Gender, education, and employment in Côte d'Ivoire

This paper uses recent survey data to investigate gender differences in education and labor market participation. The authors found that the two are inter-linked. Gender related differences in education and labor market participation cannot be explained by the arguably benign process of female specialization in child-rearing. It is more likely due to either discrimination or to differentially low work aspirations on the part of women or to both. In either case, this would pose a problem worthy of concern to policymakers. Second, on either interpretation the problem can, as it happens, be diminished by increasing female access to and performance in education. This is because education powerfully reduces, but does not fully eliminate, the differential participation of women and men in the labor market. In conclusion the authors state that interventions in the labor market and in access to education can be expected to be mutually reinforcing. Improving the chances of women gaining employment in the private, unionized sector will enhance the incentives for parents to invest in their daughters' education and provide girls with role models for motivation in study. Improving the access of girls to schooling narrows the gender differential in participation in wage employment.