R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 1

Female Occupational Crowding and Entrepreneurial Outcomes:

Measurement and Public Policy Implications

Ruta Aidis, PhDSenior Fellow, George Mason University

Gender-GEDI Project Director, The GEDI Institute

Ainsley LloydResearch Consultant

The GEDI Institute

R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014 2

Main topics

•Women•Work•Entrepreneurship

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Outline

• Introduction• The Why• Measuring occupational crowding & results• Some interesting pie charts• Consequences & implications• Limitations & future research

4

Introduction…..consider…

Your job is your first business incubator…R. Aidis ICSB Washington DC -Oct 16 - 18, 2014

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Starting point: The need for better measurement tools to capture the labor force differences between men and women for the 2014 Gender - GEDI

• www.dell.com/women• www.thegedi.org

The Why…

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Occupational Crowding

• Refers to the existence of male or female jobs in a country’s economy

• Crowding benefits some groups by reducing competition for the most desirable occupations (Bergman 1974)

• Globally women are working in more limited sectors than men

• OECD countries – 50% of women work in 11 or fewer occupational groups vs. 50% of men work in 20+ occupational groups.

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How to measure gender parity in the labor force?

• Problem: Basic male/female labor force participation rates hide sector by sector differences

• Solution: use ILO employment by sector• Standardized sector divisions across countries• Sex-disaggregated data• Selected a 30 country pilot sample: but data only available for 23 of 30

selected countries with data between 2009 and 2013

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Sectors1. Accommodation and food service

activities 2. Activities of households as employers;

undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use

3. Administrative and support service activities

4. Agriculture, forestry and fishing 5. Arts, entertainment and recreation 6. Community, Social and Personal Services7. Construction 8. Education 9. Electricity, gas, steam and air

conditioning supply 10. Extraterritorial organizations and bodies11. Financial and insurance activities 12. Fishing

13. Human health and social work activities14. Information and communication 15. Hotels and restaurants16. Manufacturing 17. Mining and quarrying 18. Not elsewhere classified 19. Other service activities 20. Professional, scientific and technical

activities 21. Public administration and defense;

compulsory social security 22. Real estate activities 23. Transportation and storage 24. Water supply; sewerage, waste

management and remediation activities 25. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of

motor vehicles and motorcycles

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Creating a comparable scoring systemAn exact 1:1 male : female ratio is undesirably hard to achieve• Allow for a range: a ratio between 4:6 or 6:4 is “balanced”

Not all countries have all sectors • Use a percent of relevant sectors: what percentage of sectors have gender

balance?

Some sectors account for very little • Use a materiality threshold: Count only sectors that employ >1% of total labor

force

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Pilot study

• Based on 23 developing, emerging and developed economies worldwide;

• Including six main regions: Latin America, North America, Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Africa and MENA countries.

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Results 1

Brazil

Denmark

France

IndiaKorea

Mexic

o

Pakist

anPeru

Russia

Spain

Thailan

d

United K

ingdom

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Sectors

total sectors sectors with balance

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Results 2• 7 countries 0.40 or greater; in 2 countries 0 sectors with labor force

parity

Un ited K

ingdom

Sweden

Braz i l

F rance

Un ited S

tate

s

Spa inCh ile

Germany

Panama

Sou th K

o rea

Thailand

Japan

Po land

Mexico

Mala

y s iaPeru

Sou th A

f rica

Tu rkey

Rus s ia

Egyp t

Moro

ccoIn

d ia

Pak is tan

0.6

0.59

0.5

0.47

0.45

0.44

0.4

0.38

0.38

0.38

0.36

0.35

0.32

0.31

0.27

0.27

0.23

0.21

0.2

0.13

0.13

0 0

Chart Title

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US Comparison: Women and men-owned businesses according to select sectors

52%48 %

Healthcare and social assistance

women men

15%

85%

Mining Quarrying Oil

women men

9%

91%

Construction

women men

Data source: National Women’s Business Council – based on 2007 Census data

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US Comparison: Women and men labor force participation in select sectors

78%

22%

Healthcare

women men

13%

87%

Mining, Quarrying, Oil

Women Men

9%

91%

Construction

Data source: Catalyst (2013)

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Consequences & implicationsOccupational crowding = Entrepreneurship crowding

• Occupational crowding contributes to gender pay gap because women are more likely to work in lower-paid occupations than men (OECD Gender Brief 2010) (ILO 2010);

• Once sector, size and age of the firm are controlled for firm performance and profitability gendered differences diminishes significantly (OECD 2012);

• Female entrepreneur ‘crossovers’ make similar income as male entrepreneurs in that sector and make more than other non-crossover female entrepreneurs;

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Limitations• ILO sector specifications are too broad• Differences exist within a sector

Further research• Adding more countries • In depth sector analysis at the country level• Occupational crowding occurs before the ‘job’