Women’s Economic Participation, Time Use, and Access to Childcare in Urban Bangladesh
This study documents the labor market outcomes and time-use patterns of women in urban Bangladesh. Using survey data collected in 2018 in low-income neighborhoods of Dhaka, the paper finds that women with children aged 0–5 years have lower likeliho...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/615251627311387137/Women-s-Economic-Participation-Time-Use-and-Access-to-Childcare-in-Urban-Bangladesh http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36035 |
| Summary: | This study documents the labor market
outcomes and time-use patterns of women in urban Bangladesh.
Using survey data collected in 2018 in low-income
neighborhoods of Dhaka, the paper finds that women with
children aged 0–5 years have lower likelihood of labor
market participation, lower likelihood of working, and lower
likelihood of being an earner, compared to women with no
children and women with children aged 6 years or older.
While this motherhood penalty affects all mothers, those who
have young children but have no access to childcare support
face the largest penalty. Time-use patterns confirm these
findings, indicating that mothers of young children with no
access to childcare spend less time on market work, more
time on unpaid work, and less time on leisure or other
activities. In addition, they are more likely to perform
childcare as a secondary activity along with other paid and
unpaid work, which may have implications for their
productivity and the quality of care provided to children.
The paper proposes entry points to ease the double burden of
paid and unpaid care work on mothers in urban areas, where
the availability and affordability of formal childcare
services is low, and community-based or other informal care
arrangements are not common. |
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