marginalization revisited: women's market work and pay, and economic development

Marginalization Revisited: Women's Market Work

and Pay, and Economic Development

SUSAN HORTON *

Department of Economics, University of Toronto, Canada

Summary. Ð A substantial literature argues that women have been left out of economicdevelopment, but evidence from labor force surveys in middle-income developingcountries suggests otherwise. Women's participation rates in the market labor forcehave been increasing, women have shifted into white-collar occupations, and certainpreviously male-dominated occupations have become female-dominated (clerical workin Asia, for example). Women's relative pay has risen somewhat faster in Asia and LatinAmerica than occurred during industrialization in the United States. Although in-equalities remain, there is no evidence that women on average are being marginali-zed. Ó 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. INTRODUCTION

A substantial strand of the literature arguesthat women have been left out of economicdevelopment, or have failed to bene®t as muchas men. Scott (1986) summarizes and critiquesthis literature. A related literature (surveyed byMoghadam, 1996) argues that poverty is beingfeminized. ADB (1994) states that:

Asia is currently the most rapidly growing and dy-namic part of the world. While the region is forgingahead at an incredible pace of economic growth, thesame unfortunately cannot be claimed for the vast ma-jority of its women..... Rather than making gains,there is increasing evidence of a worsening situationfor many women in the region.

Are these assertions consistent with evidencethat the male-female education gap is narrow-ing? (Schultz, 1989 documents that the incomeelasticity of female education substantially ex-ceeds that of male.) Can these assertions becorrect in the face of the demographic transi-tion and decline in number of children perwoman, with consequent e�ects on labor mar-ket participation?

This paper examines some of the trends inwomen's labor market participation (Sec-tion 2), employment (Section 3) and earnings(Section 4), and discusses their signi®cance(Section 5). It argues that women's marketwork and pay in many middle-income devel-

oping countries are following the same trendswhich previously occurred in developed coun-tries, namely an increase in labor market par-ticipation in urban areas, a shift toward white-collar work and higher-paid occupations, andin many cases an increase in women's pay rel-ative to men's.

Evidence for this is primarily based onhousehold labor force survey data for South-east and East Asia (excluding China), LatinAmerica, and North Africa/Middle East. Dataproblems prevent the examination of many ofthese trends in the low-income countries inSouth Asia (although we include India) andsub-Saharan Africa. In the former case laborforce surveys are not readily available andchanges in Census de®nitions of participationmake trends hard to follow, and in the lattercase labor force survey over time are scarcelyavailable. Thus our data are fairly representa-tive for middle-income developing countries. Itis also quite likely that the trends observed inLatin America and East and Southeast Asia areless apparent in South Asia and sub-SaharanAfrica. In South Asia growth has only recentlyaccelerated and there remains a large laborsurplus; it has also been argued that in parts ofSouth Asia female participation may decrease

World Development Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 571±582, 1999Ó 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd

All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain0305-750X/99 $ ± see front matter

PII: S0305-750X(98)00145-4

* The author would like to thank Anne Germain for

excellent research assistance, and two anonymous refer-

ees for very helpful suggestions.

571

with increases in per capita GDP due to pref-erences for seclusion. In Africa many countrieshave experienced falling per capita income overa sustained period.

2. WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN THEMARKET LABOR FORCE

Goldin's (1990) study is the longest-durationstudy of trends in female work and pay in adeveloped country. She argues that for theUnited States, participation rates over thecourse of development followed a U-shapedpattern. The rates were initially high in ruralareas (market work not being an insurmount-able obstacle to childcare) but declined withurbanization and the increasing con¯ict be-tween market work and childcare responsibili-ties. The rates eventually rose again followingthe demographic transition, as family size de-creased. Data for other OECD countries alsoshow the increase in participation after WWII,but do not go back far enough to show whetherthe pattern was U-shaped (Bakker, 1988).

For developing countries, there is the usualneed for caution in interpreting data on partic-ipation, since de®nitions vary across countriesand even within countries over time, and resultsare sensitive to the de®nition used (see for ex-ample Anker and Khan, 1988). The countrydata here re¯ect the ILO de®nition of marketlabor force participation, which includes bothwork for wages as well as work in self-employ-ment or in a family business for which at leastpart of the output is marketed. It excludes workin the home where there is no marketed output.

The evidence on for developing countriessuggests that women's participation rates haveincreased, with little evidence of the U-shapedpattern observed in the United States. In Asiarates increased most markedly in Korea, Phil-ippines and Thailand, out of the seven coun-tries studied by Horton (1996), but there waslittle change in India, Indonesia and Japan, anddata for Malaysia were available only for ashort period. In Latin America increases weremarked for most countries (Psacharopoulosand Tzannatos, 1992) except Paraguay. In theCaribbean, where female participation rateshave traditionally been high, there is less evi-dence of any increase (Psacharopoulos andTzannatos, 1992). Out of the middle-incomecountries, women's participation rates haveonly declined in the Middle East/North Africaregion (Table 7). These ®ndings of generally

increasing participation rates for women asincome increases are con®rmed by pooledcross-section/time-series studies using the ILOdata for 1970, 1980 and 1990 (Behrman andZhang, 1994: the variance in their data is pre-dominantly cross-sectional).

Some of the variation across countries can beexplained by the prevailing patterns of femalerural and urban participation rates. In coun-tries where female participation in agriculture ishigh (East and Southeast Asia for example,where 35±50% of those in agricultural occupa-tions are women: Horton, 1996) the upwardtrend is less marked than in countries wherefemale participation in agriculture is lower(Latin America, Philippines, where less than15% of those in agricultural occupations arewomen: Table 11). We would expect the up-ward trend to be less marked also in sub-Sa-haran Africa, since female participation rates inagriculture are already high.

Examination of the patterns of participationby age group for Asia and Latin America sug-gest that participation has increased broadlyacross women in prime working age.1 Patternsof participation by age vary across countries. InSingapore and much of Latin America for ex-ample, the pattern is single-peaked, with thehighest participation rates when women ®nishtheir education. In rural economies as well asPhilippines and Thailand, the pattern is a pla-teau shape, with participation remaining simi-lar throughout prime working ages. Othercountries such as Japan and Korea exhibit the``double-peaked'' age patterns of participationalso found in many OECD countries. Partici-pation pro®les by age have tended to shift up-ward without necessarily changing shape,except that the trough in the double-peakedpattern has ®lled in somewhat, consistent withthe shorter period in which women leave thelabor force when their children are young(Horton, 1996; Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos,1992). In developed countries the increase inparticipation by women with young childrenhas been marked. More detailed analysis sug-gests that women with young children dohowever work shorter hours or shift to forms ofemployment o�ering increased ¯exibility inhours or in location.

3. WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT

There are three dimensions to women's em-ployment which can be examined with data

572 WORLD DEVELOPMENT

available, namely employment patterns by in-dustry, by occupation and by employmentstatus (employee/self-employed/unpaid familyworker) (see Table 1, which uses data for thelate 1980s and early 1990s). We examine ®rstthe patterns by industry. As with men, women'semployment shifts out of agriculture in thecourse of development. Women tend to shift toservices, commerce and manufacturing, but areunderrepresented in utilities and construction,although there are variations across countriesand regions. In Latin America in the 1980swomen were overrepresented in services, com-merce and manufacturing (see Table 1 for thede®nition of overrepresentation). In Asiawomen were overrepresented in services, com-merce, manufacturing and in addition in agri-culture (the de®nition of overrepresentation isslightly di�erent: see Table 1). In the MiddleEast/North African countries (for 1986±92), thepattern of overrepresentation was the same,although overall participation rates were muchlower. Women were overrepresented in servic-es, manufacturing and agriculture (three cases)but only in one case in commerce (using thesame de®nition of overrepresentation as forAsia).

Another trend has been that within manu-facturing, women tend to be overrepresented in``light'' industry such as textiles, garments, andfood processing, in the earlier stages of eco-

nomic development, but then be to be under-represented in the heavier industries (metal,chemicals) associated with later stages of in-dustrialization. At that point women havetended to shift to white collar work. This can beseen with more disaggregated data than pre-sented in this paper.

If the same trends are examined by occupa-tion rather than industry, a similar patternemerges (see again Table 1). Women, like men,tend to move out of agricultural occupations inthe course of development, and to move intoprofessional occupations (teaching, nursing),sales, clerical occupations and services. In Asiain the late 1980s women were overrepresentedin professional, service, sales and clerical oc-cupations in most countries, but were overre-presented in production in only one country(Thailand). In Latin America women were alsooverrepresented in professional, service, sales,and clerical occupations (in all countries, withthe sole exception of sales in Argentina wherethe most recent data are from 1970), but in nocases were they overrepresented in agriculture,production or administration. Likewise in theMiddle East/North Africa women were over-represented in professional, service, clerical andagricultural occupations, and (unusually) inadministration in one country: however, unlikeAsia and Latin America, women were consis-tently underrepresented in sales occupations.

Table 1. Number of countries in which women are overrepresented by occupation and industry, recent years, by region a

Region By industry

Agri. Mine. Manf. Util. Cons. Comm. Tran. Serv. Total

Latin Am/Caribbean 0 0 4 0 0 7 0 8 8Asia 5 0 5 0 0 7 0 5 7Mid E/N Africa 3 0 3 0 0 1 0 5 6

By occupation

Region Prof. Admn. Cler. Sale Agri. Prod. Serv. Total

Latin Am/Caribbean 9 0 9 8 0 0 9 9Asia 6 0 4 4 3 1 7 7Mid E/N Africa 5 1 5 0 3 0 3 6

a Women are de®ned as overrepresented if Fi=�Fi �Mi� > F =�F �M�, where Fi, Mi are respectively the number ofwomen and men working in industry i, and F and M are respectively the number of women and men in the employedlabor force, except for distribution by industry in Latin America where it is de®ned as Fi=F > Mi=M . The years arethe most recent for which calculations were available (generally for 1982±93): Tables 6±11 give countries and yearsfor Latin America/Caribbean and Mid-East/North Africa. For Asia the countries and years are: India (1988), In-donesia (1989), Japan (1990), Korea (1990), Malaysia (1987), Philippines (1990) and Thailand (1989). Calculationsare based on Tables 6±11 (Mid-East/North Africa and Latin America/Caribbean by occupation), Psacharopoulosand Tzannatos, 1992 (Latin America/Caribbean by industry), and Horton, 1996 (Asia).

MARGINALIZATION REVISITED 573

There are interesting processes of feminiza-tion of certain occupations over time, for ex-ample clerical occupations were male-dominated in the developed countries in theearly years of industrialization, but no longer.One can observe this process occurring now inAsia, where clerical work remains male-domi-nated in India and Indonesia, shifted frommale- to female-dominated in Japan and thePhilippines during 1960±70, in Malaysia during1970±80, in Thailand during 1980±89, and inKorea is likely to shift in the 1990s (Horton,1996). The same process occurred earlier inprofessional occupations in all of the sevenAsian countries examined, with the exceptionof Korea. This process of feminization of oc-cupations is often associated with a down-grading of status of these occupations, and adecline in relative pay. The data suggest thatsales occupations may have originally beenmale-dominated in Latin America, but havenow become feminized (Table 11).

In the course of development, both womenand men tend to shift out of the employmentstatus of unpaid family worker and into em-ployee status, as employment shifts out offamily enterprise in agriculture, and into in-corporated ®rms in industry and services. Inmany countries a higher proportion of menthan women are self-employed (the proportionwho are self-employed does not have a de®nitetrend with development). The data suggest thatwomen's employment shifted more rapidlyfrom unpaid family worker to employee thanmen in Latin America but more slowly in Asia,again largely related to their di�erential roles inagriculture. In Latin America for the 1980s,women were overrepresented in employee sta-tus in all eight of the countries examined, inunpaid family worker status in ®ve, and in self-employed in none (Psacharopoulos and Tzan-natos, 1992). In Asia by contrast women wereoverrepresented in unpaid family worker statusin all seven of the countries examined, in self-employment in one country (India), and inemployee status women were not overrepre-sented in any countries (but in the Philippinesthe fraction of employees who were womenequalled their fraction of overall employment:Horton, 1996). Again, the explanation of thedi�erence between Asia and Latin America re-¯ects the di�erent participation of women inagriculture. More detailed analysis of employ-ees by public and private sector would showthat relatively more female employees are con-centrated in the public sector than male, since

equal pay or nondiscrimination policies tend tobe applied more often in the public sector.

Another way of examining employment pat-terns is to calculate the Duncan index of dis-similarity, which can be used to measure thedegree of dissimilarity of male and female em-ployment. The index is:

D � 0:5X

i

jfi ÿ mij;

where i indexes the industry or occupation ofinterest and fi and mi are the sectoral employ-ment ratios of women and men to their re-spective employed labor forces. D� 1 impliescompletely dissimilar employment patterns,and D� 0 implies completely similar patterns.

Table 2 shows that there are regional di�er-ences in men's and women's employment dis-parities by industry (calculated using eightindustrial categories). The index ranges from0.11 to 0.20 in Asia (with the exception of thePhilippines), from 0.32 to 0.40 in the EEC,from 0.32 to 0.66 in Latin America, and from0.11 to 0.44 in North Africa/Middle East. Ag-riculture again explains much of the di�erencebetween Asia on the one hand and LatinAmerica and the Philippines on the other, be-cause women are as active in agriculture inmuch of Asia except for the Philippines, butless so in Latin America. It is harder to gener-alize about the North African/Middle Easterncountries: some are heavily dependent on ag-riculture, others are not, and overall partici-pation rates vary enormously.

The trends suggest that women's and men'semployment patterns are becoming more simi-lar in the EEC (the index declined for all 10countries for which trends were available), butwith no clear trend in the developing countries.

If the same comparison is made by occupa-tion (based on seven occupations: Table 3), theDuncan index again con®rms that occupationaldissimilarities between men and women aregreater in Latin America than in Asia, with aslight tendency to widening in Asia (calcula-tions for the EEC were not available). The in-dex ranges from 0.091 to 0.193 in Asia exceptfor the Philippines, and from 0.318 to 0.658 forLatin America. Surprisingly, the occupationaldistribution of women in North Africa/MiddleEast is very similar to that of men, as shown bythe very low value of the Duncan index for thatregion (0.009 to 0.113, except for Algeria). Onepossibility is that because the participation rateof women is low in this region, those womenwho work are highly educated and therefore


less likely to be concentrated in low-status``feminized'' occupations.

Bakker (1988) argues that for the OECDcountries, women's industrial segregation is lessthan their occupational segregation: women tendto work in a narrow range of occupations butspread across most industries. This result doesnot appear to hold for developing countries (andin the North Africa/Middle East case, the oppo-site holds, in that the Duncan index by occupa-tion is consistently lower than that by industry).

Analysis based on one-digit industries andoccupations (eight industrial and seven occu-pational categories) is not, however, ®ne en-

ough to assess whether women are (as is oftenalleged) concentrated in low-paid narrow in-dustrial or occupational categories.

4. RELATIVE PAY

Goldin (1990) has compiled the longest serieson women's relative pay for one country: theUnited States. Her data suggest that there werethree periods when women's earnings rose rel-ative to men's: during 1820±95, based on datafor manufacturing earnings only (the explana-tion being industrialization which reduced the

Table 2. Duncan index of dissimilarity by industry (eight industries)

Country/region Year Index period Annual % Change

AsiaIndia 1988 0.190 77±88 10.3Indonesia 1980 0.122 71±89 1.7Japan 1990 0.197 80±90 ÿ0.6Korea 1990 0.175 80±90 1.0Malaysia 1987 0.141 70±87 ÿ1.4Philippines 1990 0.363 70±90 ÿ0.7Thailand 1989 0.110 80±89 3.0EuropeBelgium 1989 0.366 83±89 ÿ0.2Denmark 1989 0.337 83±89 ÿ1.1France 1989 0.306 83±89 ÿ0.2Germany 1989 0.336 83±89 ÿ0.3Greece 1989 0.329 83±89 ÿ10.0Ireland 1989 0.333 83±89 ÿ0.2Italy 1989 0.322 83±89 ÿ0.2Luxembourg 1989 0.396 83±89 ÿ10.2Netherlands 1989 0.365 83±89 ÿ0.6Portugal 1989 0.380 83±89 ÿSpain 1989 0.360 83±89 ÿUK 1989 0.345 83±89 ÿ0.6Latin America and CaribbeanArgentina 1970 0.385 60±70 ÿ0.5Bolivia 1976 0.428 70±76 10.9Brazil 1980 0.401 70±80 0.5Colombia 1964 0.401 51±64 ÿ0.6Ecuador 1982 0.411 62±82 0.0Jamaica 1982 0.473 60±82 0.5Mexico 1980 0.306 60±80 ÿ0.8Peru 1981 0.301 61±81 ÿ0.6Venezuela 1981 0.380 61±81 ÿ1.7Middle East/North AfricaAlgeria 1987 0.386 77±87 2.8Egypt 1992 0.233 ÿ ÿIran 1986 0.261 76±86 ÿ10.4Iraq 1987 0.113 77±87 ÿ13.3Tunisia 1989 0.325 80±89 1.0Turkey 1990 0.438 80±90 0.2

Sources. Asia: Horton (1996). Latin America and Europe: Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos (1992). Middle East/NorthAfrica: author's calculations (see Tables 6±11) using ILO (various years).


advantage to physical strength); during 1890±1930 (data for all earnings), associated with theincrease in female education relative to men,and the growth of white collar work; and ®nallysince the 1980s (all earnings), probably a de-layed response to equal pay/a�rmative actionbeginning in the 1960s, but initially masked bythe entry into the labor force of many young(and therefore less well-paid) women. For otherOECD countries the same increase in relativepay most likely occurred, but the pace ofchange was slow, as in the United States.

The same transition which occurred in theUnited States over 150 years has occurredmuch faster in the developing countries in LatinAmerica and particularly in Asia. This is likelyrelated to the much faster rate of industrial-ization, the more rapid demographic transition,and the more rapid catch-up in female educa-tion relative to male. Table 4 adapted fromTzannatos (forthcoming) shows the results for

relative pay for 12 developing countries plusJapan. The table shows that women's pay roserelative to men's, and the annual rate of in-crease exceeded 0.6% per annum in mostcountries, and exceeded 1% per annum in one-third of the countries. The rate of increase doesnot seem to be related to the initial level (forexample, Brazil reported lower relative pay butcatch-up was not that rapid). These rates ofincrease in relative pay are rapid compared tothe experience of the developed countries. Inthe United States, it took 40 years for relativepay to increase by 10 percentage points (1890±1930), and 75 years for relative pay in manu-facturing to increase 26 percentage points, suchthat the annual increase was 0.5% per annum(all earnings) and 0.8% per annum (manufac-turing earnings).

A less optimistic ®nding is that a large shareof the relative pay gap remaining is unexplainedby individual characteristics (see Table 5:

Table 3. Duncan index of dissimilarity by occupation (seven occupations)

Country/region Year Index Period Annual % Change

AsiaIndia 1988 0.104 77±88 ÿ2.0Indonesia 1980 0.128 71±89 4.9Japan 1990 0.193 80±90 1.0Korea 1990 0.171 80±90 ÿ0.1Malaysia 1987 0.154 70±87 ÿ1.6Philippines 1990 0.368 70±90 1.1Thailand 1989 0.091 80±89 4.8Latin America and CaribbeanArgentina 1970 0.449 60±70 0.5Bolivia 1976 0.367 ÿ ÿBrazil 1970 0.491 ÿ ÿChile 1982 0.526 52±82 0.7Colombia 1964 0.518 51±64 ÿ0.5Costa Rica 1984 0.498 63±84 ÿ0.8Ecuador 1982 0.465 62±82 ÿ0.2Guatemala 1981 0.573 50±81 ÿ0.3Honduras 1974 0.658 61±74 ÿ1.0Jamaica 1982 0.541 60±82 0.7Mexico 1980 0.318 60±80 ÿ1.0Panama 1980 0.592 50±80 0.3Peru 1981 0.329 61±81 0.3Uruguay 1985 0.433 63±85 0.2Venezuela 1981 0.471 61±81 0.8Middle East/North AfricaAlgeria 1987 0.475 ± ÿEgypt 1992 0.068 82±92 7.8Iran 1986 0.009 76±86 ÿ2.0Iraq 1987 0.021 77±87 ÿ2.1Tunisia 1989 0.113 80±89 3.2Turkey 1990 0.078 80±90 2.3

Sources. Horton, 1996 (Asia), and author's calculations using Tables 6±11 for other regions.


earnings decompositions were not available forNorth Africa and the Middle East). Much ofthe remaining gap is due to di�erent coe�cients

(returns) to characteristics for men and women,and large di�erences in the constant term whichare not explained by the regression results.

Table 5. Summary results for Oaxaca earnings decomposition, Asia and Latin America

Country/Region Year Wf /Wm % ln Wm ÿ ln Wf % explained by

x's b's

AsiaIndia 88 55.8 0.584 25.7 74.3Indonesia 90 54.4 0.609 37.9 62.1Japan 88 59.0 0.527 56.0 44.0Korea 88 51.0 0.673 46.8 53.2Malaysia 87 69.3 0.367 7.4 92.6Philippines 88 75.5 0.281 ÿ26.9 126.9Thailand 89 89.9 0.107 14.9 85.1Latin America and the CaribbeanArgentina 85 64.9 0.432 26.0 74.0Bolivia 89 62.3 0.473 14.9 85.1Brazil 89 70.0 0.357 19.0 81.0Chile 89 71.3 0.338 ÿ14.9 114.9Colombia 88 84.6 0.167 8.0 92.0Costa Rica 89 80.8 0.213 5.5 94.5Ecuador 87 66.0 0.416 37.8 62.2Guatemala 89 76.8 0.264 45.3 54.7Honduras 89 81.0 0.211 ÿ50.6 150.6Jamaica 89 57.6 0.551 ÿ13.7 113.7Mexico 84 85.5 0.157 28.1 71.9Panama 89 80.2 0.221 13.9 86.1Peru 90 83.8 0.177 19.5 80.5Uruguay 89 74.5 0.295 23.0 77.0Venezuela 89 77.5 0.255 14.0 86.0

Notes: data for Asia from Horton (1996), and for Latin America and Caribbean from Psacharopoulos and Tzan-natos (1992). Oaxaca decomposition is using female means, and selectivity correction (except for Japan and Korea).The ratio Wf /Wm is derived from ln Wm ÿ ln Wf , not from raw data.

Table 4. Women's earnings relative to men's over time, selected countries

Country/region Year Wf /Wm Year Wf /Wm Annual % change

AsiaIndonesia (urban) 1980 38.5 1990 54.4 3.5Japan (hourly) 1968 50.9 1988 59.0 0.7Korea (manuf.) 1984 41.9 1988 51.0 4.9Malaysia (annual) 1973 56.8 1987 69.3 1.4Philippines (hourly) 1978 75.4 1988 75.5 0.0Thailand 1980 84.3 1989 89.9 0.7Latin AmericaBrazil 1981 50.2 1990 53.6 0.7Chile 1980 68.0 1987 71.0 0.6Colombia 1984 67.2 1990 70.2 0.7Costa Rica 1980 90.0 1989 97.0 0.8Honduras 1986 65.0 1990 68.0 1.1Venezuela 1981 87.0 1990 93.0 0.7

Source: this table appears (with some data modi®ed) in Tzannatos (forthcoming), and is based in turn on Horton(1996) for Asian countries, Tzannatos (1995) for Brazil, Colombia and Honduras, and Winter (1994) for Chile, CostaRica and Venezuela.


Thus additional female education will not helpto close the gap. Several countries (Philippines,several countries in Latin America) are alreadyat the stage where women's characteristics

(particularly their higher level of educationthan men) would predict that their relative payshould be higher than men's, if there were nodi�erences in returns.

Table 6. Employment distribution of women workers by industry (%) in six Middle East/North African countries

Country Year Source/Age

Agri. Mining Mfg Utilities Const. Comm. Transp. Serv. Not wellde®ned

Total

Algeria 1977 C 12+ 2.2 0.7 6.1 0.6 1.0 1.9 1.5 28.2 57.4 100.01987 C 6+ 2.3 0.7 9.5 0.4 2.9 3.4 2.1 59.1 19.6 100.0

Egypt 1982 LF 9.1 0.2 11.0 0.7 1.3 7.8 3.1 59.9 6.9 100.01992 LF 12±65 52.4 0.1 9.4 0.3 0.7 5.8 1.4 30.1 0.0 100.0

Iran 1976 C 44.6 0.2 35.0 0.1 1.0 0.7 0.5 16.1 1.9 100.01986 C 6+ 26.6 0.1 21.9 0.2 1.0 1.5 1.0 43.1 4.8 100.0

Iraq 1977 C 66.0 0.4 9.1 0.2 1.0 3.0 0.9 17.1 2.2 100.01987 C (7+) 16.0 1.1 9.1 1.0 2.0 5.8 2.9 57.2 4.3 100.0

Tunisia 1980 LF (15+) 33.1 0.5 42.7 ÿ b 0.4 2.5 1.1 16.7 f 2.9 100.01989 LF (15+) 22.7 ÿ a 42.9 0.4 c 0.7 6.9 d ÿ e 25.2 g 1.2 100.0

Turkey 1980 C 87.3 0.0 4.5 0.0 0.1 0.7 0.4 6.4 0.6 100.01990 LF (12+) 76.9 0.1 9.0 0.0 0.2 2.5 0.6 10.7 0.0 100.0

a Mining and utilities combined.b Utilities and services combined.c see a.d Commerce and business combined.e Transport and personal services.f see b.g see e.Source ILO (various years): Source/age refers to data source (C�Census, LF�Labor Force Survey, HS�House-hold Survey), and the numbers which follow refer to the ages de®ned as the working age population.

Table 7. Percentage of women workers by industry (%) in six Middle East/North African countries


Agri. Mining Mfg Utilities Const. Comm. Transp. Serv. Total

Algeria 1977 C 12+ 1.1 3.0 7.0 5.8 0.8 2.7 3.4 19.2 14.51987 C 6+ 1.4 4.6 7.9 3.8 1.8 3.7 4.2 19.1 10.2

Egypt 1982 LF 12±64 1.9 8.9 5.7 7.1 1.9 6.8 4.4 20.9 7.91992 LF 12±65 29.9 5.1 14.7 7.3 2.4 13.8 5.5 26.0 22.0

Iran 1976 C 22.8 3.8 38.4 3.2 1.5 2.0 2.2 18.3 19.51986 C 6+ 8.2 1.7 14.8 2.5 0.8 1.7 1.4 13.4 8.9

Iraq 1977 C 7+ 37.4 5.8 17.1 4.1 1.6 7.2 2.8 9.2 17.51987 C 7+ 14.3 10.4 14.5 12.3 2.5 11.4 5.4 12.3 11.3

Tunisia 1980 LF SS 20.5 3.7 48.7 ÿ b 1.0 7.3 5.3 21.0 f 21.71989 LF SS

15+17.2 ÿ a 43.3 4.8 c 1.1 8.1 d ÿ e 21.9 g 19.5

Turkey 1980 C 53.6 1.0 15.4 5.8 0.6 4.6 4.9 16.0 36.81990 LF 12+ 52.1 1.6 19.6 6.5 1.3 6.9 4.7 20.4 31.9

a Mining and utilities combined.b Utilities and services combined.c see a.d Commerce and business combined.e Transport and personal services combined.f see b.g see e.Source: ILO (various type).


5. DISCUSSION

The data suggest that on aggregate women'sparticipation has tended to increase over time inEast and Southeast Asia and Latin America,with the increase being most marked in thosecountries where women's participation in agri-culture is low (e.g., countries in Latin America).Women's participation has decreased in NorthAfrica and the Middle East, however, this rep-resents a relatively small fraction of the popu-lation of middle-income developing countries(about 0.3bn population, compared to 0.6bn inEast Asia and the Paci®c, excluding China, and0.6bn in Latin America, using World Bank,1996 ®gures). Women's employment has tendedto shift out of agriculture, mainly into manu-

facturing, services and commerce, althoughthere are variations by country. Women tend tobe underrepresented in construction, transportand utilities, and in Latin America in agricul-ture. The trends by occupation are for womento shift out of agriculture, predominantly intoprofessional, service, clerical and (except for theMiddle East/North Africa) sales occupations.Women are overrepresented in the same fouroccupational categories. The trends in employ-ment status are for women Ð as for men Ð toshift out of unpaid family worker status and tobecome employees, with the shift from agri-culture to industry, and the increase in incor-poration of ®rms. In Asia this shift is faster formen (women are overrepresented in unpaidfamily worker status) but in Latin America the

Table 9. Percentage of women workers by occupation (%) in six Middle East/North African countries


Profession. Admin Clerical Sales Agriculture Produc-tion Service Total

Algeria 1987 C 6+ 27.6 5.9 17.9 1.7 1.3 2.5 18.8 10.2Egypt 1982 LF 12±64 27.9 15.6 26.7 6.0 1.8 2.4 5.4 7.9

1992 LF 12±65 28.7 16.0 43.1 14.9 30.2 7.7 5.9 21.9Iran 1976 C 33.8 3.3 14.5 1.4 22.8 19.8 15.7 20.8

1986 C 6+ 32.6 3.5 12.7 1.5 8.1 6.3 7.7 8.9Iraq 1977 C 7+ 32.4 3.0 7.3 6.9 37.9 5.5 10.5 17.6

1987 C 7+ 43.9 12.7 6.4 9.2 14.0 4.1 15.9 11.3Tunisia 1980 LF 14.2 ÿ a 21.2 a 1.3 20.2 22.1 22.9 20.1

1989 LF 15+ 30.5 9.4 29.0 6.7 19.3 18.2 21.6 20.9Turkey 1980 C 30.3 5.4 32.5 4.3 53.7 7.5 7.3 36.8

1990 LF 12+ 31.9 4.2 32.3 6.6 52.1 10.3 10.2 31.9

a Administration and clerical combined.Source: ILO (various years).

Table 8. Employment distribution of women workers by occupation (%) in six Middle East/North African countries

Country Year Source/Age Profess. Admin Clerical Sales Agric. Production Service Not wellde®ned

Total

Algeria 1987 C 6+ 38.7 0.8 17.5 1.1 2.0 8.6 15.2 16.1 100.0Egypt 1982 LF 39.2 3.9 28.9 5.0 8.5 7.4 6.0 1.0 100.0

1992 LF 12±65 19.2 0.0 13.5 4.6 51.7 8.3 1.9 0.0 100.0Iran 1976 C 10.2 0.1 3.4 0.5 44.5 35.7 3.7 2.0 100.0

1986 C 6+ 34.8 0.2 4.7 1.2 26.7 23.4 3.3 5.9 100.0Iraq 1977 C 11.9 0.1 5.2 1.7 65.8 9.7 3.1 2.4 100.0

1987 C 6+ 39.3 0.2 22.2 2.6 15.6 10.2 6.5 3.2 100.0Tunisia 1980 LF 15+ 1.7 ÿ a 9.9 a 0.2 33.1 44.7 10.6 0.0 100.0

1989 LF 15+ 10.6 0.6 7.9 2.0 22.4 33.3 7.3 15.6 100.0Turkey 1980 C 3.7 0.0 3.1 0.5 4.5 1.0 1.0 0.0 100.0

1990 LF 12+ 5.7 0.3 4.9 1.6 7.9 7.9 2.5 0.3 100.0

a Administration and clerical combined.b Includes unemployed.Source: ILO (various years).


reverse is true (women are overrepresented inemployee status).

The Duncan index calculations reveal di�er-ences across countries. Men's and women's in-dustries and occupations are more dissimilar inLatin America than in Asia, largely due towomen's di�erent role in agriculture in the tworegions, with the industrial dissimilarity for theEEC countries being somewhere in the middle.Whereas in the EEC the degree of dissimilaritybetween men's and women's employment (byindustry) has been decreasing, there is no cleartrend in Latin America or Asia. The patterns inthe Middle East/North Africa are harder tointerpret: there is more variation across coun-tries, and the most striking fact is the low (andin most countries) declining proportion ofwomen in the labor force. Analysis at detailed(two or three-digit) level is not available on acrosscountry basis, and it is at this detailed levelwhere one would expect to observe whetherwomen are concentrated in low-pay, low-status

``ghetto'' subcategories of industry and/or oc-cupation.

Finally, on relative pay, although womenhave su�ered low pay relative to men in somedeveloping countries, the good news is that inmany middle-income developing countrieswomen's pay is rising relative to men's, aswomen's relative education increases and aswomen's attachment to the labor force becomesstronger, leading women to move into better-paid occupations and industries.

Any glass which is half-full can obviously beseen as half empty. Women have not achievedequality with men in the labor market. Theyremain underrepresented in administrative andmanagerial occupations in all regions, as well asin the transport, construction and utility in-dustries. Although the pay gap has narrowed, ithas not disappeared despite the convergence inmale and female education.

Of course, aggregate statistics do not revealeverything. Rising participation by women

Table 10. Employment distribution of women workers by occupation (%) in nine Latin American and Caribbeancountries


Profess. Admin. Clerical Sales Agri. Prod'n Service Not wellde®ned

Total

Argentina 1976 C 10+ 10.5 0.5 5.5 14.9 26.6 18.0 21.3 2.6 100.00Brazil 1970 C 10+ 13.6 0.9 8.5 5.2 20.4 11.4 35.6 4.5 100.00

1990 HS 10+ 13.2 ÿ a 15.5 b 12.1 13.0 13.4 24.0. 8.8 100.00Columbia 1951 C 10+ 4.6 ÿ c 8.2 d 2.8 12.4 26.3 44.7 1.0 100.00

1964 LFSS12+

9.2 1.9 8.2 7.1 10.3 18.9 41.5 2.8 100.00

Costa Rica 1963 C 12+ 18.0 0.9 8.8 8.7 4.7 15.8 40.8 2.4 100.001993 C 12+ 15.9 1.9 14.3 13.8 4.3 20.0 28.7 1.1 100.00

Ecuador 1962 C 12+ 9.3 0.1 5.7 8.5 16.8 28.4 29.6 1.6 100.001982 C 12+ 17.1 0.4 13.0 13.8 12.9 15.3 23.8 4.0 100.00

Jamaica 1960 C 14+ 5.5 1.0 5.7 12.5 17.2 21.7 33.9 2.6 100.001990 LFSS

14+9.8 e ÿ f ÿ g 18.6 h 29.4 14.9 26.7 0.6 100.00

Mexico 1980 C 12+ 10.2 0.7 14.5 8.5 11.1 13.4 19.2 22.5 100.001990 C 12+ 19.4 2.0 21.2 15.7 3.3 17.1 18.5 i 2.8 100.00

Peru 1961 C 6+ 7.1 0.7 6.3 9.8 31.9 17.5 25.0 1.7 100.001981 C 15+ 12.5 0.2 15.4 15.1 22.0 9.8 15.6 9.4 100.00

Venezuela 1983 HS? 22.0 1.9 24.1 12.5 1.7 11.0 26.9 ÿ 100.001993 HS 15+ 22.4 1.9 19.7 19.5 1.4 10.7 24.5 ÿ 100.00

a Administrtion and clerical combined.b See a.c See a.d See a.e Professional and administrative combined.f See e.g Clerical and sales combined.h See g.i Includes armed forces.Source ILO (various years).


comes at the price of women with preschoolchildren working in increasing numbers. We arealso all too familiar with stories of abuse ofwomen workers Ð exposed to unsafe workingconditions, vulnerable to the more exploitativeconditions such as home work.

There are roles for policy to play, based onthe observed trends. It is important to accom-modate the dual role of women as workers andas mothers, for governments to outlaw ``mar-riage bars,'' to enforce (and where absent, en-act) legislation on maternity leave, and to enactanti-discrimination legislation. This may in

turn require government expenditures onmonitoring, providing or subsidizing (for somewomen) day care, and for some social subsidyof maternity leave. There is also a role for as-sociations and unions to ensure such legislationis enforced.

In conclusion, although there may be anec-dotal evidence of women being ``marginalized''by economic development and technologicalchange, the aggregate evidence for middle-in-come developing countries does not support themarginalization hypothesis.

NOTE

1. Prime working age is usually taken as the age after

®nishing education and before early retirement begins,

which might be approximately 20±50, depending on the

country.

REFERENCES

Anker, R. and Khan, M.E. (1988) Women's Participa-tion in the Labor Force: A Methods Test in India.International Labor Organization, Geneva.

Asian Development Bank (1994) Women in Develop-ment: Issues, Challenges and Strategies in Asia and thePaci®c ADB, Manila.

Table 11. Percentage of women workers by occupation in nine Latin American and Caribbean countries

Country Year Source/ Age Profess. Admin. Clerical Sales Agri. Prod'n Service Total

Argentina 1960 C 15+ 58.7 7.4 28.9 16.9 5.2 13.9 62.2 21.81970 C 14+ 54.8 6.9 35.6 23.9 6.0 11.3 60.3 25.4

Brazil 1970 C 10+ 59.2 11.4 33.7 14.6 9.6 11.2 71.6 20.51990 HS 10+ 62.6 ÿ a 36.7 b 40.3 21.9 20.1 83.6 35.6

Columbia 1951 C 10+ 37.2 ÿ c 18.9 d 31.7 4.3 24.1 79.1 18.71964 C 10+ 47.3 14.8 35.7 25.5 4.4 17.8 74.6 20.1

Costa Rica 1963 C 12+ 56.2 10.7 27.3 18.7 1.6 13.6 69.6 16.31993 C 12+ 44.9 21.2 51.7 36.0 6.0 20.3 57.0 34.8

Ecuador 1962 C 12+ 46.8 6.9 27.8 23.1 5.0 21.9 68.2 16.31982 C 12+ 42.4 15.5 44.8 30.0 7.5 11.6 60.3 20.5

Jamaica 1960 C 14+ 64.2 18.2 49.9 65.3 16.6 27.6 86.1 37.11990 LF 14+ 59.6 e ÿ f ÿ g 65.7 h 37.7 23.8 71.8 44.8

Mexico 1980 C 12+ 39.0 15.4 43.8 32.1 12.3 16.8 45.2 27.81990 C 12+ 43.2 19.4 53.6 32.0 3.6 12.5 45.1 23.8

Peru 1961 C 6+ 46.0 10.7 31.5 28.8 13.9 17.9 60.0 21.61981 C 15+ 37.0 7.9 32.6 34.2 14.3 11.5 50.3 23.8

Venezuela 1983 HS 57.3 12.7 57.0 26.0 3.2 9.0 53.7 27.11993 HS 15+ 54.7 17.8 57.3 35.6 4.1 10.8 56.8 31.5

a Administration and clerical combined.b See a.c See a.d See a.e Professional and administration combined.f See e.g Clerical and sales combined.h See g.Source ILO (various years).


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Psacharopoulos, G. and Tzannatos Z. (1992) Women'semployment and pay in Latin America: overview andmethodology. World Bank Regional and SectoralStudies, The World Bank, Washington, DC.

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Tzannatos, Z. (1995) Growth, adjustment and the labormarket: E�ects on women workers. Paper presentedat the IV Annual conference of the InternationalAssociation for Feminist Economics, July 5±7, 1995.Universit�e Francoise- Tabelais, Tours, France.

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World Bank, (1996) World Development Report 1996.Oxford University Press, New York.


marginalization revisited: women's market work and pay, and economic development

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