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Missing from the Market: Purdah Norm and Women’s Paid Work Participation in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Asadullah, M Niaz
  • Wahhaj, Zaki
Abstract
Despite significant improvement in female schooling over the last two decades, only a small proportion of women in South Asia are in wage employment. We revisit this puzzle using a nationally representative data set from Bangladesh. Probit regression results show that even after accounting for human capital endowments, women are systematically less likely to participate in paid work than men. Oaxaca decomposition of the gender gap confirms that most of it (i.e. 95%) is unexplained by endowment differences. Instead, community norms such as the practice of purdah (i.e. female seclusion) have a statistically significant and negative effect on women’s participation in paid work. We do not find any evidence that purdah norm variable affect paid work participation indirectly, via determining the labor force participation decision. The correlation between current work participation and purdah norm in natal household is insignificant confirming that the result is not driven by omitted individual-specific socioeconomic factors. We also use data on past purdah practice of the current community to estimate an instrumental variable Probit regression model and rule out the possibility of reverse causality. Detailed decomposition analysis reveals that community purdah norm accounts for a quarter of the total unexplained gap. The findings are robust to controls for the influence of co-resident inlaws, household structure, marital status, and a wide range of community characteristics such as ecological factors, presence of NGOs, provision of public infrastructure, remoteness and local labor market conditions including the norm of unacceptability of unmarried women's outside work in the community.

Suggested Citation

  • Asadullah, M Niaz & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2017. "Missing from the Market: Purdah Norm and Women’s Paid Work Participation in Bangladesh," GLO Discussion Paper Series 21, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:21
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    Cited by:

    1. Amrit Amirapu & M Niaz Asadullah & Zaki Wahhaj, 2018. "Marriage, Work and Migration: The Role of Infrastructure Development and Gender Norms," Studies in Economics 1810, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    2. Lakshmi Devi & Manvinder Kaur, 2019. "Purdah or Ghunghat, a Powerful Means to Control Women: A Study of Rural Muslim and Non-Muslim Women in Western Uttar Pradesh, India," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 336-349, October.
    3. Amirapu, Amrit & Asadullah, M. Niaz & Wahhaj, Zaki, 2022. "Social barriers to female migration: Theory and evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    4. Ahmed, Tanima & Sen, Binayak, 2018. "Conservative outlook, gender norms and female wellbeing: Evidence from rural Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 41-58.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Purdah norm; gender inequality; labor market participation; poverty; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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