Beliefs and Social Structure: Determinants of Female Labour Participation in an Ecuadorian Andean Community

The aim was to identify the determinants of female labour participation and willingness to work in one of the poorest agricultural areas of the Ecuadorian Andes with a high indigenous population. A stratified random sample of 268 women by parish was used to collect the information. Social, demographic, and economic variables, as well as norms, values, beliefs, and social structure were consulted. A hypothesis test of means was used to identify possible differences in cultural variables. In addition, the identification of the determinants of labour market insertion was estimated through discrete choice models (logit), selecting the one that best classified the data by means of the confusion matrix. Significant differences were identified in the beliefs analysed based on prejudice towards women’s work (gender roles), attitudes towards children, and intersectionality (discrimination based on ethnicity) by estimating mean differences, considering education, marital status, ethnicity, and labour insertion as grouping variables. The results of the estimations indicate that female labour force participation depends on age, marital status, experience, number of children, education, ethnicity, head of household, social structure (ethnicity), and dimensions of beliefs and values. Willingness to work is explained by attitude towards children, experience, and age. Beliefs and social structure can therefore enhance female labour.