Globalization And Female Labour Force Participation in South Africa

Abstract

Studies have argued that globalization promotes female labour force in developing countries. South Africa is endowed with large pool of female  labour and also intends to maximize the benefits of globalization. Previous studies on the nexus between globalization and female labour in South  Africa yielded confliction outcomes which calls for a reexamination. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of globalization on female labour  force participation in South Africa. Secondary data on the female labour participation rate, wage rate, per capita income, fertility rate and education  (female school enrolment) covering 1990 to 2021 were sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank while data on the globalization index was sourced from the KOF Swiss Economic Institute Data Base. This study is premised on the theory of the income-leisure model  which states that labour supply is directly related to wages and incomes where higher wages and income will lead to a less penchant for  leisure. This theory applies to women either as individuals or as members of households. Data collected were analyzed using econometrics  techniques of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The study finds that globalization does not promote female labour force  participation in South Africa but the share of economic prosperity, opportunities and real economic growth have a positive and significant impact on  female labour force participation. That is, per capita income promotes the female labour supply in South Africa. The study concludes that  globalization does not promote female labour force participation in South Africa.