EMPOWERING WOMEN: LEGAL RIGHTS AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES IN AFRICA

Mary Hallward-Driemeier

Office of the Chief Economist, The World Bank

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Expanding economic opportunities

People in Sub-Saharan Africa work. The question is how to move more people into higher return activities, particularly the selection of sector (industry; formality) Understanding variations in women’s entrepreneurship

Investment climate Policy implementation Property rights Skills, management practices, financial literacy

How does “gender” matter? Directly (i.e. face constraints as women)

Gender gaps in legal capacity and property rights Indirectly (i.e. due to where women are economically active)

Informal and smaller firms can face greater harassment from officials and have less access to reliable electricity and access to markets

Where do women work?

Where men work0

25

50

75

AFR EAP ECA LAC MNA SAR

Where women work

Employer

Self-Employed

Wage earner

Unpaid worker

Agriculture

Not in LF

0

25

50

75

AFR EAP ECA LAC MNA SAR

Where men work

Patterns emerge by income, across regions:• Labor force participation is high in lower and higher income countries (‘U’ shaped)• Agriculture and self-employment are highest in lower income countries• Wage employment rises with income level• Little variation with share of employers by income (although average firm size rises)

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Percent of women in different types of work

•At low levels of income, women are disproportionately in self-employment.

• Greater relative participation of women in wage work as income rises

•Women’s share of employers remains constant • But 10 percentage

points lower than women’s share in the non-agric. labor force

Women’s share in non-agricultural employment averages 38 percent – across income levels

Source: Hallward-Driemeieret al. (2011)

WEE is not so much about women’s participation per se – but to help more women move into higher value added activities

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Legal capacity and property rights affect the ability – and incentive – to access and control assets

Which areas of the law? Business regulations are gender neutral on their face –

even if not in practice Family law, inheritance, land law – where legal capacity and

ability to own and transfer property are defined – and where gender gaps are not uncommon

Women’s Legal and Economic Empowerment Database “Women LEED – Africa” covers all 47 SSA economies

Key question: do patterns of women’s entrepreneurship differ in countries with more or less legal rights for women?

How do legal rights affect economic opportunities?

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Direct impact of gender – formal property rights that affect ability to control assets and run a business

Women’s Legal and Economic Empowerment Database (Women LEED Africa), Hallward-Driemeier et al. World Bank 2011.

‘Non-discrimination’ protection should hold across all areas of the law

Low_Income Middle_Income0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Constitutional recognition of customary law

Not recognize Cus-tomary LawRecognize Customary Law - and EXEMPT it from non-discrimi-nate based on gen-derRecognize Customary Law - and limit its ability to discriminate based on gender

Among the countries that recognize customary law as prevailing in areas of marriage, property and inheritance – and exempt customary law from non-discrimination provisions are:• Botswana• Lesotho• The Gambia• Ghana• Mauritius• Zambia • Zimbabwe

Kenya came off the list with its new constitution.

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Gender gaps in legal rights do not necessarily close with income

Women’s Legal and Economic Empowerment Database (Women LEED Africa), Hallward-Driemeier et al. World Bank 2011.

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This database now covers 128 countries.

Building historical dimension – see where have been reforms and in which areas - factors that enable legal changes - impact of these legal reforms

Women on not homogeneous in legal rights – many vary with marriage

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Stronger economic rights affect share of women who expand their businesses and become employers

The gap between the share of men and share of women who are employers is 30 percent lower when there are fewer gender gaps in economic rights (percent)

Patterns are similar regardless of the level of income

Low income Middle income0

25

50

75

100

125Large gaps in women's economic rightsNo or small gaps in women's economic rights

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Source: Hallward-Driemeier and Hasan, 2011, Empowering Women: Legal Rights and Economic Opportunities.

Legal reforms matter: Ethiopia changed its family law, giving women greater say over assets with a marriage and removing the ability to deny working outside the home. Exploiting variations in the reform across locations and time shows it raised the share of women working outside the home and in higher value added activities.Source: Hallward-Driemeier and Gajigo, 2010.

Property rights Ability and

incentive to run a business

Access to finance Less access to

collateral Harassment – what

is asked for is not always money; ‘sextortion’

Source: Hallward-Driemeieret al. (2011)

Shares that have ‘frequently’ heard of sexual favors being raised in certain transactions

Direct impact of gender – greater IC constraints faced by women as women

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Where you work matters: Differences are greater across sectors than by gender within a sectorLabor Productivity

Education of the entrepreneur

Source: Hallward-Driemeierand Gajigo(2010)

Source: Hallward-Driemeieret al. (2011)

So it is critical to focus on factors affecting women’s choice of activity /formality / size of enterprise in shaping their opportunities

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Controlling for enterprise characteristics removes the gender gap in productivity

Size of enterprise, sector, capital intensity

Control for size of enterprise

Control for sector

No controls

-6 -4 -2 0 2

Gender gap in average firm labor productivity

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But gender sorting across sectors and sizes remains pervasive

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Women are more likely to run informal or smaller firms.

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Education varies more by formal/informal sector than by gender

Female Male Female MaleInformal Formal

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

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Graduate degreeSome University Educa-tionVocational TrainingSecondary SchoolPrimary SchoolNo Education

Source: Gajigo and Hallward-Driemeier 2010, Survey of New Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As women’s educational attainment still remains below men’s in much of SSA, this helps explain women’s sorting into more informal and smaller firms.

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Differences in prior experience vary more by sector than by gender

Male Female Male FemaleFormal Informal

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

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Seeking a job (i.e. Unem-ployed)

Employee in a non-business

An unpaid employee

Gajigo and Hallward-Driemeier 2010

• Transitions between formal and informal sectors are relatively low.• As shown above, women are less likely to have had wage employment in lower income countries, reinforcing their decision to operate their business in the informal sector.

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Which dimension of the business environment matters?

Most work has focused on the LEVEL of business environment conditions Time or costs to comply with regulations, access to finance,

electricity and transportation to markets

Most conditions vary more by firm size and formality than gender

But VARIATION is also costly Introduces uncertainty that is associated with lower investment

and hiring Opens the door to more corruption

Detrimental effects are larger on smaller firms Women’s enterprises are less likely to be ‘favored firms’

There is a gender entrepreneurship dimension to the governance agenda

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Enterprising Women: Expanding Economic Opportunities

Agenda – beyond participation, support women to pursue higher value added activities There are gender gaps in performance

But they are largely due to sorting by sector and size of enterprise Within sectors and size, gender is less important

Factors affecting entry and choice of enterprise are key Look where gender can matter directly e.g. restrictions in family law Do women benefit from training and access to finance as much as

men? Corruption and uncertainty are part of the agenda too

Women are less likely to be running ‘favored firms’

“Women” are not homogeneous group Marital status Age, education, intra-household dynamics Ownership is not equivalent to having decision making authority