The power to choose: women and labour market decisions in Mauritius

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse female decisions to enter the labour market. Using household survey data for Mauritius from 2006 to 2008, we investigate the factors that encourage and also deter women from entering the labour market. Our findings corroborate with previous evidence for developing countries and indicate that the greater a woman’s educational level, the greater her participation; and that older woman participates more, though the rate of growth of this effect decreases. In addition, secondary education proves to be a significant determinant of female labour participation rate in Mauritius. Our results also reveal that married women are less likely to enter the labour force. In fact marital status is one of the most important factors averting them from work.