TY - JOUR
AU - Cyr,, Christopher
AB - Abstract What explains variation in women’s employment in fragile states with conflict-affected histories and limited state capacity? Employment builds stability and including women in labor markets can yield peace dividends. We use data from a firm-level survey in Somaliland, a de facto state in northern Somalia, to investigate why some firms employ more women than others. We analyze firm characteristics affected by state fragility and conflict, including female firm ownership, diaspora ownership and management, and limited access to services. This research contributes to our understanding of economic growth in fragile contexts and identifies opportunities to address gender inequalities in the developing world. Introduction By 2030, up to 60 percent of the world’s impoverished population will live in fragile states that have been challenged by histories of conflict and highly constrained in their abilities to carry out basic governance (World Bank 2018). Both fragile states and women’s empowerment have been key concerns in several recent high-level international agreements, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by 150 Heads of State in September 2015, which laid out seventeen “Global Goals” for development (United Nations 2015). While sustainable development in fragile states and gender equality are both among these Global Goals, the linkages between women’s empowerment and the challenges of fragile states have generally been overlooked. Yet, as one recent report by the OECD (2017, 5) states, “Empowering women and girls and strengthening gender equality in fragile settings can help transform vicious circles into virtuous ones, supporting inclusive societies, sustainable peace and development.” Most discussion of women in fragile contexts centers on the effects of conflict on women. This study seeks to draw attention to women’s economic agency in such contexts, as it is a critical way of addressing inequalities. Women in fragile states face great economic and social barriers to employment. In such contexts, jobs and income are a pressing issue for depressed economies and the households at the mercy of them. Of particular concern are the opportunities in the labor market for women. Conflict leaves in its wake a higher number of female-headed households (Brück and Schindler 2009; Kumar 2001; Menon and van der Meulen Rodgers 2015) but women face greater difficulty securing and retaining employment in post-conflict contexts. While scholars have found that conflict initially increases female participation in the labor force (Justino et al. 2012; Kumar 2001), the effects do not necessarily persist after conflicts end. The stability of women’s employment opportunities is therefore limited and both scholars and practitioners have noted that women are indeed the first to lose their jobs when post-conflict economies retract after post-war growth spurts (Date-Bah 2003; Hudock 2016; Kumar 2001). These situations become missed opportunities for addressing the structure of gender inequality in countries. Women’s employment in fragile states merits more attention for several reasons. Recent research in nonconflict settings indicates that women’s income has important effects for household welfare (Attanasio and Lechene 2002; Duflo 2003; Gitter and Barham 2008). Newer evidence extends these findings to post-conflict settings. Justino et al. (2012), for example, find some evidence that women’s income in post-conflict contexts benefits the welfare of household and communities. Caprioli (2000, 2005) finds that greater gender equality may reduce the probability of conflict as well. With UN resolution 1325 in 2000, the importance of focussing on women in conflict and post-conflict settings was internationally recognized.1 The resolution heightened attention toward the gendered effects of conflict and called for increased financial and programmatic attention to incorporating women in recovery and peace-building efforts. Women garnered this policy change not only because conflict poses unique challenges for women in terms of economic and physical security, but also because their specific needs have generally been overlooked by international actors and governments as post-conflict recovery programs, which focus on employment, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs, tend to be targeted to men and rarely are explicitly aimed at supporting women (Lukatela 2012). While the centrality of women for peace, stability and economic development has been recognized by international organizations, the empirical research on understanding women’s opportunities in labor markets of fragile states is still quite thin and several scholars have echoed the call for more research (Hudock 2016; Justino et al. 2012). We seek to build on the important work of scholars who explore the challenges women face in fragile states and post-conflict settings. Most of the research to date has focussed on understanding the rates of women’s engagement in the labor force in general, while less attention has been placed on understanding variation from the perspective of why employers hire women, particularly in fragile states. In this research, we attempt to identify possible opportunities and obstacles for women’s employment in Somaliland, an unrecognized de-facto state in the northern region of Somalia. Somaliland is an interesting case study of women’s employment, as the nation has experienced relative peace and stability over the past decade, in contrast with the rest of Somalia. We use Enterprise data collected by the World Bank for Somaliland in 2014 to analyze the factors that increase the likelihood that firms, of various sizes and sectors, employ women. We find that variation in employing women is explained by two important factors that have relevance for both the scholarly and policy communities. First, female ownership is important. Firms with female owners, either as sole proprietors or as part owners, are more likely to employ women. This finding suggests that investments in encouraging and supporting female entrepreneurs may have a ripple effect in fragile states, as it can in other developing contexts. Second, women are more likely to work at firms with access to water connections, and therefore more likely to have access to sanitary facilities. Our work highlights the linkages between the service gaps in fragile states and the opportunities available to women in the labor market. This article has several implications. First, it provides a rare opportunity to study women in fragile states using quantitative methodologies. Survey data in conflict-affected settings is relatively scarce due to the higher cost and greater logistical problems. The World Bank Enterprise Survey, however, provides such data and we draw on one of the first ever surveys conducted in Somaliland. In addition, this article has notable policy implications. International actors and nongovernmental organizations have spent considerable effort over the past decade to empower women in fragile states. By understanding the challenges that women face in finding employment and the factors that cause some businesses to employ greater numbers of women, such efforts can become more focussed and effective. Women’s Employment in the Developing World The study of female participation in developing countries’ labor forces has revolved around characteristics of economies and the state. For example, factors that increase female participation in the labor force include economic progress (Boserup 1970; Mammen and Paxson 2000; Pampel and Tanaka 1986), welfare policies (Iversen and Rosenbluth 2006; Thévenon 2013), family planning programs (Canning and Schultz 2012), laws supportive of women’s participation in the labor market (Amin and Islam 2015; Bloom et al. 2009), and globalization (Gray, Kittilson, and Sandholtz 2006). Cross-national approaches also explore the effect of culture (Morrisson and Jütting 2005; Ross 2008) and the role of education in facilitating women’s labor force participation (Mammen and Paxson 2000; Pampel and Tanaka 1986; Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos 1989). These aforementioned studies largely track changes in the amount of female labor force participation over time or across countries, typically drawing on household survey data. Yet, where and why women are employed is far less understood. The ILO publishes a yearly report on women in work and its country studies and international studies shed some light on sectoral patterns. In developing countries, women are most likely to find employment in the service sectors (an increasing trend) and agricultural sectors (International Labour Organization 2016; Kabeer 2012). We have found very few studies that have drawn on firm-level analyses to look at the push or pull factors of employing women. One example is the work by Amin (2014), who finds that having a female manager can pave the way for other women in the same firm. Other approaches include experimental studies testing the effects of specific programs, such as Jensen’s (2012) work examining the effect of recruitment efforts of rural women in Bangladesh. He finds that recruitment is an effective tool for not only increasing women’s employment but also influencing fertility rates and marriage. Women’s participation in the labor market does not inherently translate to greater economic empowerment for women. In the Global South, women are most likely to be employed in the informal sector, in their own enterprises or in household enterprises. Very few women are able to find employment in formal the sector (Chen 2001). Yet, Kabeer (2012) argues that formal sector work, with regular wages, holds the most “transformative potential for women” in terms of economic empowerment. The research on women’s economic participation in fragile contexts is growing but remains limited in scope. Several studies have investigated the impact of conflict on women’s labor force participation. In most cases, these studies find a bump for conflict as women replace productive activities while men engage in the conflict or migrate (Justino et al. 2012; Kumar 2014; Shemyakina 2011). However, women are more likely to work in low-paying positions and in the informal sector (Adauta de Sousa et al. 2003). Education is a factor that seems to boost female employment in post-conflict areas (Justino et al. 2012). While these studies consider labor force participation, none investigate the employer perspective in why some firms are more likely to hire women despite the growing availability of firm-level surveys in fragile contexts. The Case of Somaliland Somaliland is a special case of a fragile state. Following the fall of the Siyaad Barre regime in 1991, Somaliland declared independence. Yet, more than 25 years later, no country has formally recognized Somaliland as a state due to the uncertainty and possible instability it could cause based on territorial disputes and the interest in independence of other regions in Somalia. While other areas of Somalia have experienced ongoing violence, including the presence of African peacekeeping troops, attacks carried out by Al Shabaab, and even U.S. intervention through drone attacks, Somaliland has been relatively stable for 15 years. It has also been able to create its own government institutions, implement greater security, and carry out elections. Despite the relative stability in Somaliland, the effect of conflict is still pronounced (Hagmann and Hoehne 2009). Much of the shadow of conflict is cast from the central and southern regions of Somalia, but conflict broke out as recently as 2007 in a dispute between Somaliland and authorities in Puntland over the city of Las Anod (Mesfin 2009). Thus, while the peace and stability in Somaliland is far greater than any other Somali region, it is threatened by ongoing rebel activity in the south, by the potential for further regional conflicts with Puntland, and by underlying clan divisions within the entire Somali region that differ on the question of Somaliland statehood. Perhaps the worst effect of the combination of instability in the greater Somali region and the related inability of Somaliland to gain independence is the toll on service provision. The primary foci of the Somaliland government are peace, security, and the pursuit of international recognition, leaving few resources for the provision of services. According to Pegg and Kosltø (2015), 2011 estimates of government spending showed that more than half of Somaliland’s government limited budget was spent on security, while less than 10 percent went to education and health. Water supply services are limited throughout the country, even in the larger cities. For example, in the capital city of Hargeisa, many areas of the city have no access to water and those businesses and homes that are located in areas where government service is an option must pay expensive installation fees (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2012). One Hargeisa newspaper reported that several areas of the city with thriving commercial areas had water problems, with 15 percent of households and businesses receiving rationed water, and 40 percent located in areas without any water supply services (Omar 2012). Moreover, much of the energy supply in urban contexts is provided by private actors without state regulation or support. Electricity rates are among the highest in the world, usually supplied by inefficient second-hand generators (Nelson-Nuñez 2015; Owuor 2017). The government is also limited in its ability to facilitate investment and development. Without recognition, Somaliland cannot access many forms of aid from international donors and has limited ability to attract foreign direct investment given the absence of formal commercial banks (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2012; Owuor 2017). Endogenous, inclusive growth is critical for the region and understanding employment trends in the Somaliland economy, particularly of women, is a pressing theoretical and policy-centered question. Women are highly underrepresented in political and economic spheres. In the 1990s, Somaliland was governed under the beel system, which was intended to fuse traditional, clan-based Somali social organization with Western-style political institutions. This system effectively excluded women from formal politics, commonly based on questions of whether they would be loyal to the clan that they were born into, or the clan that they married into (Hansen and Bradbury 2007). Since Somaliland is not officially recognized by any countries around the world and does not appear on many reports and rankings, there are few statistics available on gender equality purely for Somaliland. Drawing on the assessments of Somalia, which includes Somaliland, the Gender Inequality Index places the country as the fourth worst ranking of gender inequality in the world (UNDP 2017). Historically, Somali society is strongly patriarchal as men have dominated the exercise of political and familial authority, including economic decisions and control of finances (Ingiriis and Hoehne 2013). Despite these challenges, women have engaged in political participation. While women were not consulted during the writing of the 2001 constitution, it did give women the right to vote (Bradbury, Abokor, and Yusuf 2003). Women have exercised this right with increasing turnout; after the 2010 election, for example, international observers noted that the majority of voters in line appeared to be young women (Walls and Kibble 2011). Women have also run for office, but due to the failure to adopt gender quotas in 2004, they continue to face significant gaps in their formal participation in government. In 2002, women only won 2 of the 379 council seats. Much of this difficulty arises from the perception that women cannot guarantee the vote of their clan, which remains a prominent form of political organization in Somaliland (Abokor et al. 2006). Yet, women have served as cabinet ministers in increasing numbers since the passing of the constitution (Walls and Kibble 2011). Women have also become politically involved through civil society, using their unique role in Somali culture to bridge gaps between clans and further the peace process (Dini 2009). Women’s groups are also key players advocating for greater political inclusion and have formed an umbrella organization, the Nagaad Network, to help coordinate and support advocacy for gender quotas (Walls 2013). Women’s participation in the economy has fluctuated. Consistent with other accounts of female labor force participation in conflict-affected states, reports reviewing the role of women in Somalia mention that prior to 2001, during the years of conflict in Somaliland, women had higher levels of participation in the economy but as stability returned, women were replaced by men (The Academy for Peace and Development 2002). The latest available data on female participation in the labor force in Somaliland comes from the International Labor Organization’s survey in 2011. At the time, labor force participation for urban areas was estimated to be 56 percent and 29 percent for men and women respectively. Only 31.9 percent of men and 19.5 percent of women worked for a salary or wage. According to the ILO, employed women primarily work in service and sales and “elementary occupations,” which include domestic workers and basic agricultural work (International Labour Organization 2012). The possible obstacles for women securing employment are numerous. A 2011 study of women’s participation concluded that women are not able to fully realize the benefits of employment in the industry due to institutional, formal, and informal rules (De Asis 2011). Some women are locked out of employment due to the “public attitude and a misconceived interpretation of Islamic principles that employment is a male domain and women are not supposed to go out to work” (Tungaraza 2007, 21). Beyond those cultural norms that reinforce discrimination of women, several key problems in Somaliland may restrict women’s participation. The primary issue is the general restriction of economic growth in the area driven largely by lack of access to credit or financial support making employment opportunities scarce and particularly challenging for women to obtain. The influx of financial support comes primarily in the form of remittances, which have elevated the relative worth of the currency. As a result, Hargeisa is reportedly one of the most expensive cities of the world in which to start a business (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 2012). Meanwhile access to other forms of financial investment and aid for businesses is highly limited due to the lack of international recognition of the region as a country and the ongoing regional conflict in the wider Somali area. That said, many of the diaspora scattered throughout the world are returning to Somaliland to start businesses. When jobs are available, women face difficulties in being considered for them. Recruitment strategies rely primarily on clan-based connections that systematically discriminate against women (UNDP 2014). Focus groups conducted by the UNDP (2014) cite difficulty for women in finding information about available jobs, an information obstacle that men can more easily overcome by drawing on clan networks and having more access to professional circles. Moreover, Somali women have relatively lower levels of education than men. For example, for all age groups fifteen and over, literacy rates for women are significantly lower than for men. They are highest for women ages fifteen to twenty-four, at 55 percent based on data from the cities of Borama, Hargeisa, and Burao (International Labour Organization 2012). They fall, however, to nearly 20 percent for women ages thirty-five to fifty-four. The efforts to promote women’s education are leading to a new cohort of educated college graduates who are struggling to access jobs. Many women report overt gender discrimination in their searches for higher-paying or more professional class jobs (UNDP n.d.). International organizations and local nonprofits are working on facilitating job placement specifically for women through job fairs, new websites, and public dialogs with private-sector leaders.2 Women returning from living abroad, arriving with higher levels of education and qualifications for jobs, also experience problems and report relying on clan networks and connections to NGOs to successfully obtain work (Sato 2018). The Somaliland government has acknowledged the need to address women’s issues and is working to establish supportive policies in several areas, including economic arenas. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs articulated a National Gender Policy plan in 2011, which included goals of participation and equitability in “productive work.” Feeble regulation of the private sector in Somaliland and the general dearth of data on women’s experience in the private sector, however, makes the gender policy difficult to implement. Despite these obstacles, women are making inroads in economic participation. Women have participated on boards of Chambers of Commerce, and membership in the Chambers of Commerce is reportedly nearly 25 percent women in Somaliland (UNDP 2014). Highly educated women who have university degrees from Western institutions have returned to the area to start businesses and seek employment. The same study by the UNDP cited the example of GSK-Group, which employs many women from the female diaspora in senior positions. While many organizations are mobilizing to support female entrepreneurship, such as DAI and Shuraako, the extent of the wider impact is unknown and the overall level of financial support from international actors for the Somaliland region remains limited. Hypotheses We seek to explain the variation in the number of women that firms in Somaliland employ, both as a result of firms’ decision to employ women and women’s decisions to start working and continue working at firms. We argue that aspects of state fragility have both facilitated and deterred women’s employment in Somaliland. We posit that these influences stem from three sources. The first is the presence of female firm ownership, a phenomenon partially linked to the effects of conflict. More women entrepreneurs have emerged in the Somali context as a result of conflict, as women were forced to start businesses to provide for families or to take over family businesses given the loss of men to the conflict (Sheikh Ali 2013; UNDP 2014). Moreover, the conflict forced many Somali women to migrate around the world. These women, as they return, tend to have more education, international business connections, and more financial means to start businesses (UNDP 2014). Once women are in positions of ownership, they can pave the way for other women to obtain employment. Women may have more of a normative interest in employing other women than men would, or they may be less opposed to hiring women to work in positions in which men have traditionally worked. The presence of female owners may also attract female applicants for positions. This “revolving door” effect has been found in other developing countries (Amin 2014), but may be particularly important in the Somali context where women face greater barriers to employment. Hypothesis 1: Firms with a woman as part of the ownership group will have more female employees than firms where a woman is not part of the ownership group. The second factor related to fragile, post-conflict contexts is the return of the diaspora scattered across the world. An estimated two million people born in Somalia live outside of the country, almost a quarter of which have settled in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (Connor and Krogstad 2016). Members of the Somaliland diaspora have been returning to the country, bringing with them additional resources and international connections they use in starting and investing in companies. Some have lived in regions with greater female labor force participation and higher levels of gender equality. This experience may mean such owners are more likely to hire women, and possibly that women are more likely to approach firms with diaspora owners if they believe their chances at employment would be higher. Hypothesis 2: Firms where a member of the ownership group has lived abroad will have more female employees than firms where no members of the ownership group have lived abroad. We reason that this effect would carry over to managers. They also may have more experience managing female employees and be more confident in their ability to address the needs of these employees. As a result, we predict that managers who have lived abroad will hire more women. Hypothesis 3: Firms where the manager has lived abroad will have more female employees than firms where the manager has not lived abroad. Finally, we posit a third aspect of fragile states may influence firm behavior in hiring women: limited service provision of the state. The state’s constrained support for development and commerce negatively impacts firms and their ability to hire more employees. We argue these obstacles firms face as a result of the limited state could specifically inhibit the employment of women. First, we explore the obstacle of financial support for firms. Access to finance is a particularly pressing issue for Somaliland where the lack of international recognition and the absence of banks makes connecting to foreign direct investment and international finance difficult for entrepreneurs. Somalia has no central bank and access to capital for firms in Somaliland is largely funded by remittances (Benson et al. 2016). Such financial limitations to growth could depress employment growth, making it harder to diverge from cultural norms of hiring men. Hypothesis 4: Firms that have faced obstacles in access finance will have fewer female employees. We posit, however, that some services are more likely to have gendered effects in firm growth and employment. We focus specifically on the role of water. Water and sanitation services are critical environmental barriers for women. This is a relatively overlooked factor but has garnered more attention recently with emergent work focussed on the effect of poor access to water and improved sanitation on women. Lack of access can pose risks of safety and sexual harassment for women as they seek spaces that can provide privacy for their sanitary needs (Fisher 2006; Sahoo et al. 2015). The failure of schools to have onsite water and sanitation is correlated with higher dropout rates of girls (Dreibelbis et al. 2013; Ngales 2007). Access to water and improved sanitation is especially important for female employees given their needs for menstrual hygiene management. Women have lower rates of workforce participation during their menstrual cycles, which may deter their employment and retention (Sommer et al. 2016). Companies in Somaliland routinely face difficulties accessing water connections, leaving many without functioning water and sanitation facilities. We posit that such challenges will deter employment of women if women are reluctant to work in such contexts or are more likely to miss work in such jobs. Hypothesis 5: Firms without water connections will have fewer female employees than firms that have water connections. We include three types of controls. First, we control for the level of education of the manager in case education shifts traditional attitudes toward women such that managers with higher levels of education may be more likely to have broadened perspectives on norms toward women. We further control for firm sectors. It is possible that jobs in sectors such as agriculture may be traditionally more inclusive of women, and therefore employers in these sectors are more likely to hire women. In addition, some sectors require a large number of workers, which can be costly for an employer. Employers may hire women based on the belief that they will work for lower wages. Finally, it is reasonable to expect that firms that have more employees will employ more women, even if they are not employing women at a higher rate than firms that have fewer employees, simply because they have a greater number of workers. Methodology Data Our approach to the question of women’s employment is unique in that it focusses on employment using firm-level microdata as opposed to wider labor-market studies that draw on household surveys. We use the publicly available 2014 World Bank Enterprise Survey that samples 500 firms in seven of the largest cities of Somaliland. Data is a scarce commodity in the region with very basic data-gathering attempts only implemented by international agencies in the last five years. Estimates, such as GDP per capita, population change, and a wide variety of other basic statistical facts, have been sheer guesswork for the region for decades. While new data, such as the data used in this study, is now available, it is not widely circulated and has yet to support many empirical studies of the region. The data supporting this study were collected as part of the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys series, with modifications for the unique Somaliland case. Through this series, the World Bank has collected similar data from countries all over the world, in some cases with multiple points in time. This data provides an unprecedented snapshot into business life in Somaliland, as it asks firm owners about things such as their sector, the size of their business, their sources of investment, and the challenges that they face conducting business in Somaliland. Because the level of analysis is the firm, this allows us to explore the variation in women’s employment that happens within Somaliland. Unfortunately, this firm-level analysis constrains the focus to urban contexts. The term “firm” may be perceived to be synonymous with the formal sector and larger, more established businesses but this is a misleading perspective for the Somaliland context where formal registration is relatively rarer. The private sector in Somaliland is predominantly informal since the role of the state has been limited by conflict, lack of recognition, and overall limited scope of government capacity. One estimate by the UNDP (2014) apportions more than 75 percent of employment opportunities for both men and women to be in the informal sector. In response to the obstacles cited by businesses to register, there have been recent efforts to support registration with the Ministry of Commerce. The same UNDP report estimates that the majority of working women manage or are employed by microbusinesses. The Enterprise Survey in Somaliland included 125 micro firms of fewer than five employees, 236 small firms with five to nineteen employees, 108 medium-sized firms with twenty to ninety-nine employees and thirty-one large firms of 100 or more employees. Only 60 percent of the sample have registered with the government. The largest impediment to registering with the government was cited to be lack of information, which about one-third of unregistered firms mentioned (World Bank 2013). Women were slightly more likely to be employed by formal firms. This does not mean that women in Somaliland are more likely to work in the formal sector, which would run contrary to the patterns in other African and developing countries more generally; it simply implies that from the perspective of a sample of firms, formal registration is not a delineating factor for employment of women largely because the sample does not include rural areas and is not representative of informal household-based firms that were targeted in a separate survey. Because Enterprise Surveys have been conducted in other fragile states, there is a basis of comparison of Somaliland versus a comparator group of countries, among which the World Bank includes Afghanistan, Yemen, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Relative to this comparator group, the firms in Somaliland are generally smaller and more likely to be sole-proprietorships (World Bank 2013). There are, however, no significant differences for female ownership of firms in Somaliland relative to these comparison countries. Measures Our dependent variable is the level of women’s employment at the firm. We measure this through the number of women that a firm reports employing. This is operationalized through a question in the survey, which asks firm owners, “How many of the following (full time, part time, and temporary) employees in 2012 were female?” We take the total sum of all employee types. While this measure allows us to look for variables that cause some firms to provide job opportunities for women, it does have limitations. Specifically, it does not gauge the quality of women’s employment, including wages, the conditions of the workplace, or security of the job. For example, firms could claim to employ a large number of women who are employed by the organization for more menial tasks such as cleaning. We realize that not all jobs are pathways to addressing women’s unequal status in developing countries and many jobs can be outright exploitative. Unfortunately, the data do not include measures to get a finer-grain look at women’s employment in the country. We maintain, however, that even this rather coarse approach still contributes to our understanding of the critical questions in creating opportunities for women in fragile states. As such, our study should be considered as a beginning point for the study of the employment opportunities that women face in fragile states, and factors such as quality of employment, pay, and job satisfaction remain directions for future research. The frequencies for the total number of female employees are shown in figure 1 (all summary statistics found in the Appendix). The chart confirms that women do indeed face barriers to employment in Somaliland, with just over half of the firms surveyed indicating that they do not have any female employees. The figures also confirm that, despite these challenges, there are opportunities for employment for women. Many businesses employ dozens of women, and one employs 150 women. These numbers are substantial in light of the fact that most of the firms included in the survey are small and medium sized, with a median total number of employees of seven. Figure 1. View largeDownload slide Number of female employees by firm. Figure 1. View largeDownload slide Number of female employees by firm. We measure a woman being part of the ownership group through responses to the question, “Amongst the owners of the firm, are there any females?” In total, 104 out of firms had a woman as part of the ownership group. Most firms in the sample were started by the owners of the firm. This is also true for female-owned firms, 90 percent of which report having started the company, rather than inheriting it, purchasing it, or obtaining it from family members. We measured an international owner through the question, “What is the nationality (by passport) of the largest owner?” We considered any owners who were not Somali to be international. Among these forty-two firms with an international owner, we assume the majority are part of the returning Somali diaspora rather than international immigrants. To measure whether managers lived abroad, we looked at responses to the question, “Did you (the manager) live abroad in the last 20 years?” Sixty-six of the managers reported having lived abroad. These two measures are significantly correlated at 0.46, which may indicate that the owner is the manager or could signal that noninternational owners are unlikely to hire managers who have lived abroad. The survey also asks firm owners about their obstacles to doing business. One obstacle identified is access to finance, with 244 firms reporting that they have difficulty accessing finance. Finally, we examine whether firms with water connections hire more women. A slight majority of firms, 57 percent, report having water connection. Water connections are limited in all cities in the sample, with the highest rate in Hargeisa of only 70 percent of firms. The lowest rate is in Wajaale, with only 24 percent of firms having water connections (figure 2). Figure 2 View largeDownload slide Frequencies of independent variables. Figure 2 View largeDownload slide Frequencies of independent variables. For controls, we measured the manager’s education through the question of the highest level of schooling in seven ordinal categories. Nearly 40 percent of the sample had managers with college diplomas or master’s degrees. We find this measure to be significantly correlated (0.20) with managers having lived abroad. We also look at the total number of employees, which is operationalized through asking firm owners, “At the end of 2012, how many (full time, part time, temporary) employees worked in this establishment?” We added together the total number of employees from this category. We also control for the sector of the business. Respondents are asked to identify their sector, placing themselves in one of thirty categories. Some of these sectors, such as recorded media, are small enough that they only have one firm. To avoid having results driven by having a small number of firms in each sector, we collapse sectors into six broad categories: agriculture, metals, industrial products, textiles, consumer products and services, and financial. A breakdown of the firms by sector is shown in figure 3. These descriptive statistics provide one of the first opportunities to understand the urban economy of Somaliland. Consumer products and services account for 40 percent of firms surveyed, and industrial products and services account for an additional 30 percent of firms surveyed. Somaliland is developing a diversified economy. Figure 3 View largeDownload slide Firms by sector. Figure 3 View largeDownload slide Firms by sector. Results We employ a negative binomial regression because the number of female employees is a count variable, skewed toward the negative end. In addition, the variable is over-dispersed, and negative binomial regression is well-suited to handle this type of variable. The results are shown in table 1. Table 1 Predictors of the number of female employees Variables Model 1 Model 2 Female business owner 1.135** (0.209) 1.134** (0.209) International business owner 0.629+ (0.381) 0.619* (0.306) Manager spent time abroad −0.019 (0.334) Firm’s problems accessing finance 0.052 (0.153) 0.053 (0.149) Water connection 0.405* (0.198) 0.403* (0.202) Manager’s level of education 0.205+ (0.114) 0.204+ (0.116) Total employees 0.023** (0.003) 0.023** (0.003) Agricultural sector 1.103** (0.232) 1.102** (0.214) Financial sector 1.003* (0.405) 1.002* (0.407) Metals sector 0.166 (0.497) 0.165 (0.494) Consumer products and services 1.097** (0.159) 1.095** (0.173) Industrial products and services 0.848** (0.266) 0.847** (0.277) Constant −2.608** (0.573) −2.606** (0.590) Ln alpha 0.348 (0.130) 0.348 (0.131) Alpha 1.416 1.416 N 486 486 Pseudo R2 0.157 0.157 Variables Model 1 Model 2 Female business owner 1.135** (0.209) 1.134** (0.209) International business owner 0.629+ (0.381) 0.619* (0.306) Manager spent time abroad −0.019 (0.334) Firm’s problems accessing finance 0.052 (0.153) 0.053 (0.149) Water connection 0.405* (0.198) 0.403* (0.202) Manager’s level of education 0.205+ (0.114) 0.204+ (0.116) Total employees 0.023** (0.003) 0.023** (0.003) Agricultural sector 1.103** (0.232) 1.102** (0.214) Financial sector 1.003* (0.405) 1.002* (0.407) Metals sector 0.166 (0.497) 0.165 (0.494) Consumer products and services 1.097** (0.159) 1.095** (0.173) Industrial products and services 0.848** (0.266) 0.847** (0.277) Constant −2.608** (0.573) −2.606** (0.590) Ln alpha 0.348 (0.130) 0.348 (0.131) Alpha 1.416 1.416 N 486 486 Pseudo R2 0.157 0.157 Standard errors clustered by city in parentheses; +p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. View Large Table 1 Predictors of the number of female employees Variables Model 1 Model 2 Female business owner 1.135** (0.209) 1.134** (0.209) International business owner 0.629+ (0.381) 0.619* (0.306) Manager spent time abroad −0.019 (0.334) Firm’s problems accessing finance 0.052 (0.153) 0.053 (0.149) Water connection 0.405* (0.198) 0.403* (0.202) Manager’s level of education 0.205+ (0.114) 0.204+ (0.116) Total employees 0.023** (0.003) 0.023** (0.003) Agricultural sector 1.103** (0.232) 1.102** (0.214) Financial sector 1.003* (0.405) 1.002* (0.407) Metals sector 0.166 (0.497) 0.165 (0.494) Consumer products and services 1.097** (0.159) 1.095** (0.173) Industrial products and services 0.848** (0.266) 0.847** (0.277) Constant −2.608** (0.573) −2.606** (0.590) Ln alpha 0.348 (0.130) 0.348 (0.131) Alpha 1.416 1.416 N 486 486 Pseudo R2 0.157 0.157 Variables Model 1 Model 2 Female business owner 1.135** (0.209) 1.134** (0.209) International business owner 0.629+ (0.381) 0.619* (0.306) Manager spent time abroad −0.019 (0.334) Firm’s problems accessing finance 0.052 (0.153) 0.053 (0.149) Water connection 0.405* (0.198) 0.403* (0.202) Manager’s level of education 0.205+ (0.114) 0.204+ (0.116) Total employees 0.023** (0.003) 0.023** (0.003) Agricultural sector 1.103** (0.232) 1.102** (0.214) Financial sector 1.003* (0.405) 1.002* (0.407) Metals sector 0.166 (0.497) 0.165 (0.494) Consumer products and services 1.097** (0.159) 1.095** (0.173) Industrial products and services 0.848** (0.266) 0.847** (0.277) Constant −2.608** (0.573) −2.606** (0.590) Ln alpha 0.348 (0.130) 0.348 (0.131) Alpha 1.416 1.416 N 486 486 Pseudo R2 0.157 0.157 Standard errors clustered by city in parentheses; +p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. View Large The results provide support for our first hypothesis: firms that have a woman as part of the ownership group hire significantly more women. When all other variables are held at their means, a business with no woman owner has an expected value of nine female employees. When a woman is part of the ownership group, the predicted number of female employees increases to twenty-five. This factor yields the strongest explanatory power in our model. This finding reinforces other research that demonstrates the importance of supporting female entrepreneurship (Amin 2014; Jensen 2012). This finding also has policy implications; it suggests that efforts to train female managers or invest in woman-owned businesses by NGOs or other groups seeking to boost women’s economic agency could have a multiplicative effect on women’s employment. For example, one textile business operated by a woman in Hargeisa received funding from USAID in 2012 and later the Somaliland Business Fund. The business has since expanded significantly, opening stores in Borama and Burao to make and sell hospital gowns, school uniforms, women’s clothing, and wedding dresses. The owner reportedly had difficulty managing male employees, so she recruits women and has invested in apprenticeship programs for women to be successful in her company (Abdi Alin 2014). This example and our findings suggest that supporting female businesses owners yields a dual benefit, supporting women owners but also impacting women seeking employment opportunities. The role of the diaspora in starting and managing businesses is less clear. In Model 1, the effect of having an international owner only approaches significance. Due to concern about collinearity with whether a manager has lived abroad, the latter is omitted in Model 2. In this case, having an international owner becomes significant, supporting hypothesis 2. When all other variables are held at their means, having an international owner increases the predicted number of female employees from seven to twelve. In further tests omitting international owners not shown here, the effect of a manager having lived abroad does not reach significance, rejecting hypothesis 3. We also test whether the mechanism is driven by experience of the diaspora of living in the West. The survey does include a follow-up question as to where the owner has lived. We created a measure for whether that country mentioned is in the West, which in the data included the United States, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, or Canada. In further modeling, we find this measure to also be insignificant but it also true that owners with experience living in the West are only 5 percent of the sample, limiting our capacity to make inferences. We do find instances in the Somali news media about such connections. For example, at the inauguration of a paper products company started by returning diaspora men from Canada, the owners asserted that they plan to have women constitute 80 percent of their workforce (The National 2017). These connections between diaspora business owners and the interest in hiring women could extend beyond experience of cultural norms of contexts where women participate in the formal labor force at higher rates; returning members of the diaspora are additionally more likely to have connections to international NGOs in Somaliland that themselves are promoting women’s empowerment. Next, we turn to the effect of the limited state support for businesses as measured by the experience of businesses in accessing finance and the lack of access to water connections. We find that firms that have difficulty accessing finance do not differ significantly in terms of the number of women that they employ. This is an important finding given the prioritization of access to capital in supporting small business growth. While accessing finance is a pressing issue in the context of Somaliland, restricting business growth and employment, it does not necessarily have gendered effects on hiring women. Our last hypothesis posited that access to a water connection would encourage more employment of women. Our model suggests that this is indeed the case. With all other variables held at their means, firms with a water connection employ ten more women than do firms without one. We also find in our data that female owned firms are slightly more likely to have water connections; 60 percent of female-owned firms have connections compared with 50 percent of firms with no female owner. The absence of water connections clearly does not impede women altogether. For example, women continue to work in an informal street market in Hargeisa where there is no access to public sanitation facilities. They have complained to the government about this problem and the general lack of government services even though they pay taxes (Tukahirwa 2018). The role of water connections is a key concern and speaks to the importance of a larger research agenda exploring the linkages between water and sanitation and women’s equality in the workforce in developing countries. Most research on the connection of water, sanitation, and hygiene to women addresses access in homes and schools, but few scholars investigate the workplace connection. These connections underscore the need to pursue integrated approaches in women’s empowerment, developing programs and research that explore the linkages between jobs, women, and water, sanitation, and hygiene. In looking at our controls in the model, we find that the level of education of the manager appears to have a positive impact on the number of female employees that a firm has, but this is only at the 90 percent confidence level. At the lowest level of education, a firm is expected to employ only three women when all other variables are held at their means. At the highest level, however, a firm is expected to employ ten women. There is also sectoral variation in the number of women that firms employ. Compared with the omitted category of textiles, firms in the agricultural products, finance, consumer products, and industrial products sectors appear to hire more female employees. In general, agriculture is the sector that is most likely to employ women. When it serves as the baseline category, employment of women is significantly less likely for both metals and textiles. Conclusion This research provides a rare glimpse into Somaliland, an area of the world in which very few data have been collected and where, as a result, we know little about the patterns of employment and variation of women’s employment specifically. Despite the relative dearth of data in Somaliland, the importance of identifying and understanding variation in women’s experiences is paramount. It matters not only for issues of empowerment in a highly unequal society but also for the larger implications for peace, stability, and development. Our research takes a small slice of these larger issues and focusses on factors that increase firms’ likelihoods of employing women. Our work explores factors associated to some degree with state fragility that impact firm behavior and labor markets. Fragile states often experience a surge in women’s entrepreneurism in response to conflict as women are forced to enter labor markets. Members of the diaspora who have been forced to leave during conflict return home and shape labor markets in important ways. Further, fragile states face challenges in providing state services to support the private sector. These three elements are not unique to fragile states, but they are dynamics influenced by the context of past conflict, the challenges of ongoing conflict, and limited state capacity that we argue are relevant to explaining the employment of women in firms. Our analysis shows some preliminary factors in explaining this variation worthy of further research. First, we find that female ownership is not only a significant factor but one that is robust to many specifications of the model. While this may strike some as intuitive, it underscores that initiatives providing finance and business training for female entrepreneurs have secondary benefits for other women who are more likely to find jobs in female-owned businesses. We also find some evidence of the role of diaspora owners in hiring women. The contentious debates in Western countries about the influx of refugees may lead to more restrictive policies to deal with refugee flows. Our findings suggest that future diaspora returning to home countries may be important elements not only for the economic recovery of countries but also for efforts to support women’s economic inclusion in labor markets. Lastly, we also find an important role for water and sanitation, evidence that state service provision (or lack thereof) can impact private markets in gendered ways. The research on the connection between women’s equality and empowerment and sanitation is nascent but growing. Access to improved water and sanitation affects women more than men as women have greater need for privacy and sanitation facilities, for both cultural and biological reasons of menstrual hygiene management. This research contributes to a small, but growing, literature on the role of water and sanitation in women’s empowerment that is currently lacking large-N analysis. A few caveats to our findings are in order. We highlight here factors that are associated with levels of employment of women, but it would be misguided to stretch these findings to assume that these are the factors that automatically promote gender empowerment and equity by extension. We know very little about the types of jobs that females are undertaking, or the wages they receive. Future research on the firm level could examine this in more detail to understand not just how women in fragile states find employment, but also how they find higher-paying employment. Another cautionary note is that this work reveals a rather incomplete picture of women’s work in Somaliland as it is focussed specifically on firms in the seven largest cities of Somaliland. Even if these firms are not necessarily a part of the “formal” sector, since formality is limited in this context, they are likely to represent a smaller share of overall female employment in the country as women may be more likely to work in sole proprietorships, in homes, and even in agriculture in rural areas. With these caveats in mind, the findings presented here suggest a future direction for research. Although limited in its scope and approach given the observational nature of the data, this research helps to support a larger agenda analyzing women’s participation in workforces around the world. Its focus on a conflict-affected area, in combination with the use of firm-level data, provides an unusual view of factors that are correlated with female employment. With it now established that there is interesting firm-level variation in women’s experience in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, future surveys can expand the scope of this research in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of women’s employment and empowerment. Notes Jami Nelson-Nuñez is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, specializing in comparative politics, research methodology, and policy. Her work focusses on poverty in developing countries and the challenge of extending access to basic services to the poor, with a particular emphasis on water and health. She has worked with the One Earth Future Foundation which is engaged in the Somali region. Prior projects about Somalia and conflict-affected areas include a research report on the prospects for renewable energy and the effect of conflict on outcomes in water, sanitation, and hygiene. Christopher Cyr is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Eastern Kentucky University. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Colorado Boulder, specializing in international relations, comparative politics, and research methodology. His research interests are civil war, nonviolent resistance movements, and peace-building efforts in post-war environments. Prior to his employment at the Eastern Kentucky University, he worked at the One Earth Future Foundation, where he was involved in the writing of the Human Security Report, and assisted the foundation with its engagement in the Somali region. This project was completed with the assistance of the One Earth Future Foundation and the support of Eastern Kentucky University. Implementation of UN Resolution 1325 was widely recognized as lagging and prompted renewed commitments to Women and Peace and Security Resolutions 1820 (in 2008), 1889 (in 2009), and 1960 (in 2010). 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Min Max Number of women employed 494 2.346 9.027 0 150 Female business owner 499 0.208 0.407 0 1 International business owner 497 0.085 0.278 0 1 Manager spent time abroad 500 0.132 0.339 0 1 Manager’s level of education 500 3.840 1.321 1 7 Firm’s problems accessing finance 500 0.488 0.500 0 1 Water connection 497 0.566 0.496 0 1 Total employees 496 18.121 34.305 1 300 Agricultural sector 500 0.114 0.318 0 1 Financial sector 500 0.044 0.205 0 1 Metals sector 500 0.070 0.255 0 1 Consumer products and services 500 0.422 0.494 0 1 Industrial products and services 500 0.258 0.438 0 1 Textiles sector 500 0.090 0.286 0 1 Variable N Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Number of women employed 494 2.346 9.027 0 150 Female business owner 499 0.208 0.407 0 1 International business owner 497 0.085 0.278 0 1 Manager spent time abroad 500 0.132 0.339 0 1 Manager’s level of education 500 3.840 1.321 1 7 Firm’s problems accessing finance 500 0.488 0.500 0 1 Water connection 497 0.566 0.496 0 1 Total employees 496 18.121 34.305 1 300 Agricultural sector 500 0.114 0.318 0 1 Financial sector 500 0.044 0.205 0 1 Metals sector 500 0.070 0.255 0 1 Consumer products and services 500 0.422 0.494 0 1 Industrial products and services 500 0.258 0.438 0 1 Textiles sector 500 0.090 0.286 0 1 View Large Table A1 Summary statistics Variable N Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Number of women employed 494 2.346 9.027 0 150 Female business owner 499 0.208 0.407 0 1 International business owner 497 0.085 0.278 0 1 Manager spent time abroad 500 0.132 0.339 0 1 Manager’s level of education 500 3.840 1.321 1 7 Firm’s problems accessing finance 500 0.488 0.500 0 1 Water connection 497 0.566 0.496 0 1 Total employees 496 18.121 34.305 1 300 Agricultural sector 500 0.114 0.318 0 1 Financial sector 500 0.044 0.205 0 1 Metals sector 500 0.070 0.255 0 1 Consumer products and services 500 0.422 0.494 0 1 Industrial products and services 500 0.258 0.438 0 1 Textiles sector 500 0.090 0.286 0 1 Variable N Mean Std. Dev. Min Max Number of women employed 494 2.346 9.027 0 150 Female business owner 499 0.208 0.407 0 1 International business owner 497 0.085 0.278 0 1 Manager spent time abroad 500 0.132 0.339 0 1 Manager’s level of education 500 3.840 1.321 1 7 Firm’s problems accessing finance 500 0.488 0.500 0 1 Water connection 497 0.566 0.496 0 1 Total employees 496 18.121 34.305 1 300 Agricultural sector 500 0.114 0.318 0 1 Financial sector 500 0.044 0.205 0 1 Metals sector 500 0.070 0.255 0 1 Consumer products and services 500 0.422 0.494 0 1 Industrial products and services 500 0.258 0.438 0 1 Textiles sector 500 0.090 0.286 0 1 View Large © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. 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TI - Women’s Work in Fragile States: Evidence from a Firm-Level Dataset in Somaliland
JO - Social Politics
DO - 10.1093/sp/jxy037
DA - 2019-09-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/women-s-work-in-fragile-states-evidence-from-a-firm-level-dataset-in-75jttXxnc5
SP - 419
VL - 26
IS - 3
DP - DeepDyve
ER -