Gender, work and family (1)

A large fraction of literature has devoted to gender studies, differences between sexes in the labor market are an established fact. Meanwhile, informality is large and persistent for most developing countries. Some authors link the women’s vulnerability and their customary child care activities, carried out by women, to higher rates of informality by women. However, recent trends in middle-income countries may pose a challenge to such results as women may be choosing formal jobs, over passing men. We present such result for the Colombian case, by using the NTA-gender methodology and a review of educational attainment, child labor and labor market statistics by gender. The massive increase in female education, the proliferation of child labor in paid activities, that “favor” boys over girls, and the rampant growth of the informal market, that includes illegal and profitable activities in Colombia, drive gender segregated decisions with the formal/informal duality in an unexpected way. That is, women working in the formal sector earn almost as much as men working in the informal sector. But women show at all ages larger consumption patterns of health, for which they prefer formal jobs that guarantee access to the social security system for them and their kids.

Child mortality rate in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. Studies have shown that childhood diseases, poor management of these diseases and poor feeding practices are responsible for most of these deaths. Also, non-integration of women’s empowerment into policies aiming to improve child health is responsible for the persistent high rate.
The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between female labour force participation and child health outcomes. Little work has been done in this area in developing countries, hence this study.
The study will employ primary and secondary data. Secondary data for the study will be extracted from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health survey (NDHS). Data on ever married women aged 15-49 years that have had at least a child within the last five years will be extracted for 6,790 women sampled in South West from the NDHS (2008).
Primary data will be obtained between 2nd and17th November 2012 through twenty (20) in-depth interviews of currently married women of childbearing age who have had at least a child within the last five years to complement the results from the secondary source. Data will be analyzed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics

The recent two important economic crises in Korea have transformed the state ranging from its political economy to socio-demographic dimensions. In midst of societal shifts, women and their socio-economic spheres have been notably changed, and accordingly housing careers are distinctive. This study is to focus on the changing nature of Korean women’s socio-demographic profile over the economic crises and to examine their changing housing careers. The findings can be summarized as follows 1) the number of women who are old, single, female-headed or highly educated has strikingly increased: 2) high educational attainment of women fosters economic participation, delays marriage and motherhood, and lowers child births: 3) women’s college enrolment rate grows while the increase rate of women’s participation in labour market remains marginal: 4) aging and poverty are feminized; and 5) gender inequality in pay and employment are prevalent. With the socio-demographic change, the socio-economic position in housing market is vulnerable and housing careers become diverse. These results suggest that socio-economic opportunities of women be expanded and more women-friendly housing policies be taken to enable them to have an equal access to housing resources and to attain a fair opportunity for housing wealth accumulation.

Although flexibility is often mentioned as a key feature of the Swedish parental leave system, focus of earlier studies on parental leave usage is almost exclusively on the sharing of leave. The flexibility however makes it necessary for parents to decide on what we will call a distributive pattern of parental leave that includes decisions also on length, timing and frequency of periods of both paid and unpaid days of each parent. We identify four dimensions in the decision: the total length dimension, the labor market dimension, the economic dimension, and the shared responsibilities dimension. Data include dated parental leave days taken for all children born in Sweden in the years 1994 to 2009. First, we identify different types of distributive patterns found in the data. Second, we investigate the determinants of each distributive pattern in the light of the different dimensions.

The present paper is an attempt to study the various dimensions of women’s work including employment status, type of work, working hours and place of work and the impact of women's work on household chores including child caring. The data has been collected from 700 households of 20 villages in Bhandara district. Anthropological approach is used for collection of extensive information. It is revealed from analysis that most of the women were working till marriage and after marriage in Bhandara district to support family economically and to support family work. Half of the women are working seasonal/part of the year and nearly one quarter of women is working throughout the year till marriage. Seven out of ten women contributed their entire income to the total family income and most of the women reported that their monetary contribution to the family is important. Thirty two percent of women are carrying their children with them at the place of work. Nearly three fourths of women reported that that they take care of schooling and immunization of child when they are working. The improvement in work conditions can more effectively improve child care. This would entail a more widely dispersed development programme.

This study describes the types and risk factors for experience of violence by 695 female youths working as hairdressing and tailoring apprentices and hawkers were interviewed in three states in South west, Nigeria. The mean age of the subjects was 23.5 years. Most (72.2%) worked long hours (>10 hours) and for six n days of the week (87.2%). The commonest violent acts experienced was sexual violence (61.3%) followed by economic violence (27.5%). Sexual harassment was the common type of (36.3%) sexual violence experienced, while 5.5% had experienced rape. Economic violence was by withholding or reducing payments (23.4%) or being forced to perform duties for which no payments were made (57%). Younger aged girls were more likely to experience physical (AOR 1.60; 95%CI 1.06-2.43), sexual (AOR 3.53; 95%CI 2.06-7.63) and psychological violence (OR 1.10; 95%CI 1.11-2.33) than their older counterparts. Similarly, students who did not live with their parents (OR 1.53; 1.25 -2.45), or worked long hours outside the home (OR 1.48; 1.07-2.03) were more vulnerable to experiencing violence. Most of the victims (59.3 %) did not seek care or redress for the violent acts they suffered. Multiple interventions targeted at men in the workplace, the young women themselves are needed. Microcredit facilities for the female youths are recommended.

This study has two-fold objectives; firstly, the paper aims to find out how far the size of household landholding directs patriarchal traits. Secondly, the paper innovate a means to understand the contributing factors to lowering women’s autonomy, thus, explore the relevance of ‘Landholding-patriarchy hypothesis’. Results indicate considerable variation in women’s autonomy with the size of their household landholding: women’s autonomy decreases with increasing size of household landholding. Evidence suggests that, landholding directs patriarchal traits, as manifested in a reasonable influence on women’s autonomy in rural India.

Women’s participation in labor force has been lower than that of men’s in many developing countries. The gender differences in labor participation are attributed mainly to prevailing social and cultural barriers that tend to affect women’s participation in workforce. With decline in fertility and consequent changes in the age structure of many developing countries there has been greater interest on the behavior of women’s work participation in view of the perceived demographic dividend from higher composition of working age population. Demographic transition brought through health and family planning (FP) programs is shown to induce change in women’s social and economic position, in turn, influencing their labor force participation. Acceptance of FP operation gives women greater freedom to use time and opportunity more efficiently by choosing to participate or not to in workforce as a consequence of curtailing childbearing. Evidently, NFHS-3 data suggest that female sterilization acceptors have had much higher work participation than that of non-acceptors among ever married women in the ages 15-49 years in India. The question is, does FP program benefit women in India in increasing their labor force participation, if yes among which sections of society or whom does it matter and where? This is important not only for old security

Based on “The Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey” (CLHLS, 2011) , a longitudinal survey started in 1998, this study examines more closely about elder care needs and care provided within families. Our analyses show that the “market” of family care givers is gendered. While women take more of the work, men (or sons) are still considered as care givers for the elderly today even though the son(s) in reality does not do any caregiving. Among major daily care providers, women are the major force, being wife, daughter, or daughter-in-law. This pattern reflects Chinese traditional values of “raising sons for old-age care 养儿防老” : “men work outside the family and women work within the family” (男主外女主内). Following the tradition, women today provide more hours of care per week and the elderly receiving the care value the care very much. However, if family remains as a major source of the elderly care, as expected and preferred by the elderly themselves, then the family and society should offer support to the primary care givers and a social policy should be developed to assist the care givers.

The three decades of the market-oriented reform since 1978 have redefined employment in rural China and brought profound gendered experiences. Both men and women have contributed to a massive employment transition from agriculture to off-farm sectors, including that of self-employment. However, given the general findings that men have taken a lead in the burgeoning economic sectors, previous studies have not paid enough attention to women’s participation in self-employment sectors. This study draws on life-history interviews from 27 women in a Chinese village, 9 of whom have participated in self-employed economic activities and 18 of whom have not. This study explores the determinants that facilitate or constrain women’s participation in self-employment sectors, either derived from increasingly market-dominated employment relationships, benefits and risks involved in conducting one’s own business, or family demands. Based on different driving forces underlying women’s increasing activeness in self-employment, women diverged in taking self-employment as an individual career, a side job, or a family venture, which helps to re-define their role in the family and in the labor force.