Female labor is to a certain extent controversial topic in the Middle East setting. For the period from 1960s to 2012, the rates of women’s employment in that area have stayed comparatively low and now are on the level of 20-25%. In other countries such as East Asian, European or North American ones, women employment reached 50% in the same period. In recent years, with the onset of globalization in the financial sector, the trends in female labor in Saudi Arabia started to change, which proclaims the need for the investigation into the causes of such transformations. This article will examine the influence of financial development on female labor. It argues that economic development is not a critical factor that explains the issues of female labor force participation in Saudi Arabia. This argument is based on the critical analysis of the articles by Julia Robinson and Sher Verick that focus on economic problems of women’s employment.
Female Labor Force in the Middle East and North Africa
In her article, Julia Robinson indicates and analyzes the factors that influence female labor force participation (FLP). The author’s work is primarily explorative in nature and does not contain a vivid thesis. Instead, Robinson focuses on identification of various economic and non-economic factors that form the current situation with women’s employment in the identified regions. Her initial hypothesis is that socio-cultural factors and family structure are more reliable predictors of FLP than economic ones. The key dependent variable of the research is percentage of women in total labor force. This variable is juxtaposed to other variables such as GDP per capita, illiteracy among women from 15 to 65, children per woman, and urbanization rates. For comparing them, Robinson uses regression analysis. By comparing these data, the researcher draws conclusions on the impact each variable produces on the female labor force involvement.
There are some problems with methodology the author experiences such as the inability to represent the comparison between the items as a linear correlation. This sometimes overcomplicates the results and may mislead the reader about the true extent of the discovered correlation and final impact of one on another. As far as the GDP per capita is concerned, its influence is vague and varies from country to country. In contrast to Latin America, in the Middle Eastern countries with slowly changing GDP, percentage of female participation in the economy still rose. This speaks to the fact that perhaps, the method of analysis was flawed from the perspective of its applicability to the Middle East. However, to identify the fact that such economic indicator as GDP per capita is non-relevant to the problem of female representation in labor force such method is useful. Based on the positive correlation between number of children per woman and FLP, the author confirms her initial hypothesis and argues that socio-cultural factors play more significant part in forming labor structure in the Middle East.
Discussion of the Findings
Based on the critical analysis of the article and review of the data presented there, I am inclined to argue that economic development is not among the best predictors of FLP in Saudi Arabia. However, the analyzed data provided a hint on the area where better indicators might be concentrated. It is the social and cultural indicators that dictate the state of women’s labor sector. Above that, I might go further and assume that there is a combination of factors that collectively influence FLP. It would be more accurate than arguing that only one factor is the major predictor. I derive this argument from the fact that there is more than one way of collecting the evidence on the factors’ influence, and that they might produce other results.
Female Labor Force in Developing Countries
Verick argues that FLP is highly dependent on the quality of education, which is the key factor that needs to be paid attention to in order to increase women’s involvement in working relationships. Secondly, the author explores the correlation between U-shaped relationship of economic development and FLP using panel data techniques (Verick, 2014). Thirdly, Verick (2014) states that the FLP itself has a limited ability to describe the system of women’s employment in all its complexity. Based on cross-sectional data, Verick draws the conclusion that U-shaped argument is an unreliable predictive factor for FLP due to low generalizability and overall insufficiency of the evidence in favor of its usability. This is a strong argument supported by various researchers, which allows dismissing it from the array of factors that influence FLP.
Based on the analysis of education levels among developing nations, the author concludes that higher education is unlikely to contribute greatly to boosting the levels of employment among women in developing countries. The conclusion seems solid on the grounds of the cohesiveness of the data and the reliability of the sources the author uses. However, the generalizability of the data stays one of the major concerns of the work, as Verick (2014) himself notices. This stresses the fact that socio-cultural peculiarities of each country significantly influence the employment trends among women. Since education is every bit as important as culture, the Author draws implications about the promotion of higher education as the factor that could increase the average wage and, consequently, the desire to work. This seems logical, however, does not correlate with his previous conclusion that in some countries higher education, on the contrary, discourages women to work due to better marriage opportunities.
Discussion of the Findings
The work of Verick has strengthened my belief that the economic factors are rather insignificant in Saudi Arabia in comparison to social and cultural ones. I am inclined to support the author’s claim of the limitation of FLP the assessment regarding its ability to reflect the situation in women job market. It is hard to assess the objective situation due to high value of black job market. Therefore, the data provided in the official sources that the author uses might be not as reliable as it seems.
Conclusion
All in all, the two sources confirmed the initial suggestion that financial development has little correlation with female labor participation in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the works were insightful on the more significant predictors such as cultural, social practices, and education levels. The fact that each country has different correlations leads to the conclusion that the topic of women’s labor has a low potential for generalizability.
References
Robinson, J. (2005).Female labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa. Web.
Verick, S. (2014). Female labor force participation in developing countries. Web.