A0986
Title: The purdah meets the factory: Exposure to female employment and son preference
Authors: Diana Contreras Suarez - University of Melbourne (Australia) [presenting]
Reshad Ahsan - University of Melbourne (Australia)
Md Moniruzzaman - University of Melbourne (Australia)
Abstract: The purpose is to examine whether observing women working in formal factory jobs improves gender norms on female employment and lowers son preference. To identify exogenous variation in formal factory jobs for women, the exports of ready-made garments in Bangladesh are used, an industry where most workers are female. Then, a woman's exposure to such factory jobs is determined using their proximity to garment factories and total garment exports by birth cohort. It is found that exposure to female factory jobs explains 5.38 percent of the difference in son preference between the capital city, Dhaka, and a city 100 km away. Consistent with a reduction of son preferences, it is found that exposure to female factory jobs increases the probability of their daughters being alive and being breastfed for longer and reduces girls' stunting rate. It is also shown that improvements in gender norms on women's roles in the workplace drive this reduction in son preference. Results suggest that transitioning female workers to factory jobs can have multiplier effects on other women via changes in gender norms.
