Why Women are Self-Employed? Empirical Evidence from Pakistan


  •  Muhammad Zahir Faridi    
  •  Imran Sharif Chaudhry    
  •  Muhammad Shaukat Malik    

Abstract

In developing economies like Pakistan, the rising trend of women’s labor participation has become the core indicator of growth and development. In this respect, the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) relates to efficiency and equity, especially elimination of gender disparities in education, improvement of maternal health, lessening mortality rate among children and women empowerment are desirable goals. But still the representation of women in wage as well as in the self-employment sector is very low. The present study investigates the factors which influence women’s participation in self-employment. Primary source of data is used for empirical analysis. Logistic regression technique is employed to estimate the women self-employment model. The findings indicate that age and experience positively affects women’s self-employment. Further, it is concluded that education, location and number of dependents significantly reduce the women’s work participation as self-employed worker. It is suggested that the government provide technical and vocational education to the women, and also give old age benefits just to minimize the dependency burden.



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