Events

Female Labor Force Participation: Drivers and Policy Options

December 6, 2024

In-person, Washington, D.C.

Conference on Female Labor Force Participation

The "South Asia Female Labor Force Participation: Drivers and Policy Options" conference, hosted by the Office of the South Asia Chief Economist and the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) delves into insightful discussions that focus on job creation, gender-equal laws, and removal of barriers for women's economic participation.

THEME
PROGRAM AGENDA
SPEAKERS

South Asia’s female labor force participation today remains among the lowest in the world: more than 400 million working-age women in the region are outside of the labor force, which constitutes a significant output loss. Potential female labor market entrants face barriers to both labor demand and supply as well as labor market frictions. Options to increase female labor force participation include faster job creation in the nonagricultural sector, more rigorous implementation of gender-equal laws, and the removal of disincentives to women working outside the home. These measures are likely to be more effective if accompanied by a shift towards social norms that look more favorably on female employment.

Friday, December 6, 2024
^{8:45 AM – 5:00 PM (ET) | 5:45 AM – 2:00 PM (PST)}

8:15-8:45 AM	Breakfast & Networking
8:45-9:00 AM	Opening Remarks \| Female Labor Force Participation in India · Norbert Schady, Chief Economist for Human Development, World Bank
9:00-10:00 AM	Panel Discussion \| Increasing Female Labor Force Participation in South Asia · Laveesh Bhandari, President and Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress · Caren Grown, Senior Fellow, Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution · Roberta Gatti, Middle East & North Africa Chief Economist, World Bank Moderator: Martin Raiser, South Asia Vice President, World Bank
10:00-10:15 AM	Coffee Break
10:15-11:35 AM	Paper Session 1 \| Supply Side Issues PAPER I: The Economics of Caste Norms: Purity, Status, and Women's Work in India Patrick Agte; Arielle Bernhardt (New York University) PAPER II: Gender Gap and Decline in Female Labour Force Participation in India: A Joint Search Perspective Monisankar Bishnu; S Chandrasekhar; Srinivasan Murali (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore) PAPER III: Women’s Labor Force Participation in Nepal: An Exploration of The Role of Social Norms Jumana Alaref; Aishwarya Patil (World Bank); Tasmia Rahman; Ana Maria Munoz Boudet; Jasmine Rajbhandary POLICY PRESENTATION: Female Labor Force Participation in MENA Roberta Gatti, Middle East & North Africa Chief Economist, World Bank
11:35 AM-12:35 PM	Keynote Presentation \| Cultural Change [Slides are available upon request] · Raquel Fernandez, Silver Professor of Economics, New York University
12:35-1:45 PM	Lunch
1:45-3:10 PM	Paper Session 2 \| Firms and Demand Side Issues PAPER I: Monitoring Harassment in Organizations Laura Boudreau; Sylvain Chassang; Ada González-Torres; Rachel Heath (University of Washington) PAPER II: Bridging the Gender Gap in Management: Creating a Win-win for Workers and Organisations in Low-wage Work Mahreen Khan; Atonu Rabbani (Dhaka University); Christopher Woodruff PAPER III: Barriers to entry: Decomposing the gender gap in job search in urban Pakistan Elisabetta Gentile; Nikita Kohli; Nivedhitha Subramanian; Zunia Tirmazee; Kate Vyborny (World Bank) PAPER IV: Lockdowns and Female Employment Amit Basole (Azim Premji University) POLICY PRESENTATION: Women and Human Capital [Slides are available upon request] Anu Madgavkar, McKinsey Global Institute Partner
3:10-3:25 PM	Coffee Break
3:25-4:50 PM	Paper Session 3 \| Emerging Issues PAPER I: What Works for Her? How Work-from-Home and Local Office Jobs Affect Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India Suhani Jalota (Stanford University); Lisa Ho PAPER II: Gender Peer Effects in the Workplace: A Field Experiment in Indian Call Centers Deepshikha Batheja (One Health Trust) PAPER III: Gendered Impacts of Reforming Night-Shift Work in India Aleksandr Michuda (Swarthmore College); Abhilasha Sahay; Nivedhitha Subramanian PAPER IV: Do Some Peers Matter More Than Others? Heterogeneous Impacts of Social Networks on Female Entrepreneurship Vatsal Khandelwal; Juni Singh (World Bank) POLICY PRESENTATION: Understanding Trends in Female labour Force Participation Rates in Rural India Amarjeet Sinha, Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress
4:50-5:00 PM	Closing Remarks · Laveesh Bhandari, President and Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress · Franziska Ohnsorge, South Asia Chief Economist, World Bank

Remarks

Norbert Schady
Chief Economist for Human Development, World Bank

Franziska Ohnsorge
Chief Economist for the South Asia Region, World Bank

PANELISTS

Laveesh Bhandari
President and Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress

Martin Raiser
Vice President for the South Asia Region, World Bank

Caren Grown
Senior Fellow, Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution

Roberta Gatti
Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank

KEYNOTE

Raquel Fernandez
Silver Professor of Economics, New York University

PRESENTERS

Amarjeet Sinha
Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress

Anu Madgavkar
McKinsey Global Institute Partner, New Jersey

Rachel Heath
Alberta C. Corkery Professor of Economics, University of Washington

Atonu Rabbani
Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka

Kate Vyborny
Economist, South Asia Region Gender Innovation Lab, World Bank

Amit Basole
Professor of Economics, Azim Premji University

Arielle Bernhardt
Assistant Professor of Economics, New York University

Srinivasan Murali
Assistant Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

Aishwarya Patil
Consultant, Social Protection & Labor, World Bank

Suhani Jalota
Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Deepshikha Batheja
Research Fellow, One Health Trust

Aleksandr Michuda
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics, Swarthmore College

Juni Singh
Economist, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, World Bank