Linn Ternsjö
Doktorand
Women’s Work in Mauritius: gender inequalities in manufacturing employment 1999-2019
Författare
Summary, in Swedish
Mauritius is an African growth miracle when evaluated against traditional economic theory on how to achieve sustained growth and structural transformation. Mauritius has also been recognized for its commitment to human development. Still, gendered inequalities in the labour market remain.
Garment manufacturing significantly contributed to raising women’s labour force participation in Mauritius’s post-independence period; however, there has not been much research on the quality of these jobs and the extent to which the characteristics of those working in these jobs has changed over time. What we do know is that there has been a recent process of defeminization alongside restructuring of the industry, and rising wages have prompted a shift to foreign labour and relocation of some operations.
Using household survey data, this paper assesses the micro-determinants of labour force participation in ‘good jobs’ in the garment industry, tentatively defined as those above the overall national median weekly earnings of workers in the economy. We analyze men's versus women’s participation over distinct time periods, over sector and sub-sector level, and we distinguish between occupations and export-oriented vs. domestic industries. This gives a partial image of workers’ characteristics in the garment industry, and how the composition has changed over time by gender and share of good jobs. Studying this can shed light on the dynamics of inclusiveness and work within industrial development.
Garment manufacturing significantly contributed to raising women’s labour force participation in Mauritius’s post-independence period; however, there has not been much research on the quality of these jobs and the extent to which the characteristics of those working in these jobs has changed over time. What we do know is that there has been a recent process of defeminization alongside restructuring of the industry, and rising wages have prompted a shift to foreign labour and relocation of some operations.
Using household survey data, this paper assesses the micro-determinants of labour force participation in ‘good jobs’ in the garment industry, tentatively defined as those above the overall national median weekly earnings of workers in the economy. We analyze men's versus women’s participation over distinct time periods, over sector and sub-sector level, and we distinguish between occupations and export-oriented vs. domestic industries. This gives a partial image of workers’ characteristics in the garment industry, and how the composition has changed over time by gender and share of good jobs. Studying this can shed light on the dynamics of inclusiveness and work within industrial development.
Avdelning/ar
- Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen
- Ekonomisk utveckling i det globala Syd
Publiceringsår
2022
Språk
Svenska
Dokumenttyp
Konferensbidrag: abstract
Ämne
- Economic History
Conference name
International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy
Conference date
2022-09-07 - 2022-09-09
Aktiv
Published