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Social norms as a barrier to women's employment in developing countries

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  • Seema Jayachandran

Abstract

This paper discusses cultural barriers to women's participation and success in the labor market in developing countries. I begin by describing how gender norms influence the relationship between economic development and female employment, as well as how gender norms differ substantially across societies at the same level of economic development. I then discuss in more detail specific gender-related social norms and how they constrain women's employment. I present examples of policies aimed at dismantling these cultural barriers to female employment and the impacts they have.

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  • Seema Jayachandran, 2019. "Social norms as a barrier to women's employment in developing countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-74, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-74
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Culture; Institutions; Developing countries; Economic development; Female labour force participation; Employment; Labour supply; Social norms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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