Determinants of Female Time Allocation in Selected Districts of Rural Pakistan

This paper attempts to explain female time allocation forrural women in selected districts of Pakistan. This topic is ofconsiderable importance for several reasons. At an academic leveL thefact that the female labour force participation decision and the hoursworked are jointly determined raises interesting problems of modellingand econometric estimation in taking account of the selectivity biasthus introduced into OLS estimation. At the policy level, an insightinto the factors influencing female labour force participation isextremely important in a developing country such as Pakistan where themajority of females do not participate in mainstream economicactivities. The objective of this study is to determine the factorsaffecting the optimum time allocation between market and housework offemales in rural Pakistan. In a male dominated society like Pakistanwith strong cultural taboos, a woman's labour force participation can beexpected to depend significantly on non-market factors. In this study weexamine, in particular, whether women's decisions not to work outsidethe home are influenced more by social norms, for example purdah andpatriarchy, or by economic constraints such as lack of relevanteducation and training, non-availability of job opportunities and lowwages etc.