Social Institutions, Identities, and Labor Force Participation

: This study explores the effect of social institutions such as religion, caste, and the household on women’s decision to participate in the labor force. The Southwestern Indian state of Kerala offers a diverse sociocultural setting to analyze this. Using data from two rounds of the Kerala Migration Survey - KMS 2013 and 2018 - women’s labor force participation (LFP) is assessed as a function of their religious group, and among castes, denominations, and sects within these religious groups. An interesting finding that holds regardless of the time period and religious group is that the more educated a woman is, the less likely she is to be gainfully employed. Changes in economic circumstances as a result of the return of migrants from Gulf countries primarily to the Muslimdominated northern parts of Kerala have permeated long-standing cultural influences that kept Muslim women from participating in the labor force, thereby enabling such participation in the latter period of study. We also see the effect of the dominant culture of the region on women’s labor force participation, especially in Malabar where the social norms of the Sunni Muslim sect seem to permeate across religious groups.