Department of Economics

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://192.168.0.58:4000/handle/123456789/26

Browse

Filters

20241

Settings

Author: search.filters.author.Chivasa Shynet

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    A Comparative Analysis of Gender-Based Labour Force Participation and Employment Disparities in Southern Africa
    (Great Zimbabwe University, 2024) Chivasa Shynet
    This study investigated gender labour market disparities with respect to labour force participation and the gender employment gap in the Southern Africa region. The research is predicated 2on South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Malawi. Despite various interventions to reduce these disparities, women continue to occupy a suboptimal position in the economic arena, often facing discrimination in the formal labour market. This is a major concern, as these disparities are not sometimes linked to differences in labour productivity, training, skills or education levels between men and women. Adopting probit functions and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation technique, the study estimated gender labour force participation and employment disparities. Data was obtained from national labour force surveys conducted in 2019 for South Africa, 2018 for Namibia, 2019 for Botswana, and 2013 for Malawi. The results revealed that women were less likely to participate in the formal labour market than men. Being female reduced the possibility of labour force participation by 1.14%, 1.13%, 1.125%, and 1.62% in South Africa, Malawi, Namibia, and Botswana, respectively. The major drivers of the participation gap were marriage, the presence of children and elderly men, education and the place of residence. Hence, marriage and the presence of dependence presented a labour force participation penalty for women. Gender employment disparities followed a similar trend, except for Botswana. Being female diminished the likelihood of employment for females from South Africa, Namibia, and Malawi by 0.08, 0.14, and 0.034, respectively. In contrast, being female increased the likelihood of employment in Botswana by 0.012, presumably due to increased access to education by women, especially at the tertiary level. Using Yun's (2005) decomposition and Bootstrapping techniques, the study finds a raw gender employment gap of 0.079 for South Africa, 0.129 for Namibia, 0.0118 for Malawi, and 0.125 for Botswana. Gender employment discrimination is detected, with South Africa having the highest level at 7.23% and Botswana the lowest at 1.69%. Namibia and Malawi have discrimination levels of 3.39% and 2.25%, respectively. The findings suggested that the situation needs to be ameliorated to achieve gender parity in the formal labour market in the Southern African region. Recommendations included providing affordable childcare facilities, promoting female education, ensuring generous maternity care, industrialising rural areas and educating males on the need to take up family responsibilities. Addressing these issues is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty reduction (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10) in the region and promoting inclusive economic growth.