The Double-Edged Sword of Women’s Employment and Gendered Practices: Lessons From Gujarat 1981-2011

• In Event: 490 - Regular Session. Development and Gender 2: Women and Work

Abstract

This study examines the effect of women’s labor force participation, and the status of that participation, on gendered practices within communities. We analyze four panels (1981, 1991, 2001, 2011) of census and amenities data from 17,000 villages in the Indian state of Gujarat using a hierarchical linear model with fixed effects for villages and random effects for talukas (administrative centers) and villages. We find support for both economic and status equilibrium arguments: the influence of higher rates of women’s employment within a community on future conditions for females in that community vary with the relative status of the jobs undertaken. Our results show that low status female labor force participation is associated with future decreases in the mortality rate of females under six years old, making more females available for low status work, and decreases in the female literacy rate, reinforcing women’s employment status. Conversely, high status female labor force participation is associated with future increases in the mortality rate of females under 6 years old, as the status of females challenges that of males, and increases in the female literacy rate as women prepare themselves for high status work. These findings suggest a new mechanism for “doing gender” in that women face status limits to the work they can assume without being perceived as threatening to the demographic incumbent. At the same time, we build on work of other scholars and posit that there is a role-model effect for females in close proximity to women in high status work.

Authors

• Alexandra Claire Feldberg, Harvard University

• Kathleen McGinn, Harvard University