Sample Middle-Income Countries, Mid-2010s

TABLE 3.3 Ratio of Female-to-Male Employment in Select Industries and Occupations, Sample Middle-Income Countries, Mid-2010s

Industry ISIC4/ ISIC3.1a Turkey 2013 Egypt, Arab Rep. 2015 Pakistan 2015 Bangladesh 2016 Sri Lanka 2015

Cambodia 2014 Vietnam 2015 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5 1–3 7–8/5

Foodb

10/15 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.3 1.0 n.a. 1.0 1.0 1.2 Textilesb 13/17 0.4 0.9 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.7 0.1 0.8 0.8 2.9 n.a. 6.7 1.3 1.5 Apparel 14/18 0.2 0.9 0.1 0.6 0.0 1.0 0.1 1.1 1.0 3.8 2.0 3.3 1.9 4.6 leather 15/19 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.2 2.3 0.0 2.9 2.5 3.1 Retail services 47/52 0.5 0.4 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.7 0.9 2.5 1.1 2.2 Food and beverage services 56/55 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.4 1.2 2.0 1.1 2.2 Educationb 85/80 1.1 n.a. 1.1 n.a. 0.7 n.a. 0.7 n.a. 2.9 n.a. 0.7 n.a. 2.8 n.a. human health servicesb 86/85 1.7 n.a. 1.8 n.a. 0.4 n.a. 0.7 n.a. 2.0 n.a. 1.1 n.a. 1.6 n.a. All industriesb All 0.4 n.a. 0.3 n.a. 0.2 n.a. 0.3 n.a. 0.7 n.a. 0.5 n.a. 1.0 n.a.

Source: labor force survey data. Notes: Columns headed with “1–3” represent international Standard Classification of Occupations (iSCO) codes 1, 2, and 3 (managers, professionals, and technicians). Columns headed with “7–8/5” represent iSCO codes 7 and 8 (craft workers and plant operators) and in the retail and food/beverage rows, iSCO code 5. Ratios are between the number of women and men in each occupation. Ratios of 1.0 or higher (shaded in green) designate equal or larger proportions of women. Ratios of less than 1.0 (shaded in orange) designate a larger proportion of men. low ratios in industries that traditionally employ more women may suggest there are underlying social, cultural, or legal barriers to female labor force participation. a. iSiC4/iSiC3.1 numbers designate economic activities classified in the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Rev. 4 and Rev. 3.1, respectively. b. n.a. = not applicable, meaning that no occupations under the designated iSCO code (column heading) are relevant to the industry in this row.

Looking at the occupational breakdown within manufacturing industries, apparel is the only one where female-to-male ratios in HSOs are greater than 1.0, even though this is evident in only three countries—Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam—and the number of HSOs is limited (as further discussed in chapter 4). Females still account for a small share of the HSOs in apparel in Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey. Females also account for a lower share of production workers in these countries. However, apparel is one of the few industries where production workers have female-to-male ratios greater than 1.0 in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and although this ratio is below 1.0 in Egypt and Turkey, apparel has the highest ratio among the manufacturing industries.

In other words, women in middle-income countries primarily work in a select number of industries in mid-skill occupations, including sales/service and production workers. However, most of our sample countries show that women are underrepresented even in traditionally female-dominated industries. This suggests that even if income and education levels increase, pervasive cultural barriers to women in the workplace still must be addressed in some countries. On the positive side, the femaleintensive apparel industry has proven to be one of the few industries where women have gained some traction. There is still room for these countries to expand female participation in apparel across occupations, and the strategies and best practices used in apparel can provide valuable lessons for other industries as these countries continue to develop.

Indicators of Legal and Economic Barriers So what might be hindering women’s participation in these key industries and occupations? Regressive laws—such as those that restrict women from working in certain jobs or from being the head of a household—can perpetuate discriminatory norms (Klugman et al. 2014). In fact, countries with low FLFP across industries and occupations (namely, Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey) also tend to be those where sexism (Bertrand 2020) and occupational segregation are more prevalent.

The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law Index is composed of eight indicators: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension (World Bank 2020b). These indicators align with different areas of the law and the economic decisions women make at various stages of their lives. The index provides a framework to build evidence concerning the links between legal gender equality and women’s economic inclusion.14 Regionally, the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia have the lowest index scores—49.6 and 62.3, respectively.

As for our country cases, Egypt has the lowest score (45.0) and Turkey the highest (82.5) (table 3.4). Although a low score in any indicator indicates room for improvement, the low scores related to workplace and pay are particularly relevant to this report. Regarding the workplace indicator, in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka the law does not prohibit gender-based employment discrimination, and in Egypt a woman cannot get a job in the same way as a man. The pay indicator covers four areas: