How Do Maternity Leave and Discriminatory Social Norms Relate to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries?

This paper explores the relationship between women’s employment, family policies and discriminatory social institutions. Specifically, the paper makes use of maternity leave policy and the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) to measure the extent of discriminatory social institutions that relate to women and girls’ roles in the family.

The paper finds that in countries where governments contribute to maternity leave, there is lower discrimination in the family, and that when governments contribute to maternity leave in countries with higher levels of discrimination, the effect on female employment is higher.