Abstract
Low female labor force participation is a conspicuous issue in the literature. Based on this information, women’s perspectives of the determinants of female labor force participation in 13 member states of the Arab League in relation to the region’s patriarchal culture and conservative social norms are discussed in this paper. Probit modelling is applied to the sixth wave of the World Values Survey data (2010–2014), in order to examine the relationship between female labor force participation and socio-cultural variables, such as women’s perceptions about the importance of religion, the priority of religion compared with science, the importance of traditions for women, the priority of men concerning the right to a job and the importance of a job for women’s independence, and personal characteristics, such as women’s social class, marital status, number of children, educational level and age. The results indicate that the number of children and the importance given to tradition and religion by women are obstacles to increasing their labor force participation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Source World Values Survey, The Sixth Wave Online Analysis (2010–2014), http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp
Source World Values Survey, The Sixth Wave Online Analysis (2010–2014), http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp
Source World Values Survey, The Sixth Wave Online Analysis (2010–2014), http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSOnline.jsp
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adely, F. (2009). Women for development: The Arab Human Development Report 2005 and the problem with women’s choices. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41(1), 105–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743808090144.
Al-qudsi, S. S. (1998). Labor participation of Arab women: Estimates of the fertility to labor supply link labor participation of Arab women. Applied Economics, 30(7), 931–941. https://doi.org/10.1080/000368498325363.
Chowdhury, F., & Audretsch, D. B. (2014). Institution as looting apparatus: Impact of gender equality and institutions on female entrepreneurship. Eurasian Business Review, 4(2), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-014-0008-7.
El-Khoury, G. (2016). Labour force and unemployment in Arab countries: Selected indicators. Contemporary Arab Affairs, 9(3), 487–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/17550912.2016.1200260.
Evan, T., & Vozárová, P. (2017). Influence of women’s workforce participation and pensions on total fertility rate: A theoretical and econometric study. Eurasian Economic Review, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40822-017-0074-0.
Fargues, P. (2005). Women in Arab countries: Challenging the patriarchal system? Reproductive Health Matters, 13(25), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0968-8080(05)25161-3.
Gaddis, I., & Klasen, S. (2014). Economic development, structural change, and women’s labor force participation. Journal of Population Economics, 27(3), 639–681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-013-0488-2.
Hamdan, A. (2015). Women and education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and achievements. International Education Journal, 6(1), 42–64.
Hamid, S. (2014). Socio-economic background of Saudi Society and its impact on the financial sector. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(9), 267–273. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n9p267.
Karshenas, M., & Moghadam, V. M. (2001). Female labor force participation and economic Adjustment in the MENA Region. In M. Cinar (Ed.), The economics of women and work in the Middle East and North Africa (Vol. 4, pp. 51–74)., Research in Middle East Economics Amsterdam: JAI Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1094-5334.
Korotayev, A. V., Issaev, L. M., & Shishkina, A. R. (2015). Female labor force participation rate, islam, and Arab culture in cross-cultural perspective. Cross-Cultural Research, 49(1), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397114536126.
Metcalfe, B. D. (2008). Women, management and globalization in the Middle East. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9654-3.
Miles, R. (2002). Employment and unemployment in Jordan: The importance of the gender system. World Development, 30(3), 413–427. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00123-1.
Moore, C. (2013). An introduction to logistic and probit regression models. Lecture notes. Austin, TX: University of Texas, Austin. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/prc/_files/cs/Fall2013_Moore_Logistic_Probit_Regression.pdf.. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
Norris, P. (2010). Perhaps petroleum perpetuates patriarchy? A response and critique to Ross. Harvard Kennedy School of Government Working Paper. https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/Culture,%20Islam%20and%20Oil.pdf.. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
O’Halloran, S. (2013). Econometrics II. Lecture 9: Logit/Probit. Sustainable Development U 9611. Resource Document. http://www.columbia.edu/~so33/SusDev/Lecture_9.pdf.. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
Olmsted, J. C. (2005). Gender, aging, and the evolving Arab patriarchal contract. Feminist Economics, 11(2), 53–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700500115860.
Ross, M. L. (2008). Oil, islam, and women. American Political Science Review, 102(1), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055408080040.
Roudi-Fahimi, F. (2003). Women’s Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa. Resource Document. Mena Policy Brief. http://www.prb.org/pdf/WomensReproHealth_Eng.pdf. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
Roudi-Fahimi, F., & Moghadam, V. M. (2003). Empowering women, developing society: Female education in the Middle East and North Africa. Prb. Org. http://www.prb.org/Publications/Reports/2003/EmpoweringWomenDevelopingSocietyFemaleEducationintheMiddleEastandNorthAfrica.aspx. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
Sayre, E., & Hendy, R. (2013). Female labor supply in Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. In SSA Meetings in Philadelphia. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2014/retrieve.php?pdfid=398.. Accessed 17 Jan 2018.
Sidani, Y. (2002). Women, work, and Islam in Arab societies. Women in Management Review, 20(7), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420510624738.
Spermann, A. (2009). The probit model. University of Freiburg. https://www.empiwifo.uni-freiburg.de/lehre-teaching-1/summer-term-09/materials-microeconometrics/probit_7-5-09.pdf. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
St. Francis Xavier University Lectures. (n.d.). Limited dependent variable. http://people.stfx.ca/tleo/econ370term2lec8.pdf. Accessed 5 Jan 2018.
World Bank. (2013). Opening doors: Gender equality and development in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-9763-3.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the anonymous referees for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ucal, M., Günay, S. Female employment status: a survey analysis of selected member states of the Arab League. Eurasian Econ Rev 9, 373–394 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40822-017-0089-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40822-017-0089-6
Keywords
- Female employment status
- Arab League
- Conservative social norms
- Survey analysis
- Generalized ordered logit model