Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 38.3
Percentage of male and female labour force in the informal sector in selected developing countries.
Source:
United Nations 1995: p. 135, Table 9.
except sub-Saharan Africa, women's share of the
workforce seems to have risen between the 1970s
and the 1990s (Table 38.4).
Although differing within and between
regions, prominent reasons for increased female
labour force participation in the last twenty to
thirty years include a decline in agricultural
employment relative to growth in industry and
services, rural-urban migration, rising education
levels, and declining fertility rates (see, for example,
Bullock 1994; Manuh 1994; Safa 1995a, b). More
recently, however, and recognising that women's
economic activity was already rising before the
1980s debt crisis (Gilbert 1998: p. 74), there is
strong evidence to support the notion that
neoliberal economic restructuring has played a
significant role. At one level, this is revealed by
continued, not to mention marked, increases in
female labour force participation during the so-
called 'lost decade' of the 1980s. In Brazil, for
example, Humphrey (1997: p. 171) observes that
women's share of employment in the São Paulo
metropolitan area grew from 33 to 38 percent
between 1980 and 1990. Beyond this, where
women in poor urban communities have been
interviewed about their reasons for increased
involvement in remunerated work, the principal
cause cited is almost invariably financial necessity
(see, for example, Benería 1991; Chant 1996;
García and de Oliveira 1990; González de la
Rocha 1988; Moser 1992; 1997). In many cases,
this has resulted from the eroding purchasing
power of male breadwinners' wages, and in others
because men have lost their jobs altogether. In
Uruguay, for example, Nash (1995: p. 155) notes
that the participation of women in the workforce
increased from 38.7 to 44.2 per cent between
1981 and 1984 due to rising levels of male
