Those eternal injustices in the labor market
Women’s participation in the labor market is declining. Addressing women’s exclusion requires tackling a variety of factors, including «social norms» that may impede women’s ability to work. Despite improvements in school enrollment rates, women are increasingly unlikely to work outside the home. Integrating women into the labor force would, among other things, reduce gender disparities. This would also empower women to make decisions within the household, increase household investments in education and health, and make it possible to tap into a critical labor resource for economic development.
■ Why women stay out of the labor market
In both urban and rural areas, women are not working for two main reasons: childcare and domestic chores. More than five out of 10 women are in this situation. The joint report of the World Bank and of the Moroccan High Commissioner´s Office for Planning (HCP) concerning the employment landscape in Morocco suggests another explanation. This is linked to the level of education: «the probability of remaining outside the labor market is largely determined by the level of education of women in urban areas, while in rural areas, the essential factor remains the level of education of the head of household», reads the report.
■ Married and inactive
Marriage is an important factor in the situation of women. Single women in rural areas were 7% less likely to remain inactive than married women in 2018. In cities, single women are about 20% less likely to be out of the labor force! In other words, inactivity is prevalent among women, especially when they reach marriageable age. In 2019, while most inactive men aged 15-24 were either in school or single, about 44% of women in the same age bracket were already out of school, married, or single. The situation is different for 25–34-year-olds, as 81% of inactive women are married and not in school.
■ Women and entrepreneurship: Morocco can do better
Only 16.2% of business leaders in Morocco are women. This figure comes from the Moroccan Observatory of Very Small Enterprises, which has just published the preliminary results of a study on female entrepreneurship and women business leaders in Morocco. The study indicates that the share of women managers and entrepreneurs in Morocco needs to increase. While waiting for the details of the study, the Observatory underlines that 14.6% of the active legal entities are headed by women, 16.3% of the active physical entities belong to women, and 25.5% of the active auto-entrepreneurs are women.
Khadija MASMOUDI
