Marriage and Women’s Employment in the Middle East and North Africa

(MENA)By

Ragui Assaad, University of MinnesotaCaroline Krafft, St. Catherine University

Irene Selwaness, Cairo University

ERF 23rd Annual Conference March 18–20 2017

Amman, Jordan

Special Event: The Economics of Life Course Transitions in the Middle East and North Africa

Marriage and Women’s Employment in the Life Course

• Norms about gender division of labor within the household in MENA– Male Breadwinner/ Female Homemaker – Transition to adulthood “Marriage” domestic

responsibilities market work– Closing of gender gap in education.

• (Assaad, Hendy, Lassasi, & Yassine, 2016)

– Type of work matters:• Assaad & El-Hamidi (2001); Assaad, Ghazouani, & Krafft (2017a);

Assaad & Zouari (2003); Hendy (2015).

Aim of this paper

• How does marriage timing affect women’s work?– Effect of Marrying by the median age on different

employment outcomes

– For three countries in the MENA: Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia

• Account for potential endogeneity of the timing of marriage – Instrumental Variable (IV) approach– Reverse Causality/simultaneity

Data Sources• Three comparable surveys carried out by Economic

Research Forum and the relevant National Statistical Office:– Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey of 2012 (ELMPS 2012)

– Jordan Labor Market Panel Survey of 2010 (JLMPS 2010)

– Tunisia Labor Market Panel Survey of 2014 (TLMPS 2014)

• Additional data from Population Censuses to construct our instruments– Egypt 1996 (IPUMS), Jordan 2004 (IPUMS), Tunisia 2004 (INS)

Some Background Info

Fem

ales

Mal

es

Fem

ales

Mal

es

Fem

ales

Mal

es

Employment to Popula-tion Ratio

LFP Rate Percent of Employed in Public Sector

0

20

40

60

80

18

77

23

80

51

24

13

65

17

71

44

34

19

64

25

73

26 23

Egypt 2012 Jordan 2010 Tunisia 2014

Perc

ent

Some Background Info

Females Males Females MalesUnemployment Rate Youth (15-24) Unemployment Rate

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

24

4

50

10

20

9

43

2021

11

3834

Egypt 2012 Jordan 2010 Tunisia 2014

Perc

ent

Percentage Employed by Marital Status, Sex and Country, Non-students, Ages 15-64

Male Female Male Female Male FemaleEgypt Jordan Tunisia

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

87

25

74

28

63

32

98

18

84

12

81

18

UnmarriedMarried

Perc

enta

ge E

mpl

oyed

57% 46%27%

Employment States Before and After Marriage

Methods (1)• Dependent variables (binary):

• Employed or not (market definition of employment)• Employed for wages or not• Employed for wages in private sector or not• Employed for wages in public sector or not• Engaged in non-wage work or not

– (only for Egypt and Tunisia only)• Treatment: Marriage by the median age (22 in Egypt and

Jordan, 27 in Tunisia).• Possible endogeneity of treatment IV approach (Bivariate

Probit and IV probit).

Methods (2)• Instruments

1. Sex ratio in location of birth (F/M+5 year birth cohort)• Data obtained from Population Censuses (Egypt 1996 , Jordan 2004 and Tunisia 2004)

2. Ratio of female to total siblings in natal household3. Whether woman is eldest among her female siblings

• Not available for Jordan

• Other controls– Age, age squared – Educational attainment – Parental characteristics: Education and work– Region of birth by urban/rural character– For Egypt, ratio of males migrants to male population in

village/neighborhood of birth

• Standard Errors: bootstrapped and clustered

The relative change in the probability of different employment outcomes for women due to marrying by the median age, by country (percentages)

Egypt Jordan Tunisia-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

-16-47 -33-32

-50 -50-40

-76-57

-30 -28 -42

53.8461538461539 56.6037735849057

Work Wage Work Private Wage WorkPublic Wage Work Non Wage Work

Perc

enta

ge C

hang

eKey Findings: Relative Effects

Note: Results based on IV Probit estimates. Bars indicate 95% confidence intervals

Findings• Findings are robust to changing age at first marriage

• Ages 24, 26 for Egypt & Jordan and 22, 24 for Tunisia

• During state-led era, public sector work reconciling domestic and work responsibilities

• Employment became increasingly private and increasingly informal much less hospitable to women

• In Tunisia, women return to private wage employment after several years of marriage

• Domestic work burden is a hard constraint:

• Country with heaviest domestic work burden for married women (Jordan) is also country with largest negative effect of marriage on employment.

Let’s see

Not Employed

Employed

Not Employed

Employed

Not Employed

Employed

Not Employed

Employed

Not Employed

Employed

Not Employed

Employed

Mar

ried

Mar

ried

Mar

ried

Egy

ptJo

rdan

Tun

isia

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

1316

3131

1717

3837

119

2320

41

37

42

37

46

40

Domestic hours Market hours

Hours per week

No relief for the double burden: The domestic work burden depends on women’s marital status rather than women’s employment status

Policy Implications• Alleviate double burden:

• Publicly provided child care and early childhood education

• Better, faster and safer public transportation

• Encourage Employers to hire women:

• Subsidize the cost of paid maternity leave (e.g. by social insurance system rather

than individual employers)

• Incentive to employers to provide part-time work, job-sharing, telecommuting.

• Avoid fixed costs of employment, such as daily rather than hourly minimum wages

• Remove market obstacles for time-saving services and devices

Paid Maternity Leave Among Women Working During their First Pregnancy

None 2-6 weeks 7+ weeks0

102030405060708090

100

18 18

65

8 6

87

19

4437

Egypt Jordan Tunisia

Perc

enta

ge o

f Wom

en

Primary Child Care Provider

Mother

Mother-

in-law

Nursery

or na

nny

Relativ

es

Child i

s at sc

hool

Other

Father

or hu

sband

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

27

18 19

13 14

8

1

11

18

30

8

23

9

2

1815

27

19

5

16

2

Egypt Jordan Tunisia

Perc

enta

ge o

f Wom

en

Percentage of Women in Workplace for Working Women 15-64

none < 1/4 1/4 - 1/2 >1/2 do not know0

10

20

30

40

50

60

8

21

33 36

31

15

37

48

0

11 1016

47

17

Egypt Jordan Tunisia

Perc

enta

ge

Mean Commute Time by Sex

Egypt Jordan Tunisia Egypt Jordan TunisiaUrban Rural

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

30

41

19

33

67

2125 25

21 21

30

16

Male Female

Tra

vel T

ime

in M

inut

es

Timing of MarriageProportion of women marrying by each age, Ages 22-39

Median Marriage age:Egypt: 22Jordan: 22Tunisia: 27

Egypt

Jordan

Tunisia

The relative change in the probability of different employment outcomes for women due to marrying by various ages by country (percentages)

Age 22 Age 24 Age 26 Age 22 Age 24 Age 26 Age 22 Age 24 Age 27Egypt Jordan Tunisia

-140

-120

-100

-80

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

-16-23 -18

-47 -46 -46-32 -29 -33-32 -34 -30

-50 -48 -47

-70-52 -50

-40-52 -46

-76-68

-60

-81

-58 -57

-30 -27 -24 -28-20

-28

-65

-41 -42

54 59 66

38 33

57

Work Wage Work Private Wage Work Public Wage Work Non Wage Work

Perc

enta

ge C

hang

eSensitivity to changing the threshold age of marriage