Determinants of Gender Gap in Employment in Afghanistan (2016-2019)

Abstract

With only 21.6% of women being employed, there is a high gender gap in the labor force of Afghanistan. Gender equality in all sectors of a country, specially in the labor force is essential for growth and development of the country. It is important to study the main determinants under high women unemployment rate in Afghanistan. Thus, this paper aims to find out the main reasons of the gender gap in the labor force of Afghanistan for the years 2016-2019. The estimation methodology in this research is logit for the dummy dependent variable and Oaxaca Blinder Decomposition for measuring the gender gap. The data for the study is derived from the Asia Foundation’s Survey of the Afghan People. The finding of this study supports the hypotheses that higher level of education, positive attitude towards women employment and women education, and higher levels of income are positively affecting women labor force participation. On the other hand, high fertility, large number of families, particular ethnic groups of Pashtun and Tajik, living in the urban areas, being married are among the main drivers of the gender gap in employment in Afghanistan. The Oaxaca Blinder Decomposition result indicates that there are some unexplained market indicators such as discrimination in the labor market or overall traditional and negative attitude in the society as well as in the job market towards female employment which are not measurable are widening the gender gap.