Women's labour supply in rural areas of Bangladesh: Does participation in poverty alleviation programmes influence women's involvement in outside work?

1. TemplateproducedattheGraphicsSupportWorkshop,MediaCentre
Age: younger: 17- 35 years and older: 36-68 years.
-2 female headed household in each village
Survey data (n = 450 probabilistically selected HHs)
Household demographics, labour, assets, debts, etc
Attitudes (one couple per household)
Time use (one couple per household)
Diary recall method (40 condensed codes)
One day recall for the previous day,15 minute
intervals
Areas were chosen where a large majority were
below a poverty line.
Existence of various safety net schemes and public
work schemes –
-Safety Net: widow allowance, old age allowance,
VGD, VGF,
-PW: 100 days, 40days
Findings on attitudes
Figure 3 : Contradiction in attitudes
a) Men and women share similar attitudes to
women’s work and gender roles
b) Both feel women ‘s economic contribution is
desirable
c) But work outside the home still seen by many as
‘dishonourable’ for family.
Contact: mustafa.sadia@gmail.com
Introduction
Rise in female labour force activity in Bangladesh
has not been through the modern route of
salaried/waged employment, but through routes of
work for the household/family rather than work for
someone else. This paper aims to offer a view on
impact of participation in poverty alleviation
programmes on involvement in labour market-
mediated by social norms and attitudes
Conceptual framework
Figure 1 : Conceptual framework (borrowed from
Wendy Olsen)
Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1: participation in a poverty alleviation
programme has a direct positive effect on women’s
labour supply for market oriented economic activity
Hypothesis 2: participation in a poverty alleviation
programme affects women’s labour supply for
market oriented economic activity indirectly through
its impact upon women’s own attitudes about paid
work and gender roles
Methods
Figure 2 : Map of Bangladesh, with field sites indicated
Three regions:
-char /river island,
-non char/flat land,
-forest
2 villages in each area, one with high literacy and
close to town; and another with low literacy and far
away from town
Findings on labour supply
Figure 4 : Tobit regression of time spent on paid
work
- Paid work dependent on opportunities
- Higher education of women in the rural areas
decreases participation in the work force
- Household wealth discourages women labour
supply
- participation in a poverty alleviation programme
exerted a strong independent positive influence on
women’s labour supply for paid work
- women’s own attitude to outside work/job alone
did not seem to have a direct effect
- for women who were members of poverty
alleviation programmes the more favourable their
attitude to outside work/job the more likely they
were to be engaged in paid work.
Policy Implication
a) More poverty alleviation programmes are
needed in vulnerable region to increase women’s
productive work
b) A supply side (opportunity) approach rather
than a demand side one (attitude change through
education) would lead to greater involvement of
women in paid work
c) Public work schemes have higher influence in
women’s participation in the labour force than
social safety net
References
Kabeer, Naila ( 1997) Women, Wages and
Intra‐household Power Relations in Urban
Bangladesh; Development and Change; Volume
28 Issue 2 April
Luke, Nancy & Munshi, Kaivan (2011) "Women as
agents of change: Female income and mobility in
India," Journal of Development Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 1-17, January.
Mukhopadhyay, Swapna and S.D. Tendulkar
(2006), Gender Difference in Labour Force
Participation in India: An Analysis of NSS data,
Working Paper GN(III)
Women’s labour supply in rural areas of Bangladesh: Does participation in poverty
alleviation programmes influence women’s involvement in outside work?
Simeen Mahmud & Sadia Mustafa
Centre for Gender and Social Transformation, Brac Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC University
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor
Disagree
Disagree
A family suffers if mother has a full-time job
Female
Male
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Strongly
Agree
Agree Neither Agree
nor Disagree
Disagree Strongly
Disagree
A woman and her family are happier if she
works for income
Female
Male
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree
nor Disagree
Disagree Strongly
Disagree
Women working outside the home increase
the honor of the family
Female
Male
Variables Model1 Model2(Pov) Model3(Int_F) Model4(Int_Ind)
secondary -** -** -** -**
Sec_above -** -** -** -**
Wearborkha -** -** -** -**
Child<5 -* -* -*
Remittance -* -* -* -*
HasLivestock +*** +*** +*** +***
Anti-povertyprog +*** +***
Attitudefactor -
Interaction_pov_Factor +**
Interaction_pov_Index +*
Flatland/Non-char +*** +*** +*** +***