Introduction

So far, this report has made the case that although apparel cannot directly enable women to shift from jobs to careers, it can indirectly lay the foundation for the transition. However, as chapter 2 has shown, our seven apparel exporting countries of focus— Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam—have not made this transition. This finding suggests the persistence of barriers that hinder the transition from jobs to careers.

This chapter further defines “jobs” versus “careers” using industrial and occupational data. It complements the approach in chapter 2, which looked at the jobs-to-careers transition in terms of five indicators of women’s workforce involvement (Goldin 2006): investment in human capital, marriage and labor force participation, lifetime labor force participation, earnings gaps between men and women, and distribution of employment across occupations and industries.

Careers are important because they imply a change in mindset toward planned longhorizon employment, investment in human capital, and lifetime labor-market continuity. Careers can even form part of a person’s identity, having significant implications for life decisions about when to get married or have children (Goldin 2006). Careers are also attractive for the compensation received as a return on either the investment in education or the required experience or skill to have such occupations. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that some occupations are more likely to be associated with careers than others.

For many reasons, women have traditionally been more prominent than men in certain occupations—a phenomenon of employment segregation, as further discussed below. To that end, this chapter focuses on identifying which occupations are most often associated with careers and explores the current labor market trends in our sample countries. The first part of this chapter identifies industries that collectively account for most of the female labor market globally and by country income level. It then presents a breakdown of industries by occupation, including the skill and education levels typically required.

The analysis continues by examining three barriers that low- and middle-income countries face in seeking to expand female career opportunities:

• Low service sector demand. Lower-middle-income countries have insufficient income and low demand for professional service industries (such as social work and residential care facilities) that have traditionally provided careers for women in higherincome countries.

• Low education levels. Many lower-middle-income countries have an insufficient share of the population with the education to qualify for mid- or high-skill occupations.

• Societal and cultural norms. Social, cultural, and legal barriers are at play that limit female participation in the workforce; in several country cases, women are