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- Convenors:
-
M Niaz Asadullah
(Monash University Malaysia)
Uma Kambhampati (University of Reading)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Paper panel
- Stream:
- Labour, incomes and precarity in development
- Location:
- S311
- Sessions:
- Thursday 27 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The panel reviews progress achieved, or the lack thereof, towards gender inequality in the first-half of the SDG campaign (2015-2023) with a specific focus on women's labor market outcomes.
Long Abstract:
As we pass the mid-point of the 2030 campaign, questions have been raised about the potential of the SDG agenda. Concerns over the ambitious nature of the goals aside, new shocks have added to the pre-existing challenges in some instances reversing past gains. Unsurprisingly, assessment of progress by the UN's SDG Report 2022 confirms widespread shortfalls in meeting the targets.
Of the many SDG targets, women’s empowerment and labour market participation are key to poverty reduction and economic growth. Yet female labor force participation has been stagnating or even declined in some developing regions in recent years. The pandemic has further worsened women’s well-being in terms of maternal mortality and life expectancy. Such disruptions risk worsening women's future labor market opportunities by depleting their market endowments, leaving them trapped into poverty. In order to regain the lost momentum and accelerate progress towards SDG 5 by 2030, it's necessary to understand and scrutinize the emerging evidence of women's labor market status in post-MDG years.
We invite papers relating to women’s participation in the labour market engaging with a range of issues in relation to women’s human capital (health, wellbeing, education) as well as gender norms and gaps in social safety net provisions that hold back (or encourage) women’s empowerment and equity. Research on global/regional trends on gender inequality in labor market outcomes and opportunities will be given priority. Proposals from academics as well as policy scholars are welcome. Preference is given to quantitative analysis though mixed-methods papers will be also considered.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 27 June, 2024, -Madhuri Kamtam (University of East Anglia)
Paper short abstract:
Exploring Beedi Workers Realities: A deep dive into India's home-based beedi industry, examining challenges, collective action, policy impacts. Insights from Telangana villages contribute to discussions on Capitalizing on Precarity: Informality, Caring Capitalism, and New Circuits of Accumulation.
Paper long abstract:
This study immerses itself in the intricate political economy of India's home-based beedi industry, a prominent informal sector predominantly taken up by women in rural areas. Beedi, a hand-rolled country cigar crafted from unprocessed tobacco, symbolizes this unorganized occupation. Rooted in a rich history of collective action, workers in this sector have influenced the enactment of labor laws aiming to improve working conditions, safeguard worker rights, and enhance welfare.
Despite substantial legislative progress, the beedi industry grapples with persistent challenges, including stumbling policy implementation, restricted benefit access, meager wages, and health risks. This study employs a comprehensive mixed-methods approach. It scrutinizes the pivotal role of collective action in fostering worker mobilization and policy execution, discerning variations in organizational dynamics,policy adherence among villages. Utilizing secondary and primary data gathered during fieldwork in Telangana's Sirikonda and Thandriyal villages, the study crafts a multidimensional welfare analysis index.
Fieldwork, conducted from February-May 2023, included surveys administered to 400 women engaged in beedi work, complemented by 60 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with union members/leaders.
By dissecting the political economy intricacies, the study sheds light on the tangible impacts of labor laws, welfare policies, and collective action within the sector. The findings have the potential to shape policies and interventions, fostering improvements in working conditions and overall well-being for beedi workers and those engaged in similar informal sector occupations across India. Ultimately, this endeavor aims to strengthen the welfare of these workers and their families, fostering a more inclusive and equitable socio-economic landscape.
Najam Us Saqib (O.P. Jindal University) Ishfaq Wani (Senior Research Analyst, CNES O.P. Jindal University India) Deepanshu Mohan (O.P.Jindal Global University)
Paper short abstract:
This research explores how the Kashmir's Hanji Community face a threat to their fishing and cultural traditions. it also explores how urbanization, pollution, and modernization threaten their livelihood, prompting resilient resistance to change and migration.
Paper long abstract:
The Hanjis or Heanz are the boatmen of community of Kashmir. They live in the areas around the Dal lake, Wular lake, Manasbal lake and along the banks of river Jhelum. They are a unique homogenous group that have distinct cultures and traditions, with many sub groups, categorised according to the work they do. This research focuses on the Ga’ad-Haenz community in Kashmir, investigating the imminent loss of their enduring fishing traditions. Employing ethnographic methods, including on-site participant observations, it explores multifaceted factors contributing to the decline of traditional fishing practices linked to livelihoods and cultural identity.
The results highlight a concerning trend where youth, grappling with uncertainties, abandon generational occupations. The community's forced migration from water-based ancestral homes to crowded urban spaces has led to a sense of detachment from cultural roots. Simultaneously, declining fish count due to pollution and habitat destruction from unplanned development contribute to reduced revenues. Consequently, they resort to low-income jobs like manual labor, exacerbating their vulnerabilities.
The study highlights the obstacles encountered by female fishers who confront problems in accessing markets lacking infrastructure. Poorly executed modernization plans displace communities, disrupting water-centric communal structures.
In the face of existential challenges, the Hanji community, demonstrate courage by steadfastly holding to their traditional fishing methods. The Hanji culture faces significant challenges due to discriminatory legislation and practices in the midst of rising urbanization. They strongly oppose the degradation of their identity and way of life. This study illuminates the resilience of the Hanji people in adapting to and addressing the challenges brought about by rapid urbanization.
Philipa Akuoko (University of Bern) Michèle Amacker (University of Bern)
Paper short abstract:
Our paper brings a sub-Saharan perspective to the dialogue on gendered work in public space in the global south. We discuss access and use legitimacies of public spaces and the conflicting debate that arises from ongoing neoliberal redevelopment projects in these public spaces.
Paper long abstract:
Women workers have been using public spaces in Ghanaian cities as workplaces for several decades. A recent redevelopment of public spaces in Ghana has resulted in the relocation, displacement, and eviction of informal workers majority of whom are women from these public spaces. This study seeks to explore how women in informal cities contribute to the overall growth and development of cities in Ghana to understand women’s productive and reproductive work. We explore the diverse paid and unpaid work these informal workers conduct and their motivations through a multitude of qualitative methods. Through the social reproduction theory, we explain the complexity of women’s productive and reproductive work towards the growth of cities and highlight the differential categories that affect diverse women working in public spaces in Ghanaian cities. The study findings revealed that informal work in Ghanaian cities is regarded as predominantly women’s work, rooted in customary belief systems and that the women raise women to perpetuate gendered work and different women use and access public spaces differently. We conclude that efforts to attain gender equality and decent work should encompass an understanding and incorporation of informal women’s work into urban planning policies.
Ghulam Dastgir Khan (Hiroshima University)
Paper short abstract:
Investigating Mongolia's Child Money Program, this paper finds a significant reduction in mothers' working hours, especially for those under 35 or with young children. No notable impact on fathers' labor outcomes is found. Policymakers should tailor CMP design for diverse maternal ages.
Paper long abstract:
This study examines the impact of the Child Money Program (CMP) on labor market outcomes in Mongolia, specifically focusing on fathers' and mothers’ labor participation, employment, and working hours per week. A Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design is used to assess the causal impact of the CMP, integrating three sources of nationally representative datasets. The CMP, a conditional cash transfer program, targets households with welfare scores below specific cutoff points and covers 76.8% of children in total, accounting for 0.7% of GDP in 2018. The findings reveal that the CMP significantly reduces mothers' weekly working hours, but it does not have a significant effect on labor force participation and employment status compared to non-beneficiary mothers. However, heterogeneity analysis highlights that the CMP significantly reduces labor force participation and employment status for mothers below 35 years of age or mothers with only preschool or secondary school-aged children. Among fathers, there is no impact on their labor outcomes. The study suggests that the CMP primarily negatively impacts mothers, while no conclusive evidence supports a significant impact on fathers' employment. Policymakers should carefully consider the CMP's design and implementation, especially in different age groups of mothers and children.
Vijayamba R (Azim Premji University)
Paper short abstract:
Often, it is assumed that urban women are less bounded by norms. It is, in fact, the opposite because they require freedom to go out and work for long periods. Through this paper, I contribute to the discussion on the influence of norms on women's work outcomes in a developing country context.
Paper long abstract:
This paper studies the influence of social norms and labour demand on labour market outcomes of urban women in India. Women's employment rates in urban India have been low and stagnating in recent years, and this study looks at this issue from the social norms perspective. The paper makes use of the National Family Health Survey - 4 (2015-16) and constructs indices for norms- decision making, mobility, ownership of assets, justification of violence, experience of violence, and husband's control over wives. The variables in any constructed index are coded in a binary form from 0 (regressive) to 1 (progressive). District-level averages of variables are calculated, and variables related to a common dimension are brought together. The study finds that if a woman resides in a district with relatively more progressive norms - mobility, decision-making, and ownership of assets, she is more likely to be employed. The negative coefficients for justification of violence, the experience of violence and husband's control over wives show that there is evidence for the “male backlash effect.” Working women either face more violence at home or tend to justify violence.
In the follow-up to this work, the study uses the National Family Health Survey 5 (2019-20) to understand if there was a change in work outcomes of women that could be explained by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and the norm of mobility (seeking permission to go out to different places) through the imposed restrictions. This work is ongoing and may have some results in the coming days.
Afeez Lawal (Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Nigeria) Abiodun Egbetokun (National Centre for Technology Management, Nigeria) Adedayo Olofinyehun (National Center for Technology Management)
Paper short abstract:
A policy route to grow the Nigerian economy, attain SDGs and reduce unemployment is via entrepreneurship by attracting highly-educated youth. The paper explores the level of entrepreneurial interest and how it varies by gender. It offers insight in closing the gender gap in entrepreneurial intention
Paper long abstract:
It is clear that one policy route to grow the economy, attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reduce the scourge of unemployment is the creation of enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive especially in a way that it attracts highly-educated youth. Since they are the next generation of potential entrepreneurs, undergraduates are an interesting group to study in terms of their entrepreneurial attitudes especially in a country like Nigeria where youth unemployment is very high. Previous research suggests that Nigerian students exhibit moderately low entrepreneurial attitude which varies by gender. In other words, most youth, particularly the female, want to become business owners but fail to work towards achieving it. This paper advances knowledge with its exploration of the interest of Nigerian students in starting their own businesses. We examine specifically and for the first time in the Nigerian context, the level of entrepreneurial interest and how it varies including by gender. The main argument in the study is that the intensity and not just incidence of interest in entrepreneurship is what matters in the quest to deploy entrepreneurship as a policy tool to improve women’s labour market outcomes. In particular, are young women more or less likely than their male counterparts to desire entrepreneurship at a high level? To address this question, the study relies on pooled cross-sectional data on over 12,000 undergraduates of Nigerian universities. The study offers insight into how to close the gender gap in entrepreneurial intention and outcome, thereby improving female labour market outcomes.
Surbhi Malhotra (Jawaharlal Nehru University) Amaresh Dubey (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Paper short abstract:
Female labor force participation has fallen in India after 2005. We argue that districts with inegalitarian gender ideology of men have lower workforce participation rates of women. Additionally, in states with greater proportion of male breadwinner families, women allocate less time to employment.
Paper long abstract:
Utilizing logit and tobit variations of multilevel modeling, we investigate the relationship among individual, household, and community-level factors influencing workforce participation and time allocated to employment for Indian married women. We employ individual-level data from India’s National Family Health Survey-IV (NFHS 2015-16) and Time Use Survey (TUS 2019), supplemented by district and state-level data from Census 2011, RBI, and the National Health Mission.
In our analysis, using NFHS (2015-16), we assess the impact of covariates on women’s workforce participation at the extensive margin, while TUS (2019) allows us to measure the effect at the intensive margin. Individual-level covariates include spousal bargaining measures, life-course variables, and household-level factors. At the district level, factors such as men’s gender ideology, infrastructure, patrilocal exogamy, consanguinity, literacy rates, and workforce participation are considered for NFHS. For TUS, state-level variables include infrastructure, family welfare expenditure, proportion of male breadwinner families, and proportion of graduates.
Results show that women with higher education than their spouses, at least one male child, husbands employed in agriculture, from less affluent households, and residing in rural areas are more likely to be employed. Women with older daughters (15-17 years) allocate more time to employment at the intensive margin. At the extensive margin, in districts where men believe that they should be the primary decision-makers in a marriage or justify violence against women, women have a lower likelihood of being employed. At the intensive margin, women living in states with a greater proportion of male breadwinner families allocate less time to employment.
Lavanya Ganesan (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)
Paper short abstract:
The paper looks at the impact of the provision of pre schooling services by Anganwadi Centres (AWC) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme on mother's employment status. In the absence of affordable child care creches, do AWC enable women to participate in the labour market?
Paper long abstract:
The literature identifies care burden as one of the key factors inhibiting participation of women in the labour market. Adult women spend 130 minutes/day on childcare activities which includes feeding, bathing, childcare instruction, minding etc. (Indian Time Use Survey, 2019). This is particularly true for young children below 6 years of age. In the absence of affordable and well functioning day care creches, women are reliant on extended family members to substitute these services. The Anganwadi Centres (AWC) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme provide 3 hours of pre school service to children aged 3-6 years. Over the years, AWC have been expanded across the country and the utilisation rate of it's services has increased. In this context, the paper looks at the impact this service has on women's work participation. Does this enable them to participate in the labour market? Using logit and propensity score matching , the paper finds a significant positive impact of pre school services on women's work participation rate. At the policy level, this implies that if childcare services can be provided for extended hours , it might further augment women's participation in labour market. Recently, in 2022 Government of India has launched the Palna scheme which aims to provide day care services for children from 6 months to 6 years for seven hours a day. The paper also looks at the administrative data on the uptake of this scheme by women across different socio-economic groups and occupational categories up till now.
Manasi Bera (Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies)
Paper short abstract:
Migration is an integral part of the job search process. This paper aims to examine the economic mobility of migrant females in India and analyse the factors associated with their entry and exit from the labour force at two points, mid-2000 and 2020-21.
Paper long abstract:
Migration is an important part of the job search process. However, the gender gap in migration has a similar pattern to labour force participation (LFP). In 2019, there were more male migrant workers than females and a lower LFP of migrant women (ILO, 2021). In the last five decades, there has been an increase in female migrants who are migrating independently for education and work. Migration theories suggest higher returns to migration due to access to more productive jobs. However, female entry and exit from the labour market are more frequent. This paper aims to examine the economic mobility of migrant females and analyse the factors associated with their entry and exit from the labour force at two points, mid-2000 and 2020-21. We used India's labour force survey data to understand this phenomenon, where females account for almost one-third of internal migration. Though there has been a declining trend in the LFP rate, the growth rate in economic migration among females increased during the 2000s. We find a higher entry rate and lower exit from the labour market among female migrants in India during 2020-21. While female LFP remains very low, moving toward urban locations gives women wider choices of paid work opportunities. The result suggests attaining technical education increases the likelihood of entry, and more so in 2020 compared to 2000. With higher returns to professional skills, more public and private investment may be directed towards such skill creation. This paper provides important evidence for a lower middle-income country.