Labour Market Outcomes in Bangladesh: The Role of Poverty and Gender Norms

Sarah Bridges, David Lawson () and Sharifa Begum
Additional contact information
Sharifa Begum: Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka

The European Journal of Development Research, 2011, vol. 23, issue 3, 459-487

Abstract: It is frequently argued that female participation in the labour market is important for economic growth and poverty reduction. Despite this, the role that extreme poverty and gender norms play in influencing such participation is far from fully understood. This article uses nationally representative household data to address this issue using data for Bangladesh. In line with prior – largely qualitative – work, we find that extreme poverty is indeed important in explaining some of the growth in female employment in Bangladesh; we find evidence of a positive relationship between extreme poverty and participation, especially for women. In addition, we find that among young single women there appears to be a growing acceptance of their employment in the labour market. Despite this, rigid social and cultural norms are still apparent among other groups of women, especially in the rural areas.On affirme souvent que la participation des femmes au marché du travail joue un rôle important pour la croissance économique et la réduction de la pauvreté. Pourtant, l′influence de la pauvreté extrême et des normes de genre sur cette participation est loin d′être parfaitement comprise. Cet article tente d′apporter des éléments de réponse à cette question en s′appuyant sur des données représentatives sur les ménages du Bangladesh. Tout comme les travaux, essentiellement qualitatifs, effectués précédemment, nous constatons que la pauvreté extrême est un facteur important expliquant une partie de la croissance de l′emploi des femmes au Bangladesh; Nous démontrons que l′extrême pauvreté est positivement corrélée avec cette participation, particulièrement pour les femmes. En outre, nous constatons que les jeunes femmes célibataires semblent de plus en plus nombreuses à accepter leur propre participation au marché du travail. Cependant, des normes sociales et culturelles rigides continuent de régir les autres catégories de femmes, notamment en milieu rural.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/journal/v23/n3/pdf/ejdr201114a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/journal/v23/n3/full/ejdr201114a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:23:y:2011:i:3:p:459-487

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().