Arbeitspapier
Social Norms and Female Labor Force Participation in Bangladesh: The Role of Social Expectations and Reference Networks
About 50% of Bangladesh's female youth working-age population is not in employment, education, or training (NEET). Reducing this number is an important policy goal. However, there is a broad consensus that pervasive gender norms hamper this goal in Bangladesh and other countries from the Global South. In this study, we analyze the social basis of support for young working women. It departs from a theoretical understanding of norms as conditional upon expectations in one's reference network. Based on vignette experiments, we show that manipulating expectations about acceptance of female employment by others influences personal support for women taking up work. Moreover, we address the question of whose views matter. Manipulating the expectation that fathers (or husbands in the case of married NEETs) support the employment of their daughters (wives) has a particularly strong effect on respondents' support. In contrast, the stance of religious authorities and peers has surprisingly little relevance. Our evidence suggests that (expectations about) traditional views of fathers and husbands regarding the role of females are a key obstacle to a higher labor force participation of young women in Bangladesh.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16006
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
- Subject
-
Bangladesh
female labor force participation
gender norms
social expectations
survey experiments
- Event
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Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Bellani, Luna
Biswas, Kumar
Fehrler, Sebastian
Marx, Paul
Sabarwal, Shwetlena
Al-Zayed Josh, Syed Rashed
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
- (where)
-
Bonn
- (when)
-
2023
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Bellani, Luna
- Biswas, Kumar
- Fehrler, Sebastian
- Marx, Paul
- Sabarwal, Shwetlena
- Al-Zayed Josh, Syed Rashed
- Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
Time of origin
- 2023
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Youth and media : new media and cultural participation
Media Reports and Inflation Expectations
Post-mass-media and participation
Social expectations in transnational social spaces: linking migration and social inequalities
Expectations, Preferences, and Social Risk Taking
Participation in Social Media: Studying Explicit and Implicit Forms of Participation in Communicative Social Networks
Participation in Social Media: Studying Explicit and Implicit Forms of Participation in Communicative Social Networks
Environmental migrants and social-movement participation
Citizenship and social development : citizen participation and community involvement in social welfare and social policy
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