Keeping women out : a structural analysis of women"s employment in developing countries

This study analyzes the changing economic roles and responsibilities of women, women"s contribution to national development, demand and supply constraints on the female work force, and the critical issues related to female employment and provides policy recommendations to enhance women"s employment. Changing developing country economic structures are breaking down traditional sex roles, giving women increased responsibility for supplementing basic survival needs of the family and primary responsibility for 23-30% of all households. Uni-dimensional views of women as wives/mothers and secondary workers are no longer accurate due to the critical need for women to contribute to household income. The real source of employment constraints for women are labor market discrimination and occupational restrictions caused by high unemployment among males, capital intensive modernization processes, and legislation "protective" of women. Thus, despite women"s "double burden" of having to fulfill both maternal and worker roles, they can find employment only in the marginal informal sector, taking on exploitative, low-status, dead-end jobs which offer little renumeration or job security. These non-contracted jobs provide women with erratic earnings and exclude them from fair representation in paid labor. One exception to these marginal jobs is the labor market for women developed by "offshore" manufacturing of transnational corporations (TNC). Yet low pay, health problems, the instability of employment, restricted worker mobility, and the uncertain long-term viability of these firms make the appropriateness of TNC"s as a strategy for promoting the female labor force questionable. Recommendations for minimizing the constraints on women"s employment, marginality, protective legislation, and "double burden" are offered, along with suggestiions for promoting off-farm employment and more equitable TNC employment conditions. A 116-item bibliography (1969-80) in English, Spanish, and Portuguese is included.