White-Collar Comparative Advantage and Stigma Reduction
RCTClinical Trial
Manual and agricultural labor outside the home carries severe social stigma for women in developing nations and favors male physical strength, causing female labor force participation to plummet as household incomes rise.
Picture this
Think of heavy construction work versus office computer work: heavy construction requires raw muscular strength and takes place in dusty, public environments where traditional social rules discourage women from working. Modern office work relies on mental communication skills and takes place in safe, indoor settings, removing physical barriers and reducing community disapproval.
What the evidence says
The recruiting treatment increased reported community acceptability of post-marital female work away from home by 4.3 percentage points (p < 0.05) relative to a control group mean of 7.1%, while national BPO call centers maintain a female worker share of 45% in India (and 69% globally).
- Who was studied
- 3,211 households and 1,278 young women aged 18–24 across 160 rural villages.
- How
- Randomized evaluation measuring community attitudes toward female employment outside the home alongside formal industry employment data.
What to do
Promote service-sector and digital infrastructure expansion in rural areas to generate respectable, non-manual employment options for women.
From the source
"Boserup (1970), Costa (2000), Goldin (1990, 1995, 2006)... argue that there may be less of a social stigma associated with women working in white-collar jobs. These jobs are considered safer and 'cleaner' than manual labor..."
517 labor market opportunities QJE April '12.pdf