Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities
In discussing the inordinately low employment of Indian women in urban areas, several studies have argued that culture and attitudes have created a labor market that is inherently discriminatory. The unsaid corollary is that culture is slow and har...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/Does-Culture-Matter-or-Firm-Demand-for-Female-Labor-in-Three-Indian-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31268 |
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okr-10986-312682022-01-20T12:20:53Z Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities Das, Maitreyi Bordia Mehta, Soumya Kapoor Zumbyte, Ieva Sasmal, Sanjeev Goyal, Sangeeta EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION GENDER FEMALE EMPLOYMENT FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION LABOR MARKET WOMEN IN LABOR FORCE CULTURE EMPLOYER ATTITUDES EMPLOYER PREFERENCE GENDER BIAS In discussing the inordinately low employment of Indian women in urban areas, several studies have argued that culture and attitudes have created a labor market that is inherently discriminatory. The unsaid corollary is that culture is slow and hard to change and so, women will stay out of the labor market until social change occurs. The empirical evidence on the role of culture is slim at best. This paper fills the void in the policy literature, as it assesses the relative role of culture, as signified by attitudes of employers, and firm characteristics in hiring women. The paper is based on a unique survey of 618 firms in three of the largest cities in the state of Madhya Pradesh (India)—Bhopal, Indore, and Gwalior. Using detailed descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis at the firm level, the hiring process, and attitudes toward male and female workers, the paper addresses the issue of culture and firm characteristics, while noting that the two are not necessarily in binary opposition. The results reinforce the conventional wisdom in some ways and are surprising in others. The most salient result is that employer attitudes matter much less for the chance that women will be hired, than do firm and location characteristics. This has significant policy implications, the most important of which is that female employment in urban India is amenable to policy intervention, and that it is not necessary to wait for culture to change. 2019-02-13T17:36:08Z 2019-02-13T17:36:08Z 2019-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/Does-Culture-Matter-or-Firm-Demand-for-Female-Labor-in-Three-Indian-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31268 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8736 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia India |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION GENDER FEMALE EMPLOYMENT FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION LABOR MARKET WOMEN IN LABOR FORCE CULTURE EMPLOYER ATTITUDES EMPLOYER PREFERENCE GENDER BIAS |
| spellingShingle |
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION GENDER FEMALE EMPLOYMENT FEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION LABOR MARKET WOMEN IN LABOR FORCE CULTURE EMPLOYER ATTITUDES EMPLOYER PREFERENCE GENDER BIAS Das, Maitreyi Bordia Mehta, Soumya Kapoor Zumbyte, Ieva Sasmal, Sanjeev Goyal, Sangeeta Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia India |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8736 |
| description |
In discussing the inordinately low
employment of Indian women in urban areas, several studies
have argued that culture and attitudes have created a labor
market that is inherently discriminatory. The unsaid
corollary is that culture is slow and hard to change and so,
women will stay out of the labor market until social change
occurs. The empirical evidence on the role of culture is
slim at best. This paper fills the void in the policy
literature, as it assesses the relative role of culture, as
signified by attitudes of employers, and firm
characteristics in hiring women. The paper is based on a
unique survey of 618 firms in three of the largest cities in
the state of Madhya Pradesh (India)—Bhopal, Indore, and
Gwalior. Using detailed descriptive, bivariate and
multivariate analysis at the firm level, the hiring process,
and attitudes toward male and female workers, the paper
addresses the issue of culture and firm characteristics,
while noting that the two are not necessarily in binary
opposition. The results reinforce the conventional wisdom in
some ways and are surprising in others. The most salient
result is that employer attitudes matter much less for the
chance that women will be hired, than do firm and location
characteristics. This has significant policy implications,
the most important of which is that female employment in
urban India is amenable to policy intervention, and that it
is not necessary to wait for culture to change. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Das, Maitreyi Bordia Mehta, Soumya Kapoor Zumbyte, Ieva Sasmal, Sanjeev Goyal, Sangeeta |
| author_facet |
Das, Maitreyi Bordia Mehta, Soumya Kapoor Zumbyte, Ieva Sasmal, Sanjeev Goyal, Sangeeta |
| author_sort |
Das, Maitreyi Bordia |
| title |
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| title_short |
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| title_full |
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| title_fullStr |
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities |
| title_sort |
does culture matter or firm? demand for female labor in three indian cities |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/Does-Culture-Matter-or-Firm-Demand-for-Female-Labor-in-Three-Indian-Cities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31268 |
| _version_ |
1764473934152990720 |