Volume 49 - Article 8 | Pages 157–200  

Women’s employment trajectories in a low-income setting: Stratification and change in Nepal

By Sarah Brauner-Otto, Chih-lan Winnie Yang, Ka U Ng

Abstract

Background: Across the globe, employment for pay outside the home plays a key role in the lives of women, and increasing the proportion of women involved in high-quality jobs is a critical component of reaching several sustainable development goals. While existing research from high-income societies demonstrates that women’s employment is not constant over the life course, relatively less is known about women’s employment trajectories in low-income countries.

Objective: We examine employment trajectories among women in rural Nepal, accounting for job type, employment intensity, and earnings.

Methods: Using eight years of quarterly employment data from the 2016 Female Labor Force Participation and Child Outcomes Study component of the Chitwan Valley Family Study, we identify typologies of employment trajectories by conducting sequence and cluster analyses.

Results: First, half of the women in our sample were never employed in the study period. Second, among women who were ever employed, there were considerable transitions into and out of the workforce. Third, women’s employment trajectories are largely determined by job type (wage labor, salaried jobs, and self-employment), with little movement across job types. Additionally, self-employed women and those with salaried jobs had higher earnings and higher employment intensity than women with wage labor jobs.

Conclusions: We see intense stratification into job types, including no employment at all, and substantial transitions into and out of the workforce among workers. Women experience many employment disruptions over the life course, with little sign of upward employment mobility.

Contribution: This study provides new empirical portraits of women’s employment in low-income settings by investigating the multiple dimensions of women’s employment from a life course perspective.

Author's Affiliation

• Sarah Brauner-Otto - McGill University, Canada EMAIL
• Chih-lan Winnie Yang - McGill University, Canada EMAIL
• Ka U Ng - McGill University, Canada EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Tools for analysing fuzzy clusters of sequences data
Volume 51 - Article 16    | Keywords: fuzzy clustering, sequence analysis, silhouette coefficient, visualization, weighted gradient index plots

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s care work and employment in the Middle East and North Africa
Volume 51 - Article 15    | Keywords: care work, COVID-19, Middle East, North Africa, women's employment

Transitions to adulthood in men and women in rural Malawi in the 21st century using sequence analysis: Some evidence of delay
Volume 51 - Article 14    | Keywords: Africa, Health and Demographic Surveillance System, longitudinal analysis, Malawi, sequence analysis, transition to adulthood

Introduction to the Special Collection on The new roles of women and men and implications for families and societies
Volume 48 - Article 29    | Keywords: divorce, economic uncertainties, fertility, gender equality, well-being, women's employment

Union formation and fertility amongst immigrants from Pakistan and their descendants in the United Kingdom: A multichannel sequence analysis
Volume 48 - Article 10    | Keywords: assimilation, fertility, life course, migrants, sequence analysis, union formation, United Kingdom