Annotated Bibliography
Taylor Lamson
How Agriculture Affects the Gender Wage Gap
Bigler, C., Amacker, M., Ingabire, C., & Birachi, E. (2017, September). Rwanda’s gendered agricultural transformation: A mixed-method study on the rural labour market, wage gap, and care penalty. In Women’s Studies International Forum (Vol. 64, pp. 17-27). Pergamon. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2017.08.004
- Type of article: Original empirical research
- Research question/objective: The researchers wanted to look at how a new agriculture-based production system would change the rural labor market and possibly alter the wage gap
- Data: Qualitative data was gathered first in the form of interviews with political figures, leaders/members of cooperatives, and people from various employment categories (using a sample size). The second part of the data was a questionnaire.
- Conceptualization: The “feminization of poverty” concludes that women and children are more often subject to poverty than men given a lack of opportunity and a gender-based decrease in wages.
- Results: Wage employment is typically generated for those in on-field agricultural work. Women make roughly 20% less than men, partially due to their larger role in reproductive work, creating a lack of paid opportunities for them.
Notes: I chose this article because it had a bigger focus on how reproduction affects the gender wage gap. I’ve found a number of articles that focus on the raising a child and how that affects the gender wage gap, but this one had a stronger focus on reproduction rather than care.
Molina Tejerina, O. J., & Bobka Calcina, S. (2016). International trade and unexplained gender wage gaps: Evidence for agricultural sector in Bolivia. Investigación & Desarrollo, 2(16), 45-67. DOI: 10.23881/idupbo.016.2-4e
- Type of article: Theoretical/argument article.
- Research question/objective: The researcher claims that the wage gap exists purely due to personal/societal discrimination. Because of international trade, local businesses will face more competition–this should lead to more opportunities for women because men will not accept these wages without them being increased. Local businesses will not be able to afford personal discrimination because of increased international competition.
- Data: Productivity
- Conceptualization: Tradeability degree is defined here as how much trade exists between one area and those outside of it–higher levels of trade mean a higher tradeability degree.
- Results: Trade openness does not reduce the unexplained wage gap found by previous research. The agricultural market shows different results than others in the economy, leading to the idea that it is an imperfect market.
Notes: This one gave me some trouble and I can’t tell if it’s due to the article type or if the wording just didn’t make sense to me. When I realized I had found an article that wasn’t original empirical research I thought it would be great to try to diversify my article types a little and see if that added anything to this project/my knowledge, but I think I ended up more confused than anything. The reason I chose this article though was actually because I disagreed with its general hypothesis (or with the wording, at least.) I think it’s too generalizing to say that the gender wage gap exists based purely on personal discrimination without investigating the other factors that contribute to it (such as child-raising expectations, etc.) When I do research, I generally try to find different viewpoints to diversify my knowledge and help me avoid confirmation bias. I’m…not sure this one did anything for that. I think this could possibly be attributed to the idea that “correlation does not equal causation” in that there are likely other factors at play here besides personal preference.
Pannilage, U. (2017). A socio-economic analysis on the gender wage gap among agricultural laborers in rural Sri Lanka. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS), 30(1), 338-350.
- Type of article: Original empirical research
- Research question/objective: The research here looks at how the gender wage gap is affected by the development of a country. A questionnaire, along with interviews, was used to gather this information. Examined here is the difference in wages by gender, the possible causes, and the impact of this difference in living situation.
- Data: A structured survey was used to gather data from a sample made up almost entirely of day laborers. This survey was conducted across the four main agricultural sectors of Sri Lanka.
- Conceptualization: The informal sector describes economic activity that is typically more unregulated and flexible than its formal counterpart.
- Results: A significant gap was found in the Southern Dry Zone with no clear increase or decrease patterns. Other variables–such as age or education level–were determined NOT to be the cause of this wage gap. However, the behavioral patterns of women and societal views contributed to this result. It was also concluded that this has a negative impact on the participants’ living situations.
Notes: I chose this article because it was clear, concise, and to the point. It did the work of making sure that the results gathered here were not due to outside factors, but did present some of the factors contributing to this result. I also liked that it looked at how living standards would be affected by the gender wage gap, but I wish it had gone into more detail about how these standards were negatively affected.
Mahajan, K., & Ramaswami, B. (2017). Caste, female labor supply, and the gender wage gap in India: Boserup revisited. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 65(2), 339-378.
- Type of article: Review article
- Research question/objective: Examines and tests Boserup’s theory that increased female labor workers have paradoxically resulted in larger wage gaps in areas that are more favorable for women.
- Data: Tested correlation between gender wage ratio and women’s labor time in agriculture. To work with Boserup’s hypothesis, a lack of women laborers would have to disproportionately affect women’s wages, as men and women are predicted to do different agricultural jobs. Data from this set is gathered from a previous Employment and Unemployment survey.
- Conceptualization: N/A
- Results: There is a significant positive association between agricultural female employment and the proportion of lower-caste households. The results also show that male and female laborers are replacements in agriculture, but not perfectly. These results support the Boserup hypothesis, but there were other factors at play as well.
Notes: This one also gave me some trouble (maybe original empirical research is just easiest for an annotated bibliography), but I chose it because of the interesting dynamic of the Indian caste system and how that plays into the agricultural wage gap. The gender wage gap has been shown to be society-driven, as is the caste system.
Bui, M. T. T., & Permpoonwiwat, C. K. (2015). Gender wage inequality in Thailand: A sectoral perspective. The Journal of Behavioral Science, 10(2), 19-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14456/ijbs.2015.40
- Type of article: Original empirical research
- Research question/objective: Looking at why the gender wage gap in Thailand exists and why it increased sharply in 2013. The hypothesis is that gender discrimination overall will decrease when the wage gap narrows.
- Data: Micro survey data was used for this research, taken from the quarterly/monthly Labor Force Survey that has been taken since 1996. Human capital variables like education and experience were also covered by this study. Restrictions in the study are people who work for pay and are between the ages of 15 and 60.
- Conceptualization: Industry structure is used in this to mean what composes industry, its components, and how it has developed over time.
- Results: Overall, the gender wage gap in Thailand has decreased over time, though women should be earning more overall based on their human capital characteristics. The researcher’s hypothesis was not validated.
Notes: This article was chosen in part because of the 17 years of data that was used in this study. The more data acquired, (generally) the higher the accuracy of the results. I wasn’t aware that the hypothesis was not validated either when I chose this, but it’s great to see an article that still presents interesting research results without the researcher’s hypothesis being “correct.” It’s another way to help avoid confirmation bias without having to disregard research.
https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/IJBS/article/view/37551/pdf_22
http://scielo.org.bo/pdf/riyd/v2n16/v1n16_a05.pdf
https://www.asrjetsjournal.org/index.php/American_Scientific_Journal/article/view/2867/1114
