Determinants of Women Labor Force Participation in Morocco
Mohamed Taamouti
Direction de la Statistique, High Commission for Planning, Rabat, Morocco

Despite many social reforms aiming at enhancing women participation in political, social and economic arenas, Morocco has experienced a sharp decline in female labor force participation over the last decade. The generalization of schooling especially for young women in the rural areas is one of the reasons behind this decline. But still the level of participation remains low compared to many developing and developed countries. Among the many other factors that may explain this level, we focus on the economic and social characteristics of women and their households. Using the data from the employment survey the paper aims at identifying and quantifying the main micro-determinants of the decision of women to enter the labor market. Given the specificities of the rural labor market, we focus on urban women aged 25 years and more. Our main finding is that many demographic and cultural characteristics are crucial to women decision to join the labor market, especially their level of education, marital status and number of children.

Keywords: Labor market; Female participation; Logit model

Biography: Mohamed Taamouti is currently the Director of Statistics in Morocco. Prior to this position he was a professor of economics at the National Institute for statistics and Applied Economics.