Social Norms and Female Labour Force Participation in Bangladesh: The Role of Social Expectations and Reference Networks.
A large proportion of Bangladesh's working age female youth population is not in employment, education or training (NEET). Reducing this figure is an important policy objective. However, there is a broad consensus that pervasive gender norms in Bangladesh and other countries in the Global South hind...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Development Studies Vol. 62; no. 8; pp. 1337 - 1356 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Aug2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=195622120&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 195622120 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00220388 JDS jtl: Journal of Development Studies issn: 00220388 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 62 iid: 8 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 195622120 10.1080/00220388.2025.2595045 ppf: 1337 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T db: hlh ui: 195622120 – @attributes: type: P db: hlh ui: 195622120 tig: atl: Social Norms and Female Labour Force Participation in Bangladesh: The Role of Social Expectations and Reference Networks. aug: au: Bellani, Luna Biswas, Kumar Fehrler, Sebastian Marx, Paul Sabarwal, Shwetlena Al-Zayed Josh, Syed Rashed affil: Department of Economics, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany Department of Economics, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA Socium, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Department of Political Science, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany World Bank, Washington, DC, USA su: Bangladesh Social norms Kinship Social comparison Gender role Youth employment Women's employment Developing countries sug: subj: Social norms Kinship Social comparison Gender role Youth employment Women's employment Bangladesh Developing countries keyword: female labour force participation gender norms social expectations survey experiments female labour force participation gender norms social expectations survey experiments ab: A large proportion of Bangladesh's working age female youth population is not in employment, education or training (NEET). Reducing this figure is an important policy objective. However, there is a broad consensus that pervasive gender norms in Bangladesh and other countries in the Global South hinder this goal. This study analyses the social basis of support for young working women. It departs from a theoretical understanding of norms as contingent on the expectations of one's reference network. Using vignette experiments, we show that manipulating others' expectations about the acceptability of female employment influences personal support for women entering the workforce. We also address the question of whose views matter. Manipulating the expectation that fathers (or husbands in the case of married NEETs) will support their daughters' (wives') employment has a particularly strong effect on respondents' support. In contrast, the attitudes of religious authorities and peers are surprisingly of little relevance. Our evidence suggests that (expectations of) traditional views of fathers and husbands on the role of women are a key obstacle to greater participation of young women in the labour force in Bangladesh. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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