Leaving Work Behind? The Impact of Emigration on Female Labor Force Participation in Morocco

Based on a mixed-methods approach using the 2006–2007 Morocco Living Standards Measurement Survey and qualitative interviews, this article examines the distinct roles that international migration and remittances play in female labor force participation (FLFP) in origin-country households and discusses the implications in terms of women’s empowerment. We find that having an emigrant among household members increases FLFP for a given household, while receiving remittances decreases it. However, these effects are significant only for unpaid family work, that is, a category of work unlikely to lead to any form of economic empowerment. Although previous studies sometimes hypothesized that emigration could drive gender-sensitive development at origin, the quantitative and fieldwork findings suggest that, while paid work remains a route to female empowerment, predominantly male emigration is unlikely to play a positive role in supporting women’s access to income-generating activities in a society characterized by strong patriarchal gender norms and poor job opportunities.

The Self Employed Women, Women Entrepreneurs And Work

This study highlights foundation that women encompass – inside their houses as unpaid family work, as wage-earners to be found at the lowest position of income generating work and as care-givers. Here few questions could come to one’s mind that what is the extent of women’s responsiveness regarding work, of everyday jobs, of class and role? How do they differentiate themselves being dominated under weight of various roles? Or are they doubly demoralized by the patriarchal system? How this amalgamation of professions is made possible? The study illustrates field research seeking answers to these questions. The interviewing schedule created for this research included questions that aimed at obtaining personal data about the respondents, such as age, educational attainment, marital status, number of children, typology of work, etc. The data drawn from sample shows ability of self employed working women to balance their income generating work with their communal roles of food preparation, cleaning, caring, parenting and other domestic chores. Therefore, the vision that this research explores, deny the imagined characteristics of women as a male responsibility. These self employed women indeed are heads of their households. This timely study invites all concerned authorities, policy makers and governmental institutions to recognize this reality and consequently plan for the upcoming decades.

Defining Disability for Women and the Problem of Unpaid Work

National policy and much of scholarly research on disability overlook the importance of unpaid family work and instead focus on disability in paid work, largely in male samples. Because of societal expectations about appropriate social roles for men and women, women tend to assume responsibility for unpaid work in the family and also tend to have paid work that is characterized by low pay and limited autonomy. This article discusses the political, theoretical, and methodological issues relating to defining and measuring paid and unpaid work disability for women and men within the context of these structural factors. The results of a study analyzing disability in both paid work and unpaid family work among a sample of 206 women with rheumatoid arthritis are presented. The study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring disability in family work and shows that women experience significant limitations in homemaker functioning as well as in paid work roles.