Publication:
Does Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities

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dc.contributor.authorMehta, Soumya Kapoor
dc.contributor.authorDas, Maitreyi Bordia
dc.contributor.authorZumbyte, Ieva
dc.contributor.authorSasmal, Sanjeev
dc.contributor.authorGoyal, Sangeeta
dc.date.accessioned2019-02-13T17:36:08Z
dc.date.available2019-02-13T17:36:08Z
dc.date.issued2019-02
dc.description.abstractIn 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.en
dc.identifierhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/Does-Culture-Matter-or-Firm-Demand-for-Female-Labor-in-Three-Indian-Cities
dc.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8736
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/31268
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherWorld Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseriesPolicy Research Working Paper;No. 8736
dc.rightsCC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holderWorld Bank
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo
dc.subjectEMPLOYMENT
dc.subjectDISCRIMINATION
dc.subjectGENDER
dc.subjectFEMALE EMPLOYMENT
dc.subjectFEMALE LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
dc.subjectLABOR MARKET
dc.subjectWOMEN IN LABOR FORCE
dc.subjectCULTURE
dc.subjectEMPLOYER ATTITUDES
dc.subjectEMPLOYER PREFERENCE
dc.subjectGENDER BIAS
dc.titleDoes Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Citiesen
dc.typeWorking Paperen
dc.typeDocument de travailfr
dc.typeDocumento de trabajoes
dspace.entity.typePublication
okr.crossref.titleDoes Culture Matter or Firm? Demand for Female Labor in Three Indian Cities
okr.date.disclosure2019-02-12
okr.doctypePublications & Research
okr.doctypePublications & Research::Policy Research Working Paper
okr.docurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/Does-Culture-Matter-or-Firm-Demand-for-Female-Labor-in-Three-Indian-Cities
okr.guid950991549997013259
okr.identifier.doi10.1596/1813-9450-8736
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum090224b08695cec9_1_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum30827879
okr.identifier.reportWPS8736
okr.importedtrueen
okr.language.supporteden
okr.pdfurlhttp://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/950991549997013259/pdf/WPS8736.pdfen
okr.region.administrativeSouth Asia
okr.region.countryIndia
okr.statistics.combined1869
okr.statistics.dr950991549997013259
okr.statistics.drstats1057
okr.topicGender::Gender and Economic Policy
okr.topicGender::Gender and Poverty
okr.topicGender::Gender and Social Policy
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Employment and Shared Growth
okr.topicPoverty Reduction::Inequality
okr.topicSocial Protections and Labor::Labor Markets
okr.topicSocial Protections and Labor::Labor Policies
okr.unitSocial, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice
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