationship between female labour supply and economic development? (Goldin 1994; Mammen and Paxson 2000; Tam 2011) gender norms and conservative social attitudes towards women’s work? (Gaddis and Klasen 2014) We aim to investigate the last hypothesis in the case of Bangladesh, where a gender gap in LFP persists despite declining fertility and increased schooling for women in last 3 decades.

Source: Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 Report

Research Questions How large is the gender gap in paid work? How much of this gap is explained by differences in endowment? social norms related to gender roles and spheres?

Gender Norms related to Female Work Female work in rural Bangladesh traditionally constrained by two sets of social norms practice of purdah restricts women’s presence in public spaces (Paul 1992, White 1992) traditional division of labour by gender which assigns men the role of breadwinner and women responsible for domestic work and childcare (Amin 1997, Kabeer 2001)

Bangladesh WiLCAS 2014 Women’s Life Choices and Attitudes Survey ( (funded by Australian Gov’t. ADRAS grant) About 9,500 households and 7,800 women aged years Questions on education, marriage, economic activities, community norms, and attitudes towards traditional gender roles.

Measuring Work Participation Respondent to household questionnaire asked to list all economic activities for each household member during the past 12 months. Activities classified as (i) wage work (including day labour), (ii) salaried work, and (iii) self-employed (including work without pay for the household). Household members for whom no activity is reported classified as ‘not in work’.

Work Participation by Gender (20-39 yrs)

Measuring Social Norms Female respondents were asked about practice of purdah by female household members; whether it was safe & socially acceptable in the community for unmarried girls to venture outside of their homes on their own; their agreement with statements expressing traditional gender roles and division of labour within the household. Responses aggregated at the community/village level.

Respondents asked both about current norms and those experienced at age 12; Mobility norms relating to schooling appear to be changing steadily; But there is no clear pattern for mobility norms relating to other activities.

The map shows, by district, the average # of statements (out of 10) expressing traditional gender norms with which female respondents expressed agreement. There is considerable geographic variation but the pattern is also correlated with poverty, with women living in poorer areas having more traditional attitudes towards gender norms. Geographic Variation in Gender Norms

Community Norms by Work Status Women yrs Male yrs

Model 1Model 2Model 3 age cohorts yrs Estimated% % % Explained component Unexplained component Mean diff in emp probability0.15 age cohorts yrs Estimated% % % Explained component Unexplained component Mean diff in emp probability0.15 Notes Model 1:demographic attributes and education Model 2:Model 1 + community norms Model 3:Model 2 + community facilities/development Oaxaca Decomposition of Gender Gap in Probability of Paid Work

Conclusions Observable differences between men and women explain very little if any of the gender gap in labour force participation (paid work). Purdah norms have a significant effect on probability of female paid work but gender role attitudes do not have the hypothesized effects. Marital status affects male and female paid work differently; and marital status is the most important predictor of female paid work. The significant effect of marital status on female paid work suggests that gender roles are indeed important but this is not being captured by our measures of gender role attitudes.