At an IFPRI Malawi virtual brown bag seminar held on 19th May 2021, Dr. Eva-Maria Egger, a UNU-Wider Research Fellow, presented a paper that posed the question “Does Connectivity Reduce Gender Gaps in Off-Farm Employment?”.
The background to this paper comes from the recognition that despite there being evidence that wage employment for young women translates to better welfare outcomes in life, but data has shown that a huge gap persists in wage employment between young men and women. The study focuses on young people because they form a large demographic with the highest levels of unemployment and the gender gaps, if unchecked from youth, are more likely to carry on all the way through adulthood. The paper hopes to contribute to literature on this subject which so far only focusses on the persistence of gender gaps over a period of time, in urban or agricultural settings only and on older working age groups.
The authors analyze data on youths aged 15-24 years from household surveys from 12 countries around the world, including Malawi. They test the hypothesis that proximity to urban areas reduces gender gaps in off-farm wage employment (OFWE). They also assess how factors such as marital status, household headship, or education affect this relationship.
The results show that the gender gap in OFWE does get smaller closer to urban areas. Young unmarried women are more likely to participate in OFWE than young married women, and this likelihood increases with proximity to urban areas. In households headed by females, young women are more likely to participate in OFWE compared to male-headed households. Young women with secondary school education are also more likely to participate in on OFWE than less educated women, and the effect of education on OFWE is strongest in urban areas. The rate of participation of young women in OFWE is higher in urban and peri-urban areas than in rural areas.
The paper adds to the literature on employment gender gaps along with economic geographies by providing individual-level evidence that can be compared across countries. It shows that gender gaps driven by social norms around marriage and childcare leave young married women worse off than their female or male counterparts independent of their connectivity. It also shows that secondary education improves young women’s participation in OFWE, especially in urban areas. Finally, it shows that being female still puts young women at a significant disadvantage compared to young men, especially in rural areas.
It is therefore important to address social norms at young ages, for example, encouraging participatory approaches that include both men and women, as well as parents and youth. There is also a need to consider context-specific requirements such as providing childcare services for young mothers during skills training.
