Why we need to focus on the poverty-stricken urban female labour force

Urban working women face multilayered barriers to joining the labour force. Photo: TBS

Bangladesh experienced notable progress in economic growth through a boost in female labour force participation (FLFP) over the last three decades. Nonetheless, their FLFP rate still lags behind their male counterparts - it is 24.99% for women and 45.79% for men (BBS 2022). 

Nationwide, women are primarily employed in unskilled jobs and concentrated in agriculture, making it harder for them to climb the occupational ladder, leaving them vulnerable to shocks. Unfortunately, within this vulnerable group, poverty-stricken urban women are in the worst state as they are often systematically overlooked.

Currently, in contrast to the rural FLFP rate of 50.89%, the urban women labour force rate is only 22.59% (BBS 2022) most of whom belong to low-income households. Seventy percent of these women workers are involved in shock-sensitive sectors like the garment industry (42%) and the cleaning sector (28%).

Why we should focus on poverty-stricken urban women
Poverty-stricken urban women deserve adequate attention from policymakers since they are often at the forefront of the country's economic success, making up most of the workers in the RMG sectors. 

However, as a low FLFP indicates, there is still a significant population with potential productivity. It is important to empower these women by supporting them with targeted policy actions. The FLFP rate tends to be lower for high-income households, which means growth that's built on poverty-stricken women who work out of necessity, instead of choosing to work, will begin to diminish as they get out of extreme poverty. 

Women's empowerment will bring more growth in a sustainable way, which is crucial for a lower middle-income country. These women deserve more attention in policy research, discussion and actions. Unfortunately, very few studies attempt to understand the factors that constrain the FLFP from rising. 

In fact, we notice a gap in available data and research on some pivotal questions: How do poor urban females cope with labour market shock? How can they reenter the market? And will they be able to return to the urban labour market if they exited due to Covid-19-related shocks?
 
Unpacking the empirical barriers 
Urban working women always had multilayered barriers to joining the labour force. A study on low-income urban working women by DIGNITY found a lack of affordable childcare, appropriate soft skills, safe public transport and obstructive social norms as the major constraints. 

Access to childcare was strongly positively correlated with FLFP and might be one of the main drivers of female employment. While rural women can rely on their family members for childcare, urban poor women can't. Mobility and the fear of safety in public spaces also strongly influence the FLFP. 

Additionally, Covid-19 added extra barriers for these women by exposing the shock sensitivity of their jobs. Many poor urban women were laid off or had disproportionate wage cuts. Some economists suggest that this could explain the recent rise in the rural FLFP rate, as many poor urban women joined family businesses and agricultural sectors, or took up disproportionate household responsibilities that restricted them from joining formal employment. 

A World Bank study on the labour market shows that due to the pandemic, more than 1 in 3 women in Dhaka and Chittagong stopped looking for work after exiting the market, as opposed to only 2 in 10 men. Conditional on their background, females were 13%  more likely to report a wage loss than males and experienced a 14% larger wage loss than males as an impact.

 
Unfortunately, there is little data to surmise how to practically remove or lessen the impact of such barriers. Even after being an important potential contribution to the labour force, low-income urban women are rarely represented in the database or policy research.

The evidence gap

There is a significant gap in publicly available data that would allow us to analyse the situation. The DIGNITY survey highlighted the lack of quantitative data on urban FLFP. The study expresses that the issue of women's household workload, a major constraint of urban FLFP, is missing in major employment databases like Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) and Labour Force Survey (LFS), and is only collected through a separate survey. 

Furthermore, another meta-analysis on gendered dimensions of Covid-19 paints a desolate picture of gender-focused evidence gap. The study highlighted that despite the large number of studies done, there is insufficient sex-disaggregated data to present the actual picture. There is a lack of publicly available gender-disaggregated data on fundamental topics like health, education and economic well-being - fields that are essential for thoroughly assessing demography in the policy arena. The largest gaps were also found in the labour market, migration, livelihood, support services, child marriage, safety issues, income, etc. 

These multifaceted issues restrict us from accomplishing SDG goals. They are also important to understanding Bangladeshi women's conditions to offer appropriate policy suggestions. Insufficient micro-level data also restricts us from studying these women's struggles as a result of lacking appropriate industry skills and the existence of occupational segregation. Whether we need the creation of jobs in the private sector to absorb unemployed women, government stipends to support self-employment or training on skill sets, can only be answered with more gender-disaggregated data.

To address these issues, the government and other organisations should put greater emphasis on incorporating urban FLFP, especially those with low income, into data collection and research. Additionally, major labour force and employment databases should include this demography separately for evidence-based policy advocacy. 

Improving the existing infrastructural and social barriers is essential but not sufficient, since the country has gone through multiple shocks. Timely intervention and proper study on poverty-stricken urban women will unlock a huge potential for our country.

Afrina Asad is a YPF member and a third-year student at the Department of Economics of the University of Dhaka.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.