Women’s labour force participation in developing countries: The impact of gendered landownership rights
通过跨国面板数据和印度案例的倍差法分析，发现土地继承权上的性别歧视通过将女性困于农业无偿劳动、限制教育机会和加剧婚姻迁移等机制，抑制了女性参与非农有偿就业，挑战了经济增长会自动缩小性别差距的传统观点。
This paper challenges widely accepted assumptions regarding gendered patterns of labour: firstly, that capitalist development pulls women into non-agricultural employment and secondly, that women’s unpaid labour largely comprises the production of non-market goods and services within the home. Conventional demand and supply arguments on gender gaps in non-agricultural employment overlook the significance of patriarchal labour relations and the influence of women’s unpaid farm work on their participation in paid employment. Here we use cross-country panel data analysis and a case study from India with a difference-in-differences model to demonstrate that legal discrimination against women in land inheritance curtails female participation in non-agricultural paid employment. This occurs through several mechanisms, by: (1) keeping women in agriculture as unpaid family workers, (2) restricting women’s access to education, and (3) exacerbating the trend of rural women’s marriage migration. The paper thereby contributes an explanation for the apparent paradox observed in developing countries where persistent gender gaps in non-agricultural paid employment coexist with economic growth. It also suggests that tackling barriers to female labour participation by using policies which focus solely on the provision of childcare in urban areas is insufficient; rather, an exit package offering occupational training, guaranteed employment and housing is required to support women’s transition out of unpaid agricultural labour. The video abstract can be viewed here .