Position of Women
104
Table 10.4 Selected development indicators, by sex, residence and related gender gap
a
Indicator Sex, residence
Female Male
Gender gap Urban
Rural Kuchi
National Urban
Rural Kuchi
National Urban
Rural Kuchi
National
a. Labour force indicators
Labour force participation rate 19
54 64
47 79
87 92
86 24
61 70
54 Employment-to-population ratio
16 50
61 43
72 82
88 80
22 61
70 54
Unemployment rate 18
7 5
7 9
7 4
7 201
100 106
108 Share in wage employment in the
non-agricultural sector 13
5 4
8 87
95 96
92 15
6 4
9 Proportion of own-account and
contributing family workers in total employment 70
97 98
95 57
69 84
67 123
142 117
141 Share of working children among all children
aged 6-17 4
17 27
15 13
29 44
26 34
60 62
57 Share of child labour among all children
aged 6-17 3
10 19
9 9
18 31
17 30
58 59
54
b. Education indicators
Literacy rate of population 15 years and older 33
7 3
12 62
35 14
39 54
20 19
32 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds
52 15
6 24
74 49
16 53
71 31
39 45
Net enrolment ratio in primary education 68
38 12
42 77
60 22
60 88
64 55
70 Ratio of girls to boys in primary education
n.a. n.a.
n.a. n.a.
n.a. n.a.
n.a. n.a.
88 63
53 69
Ratio of girls to boys in secondary education n.a.
n.a. n.a.
n.a. n.a.
n.a. n.a.
n.a. 71
32 58
49
c. Indicators of community representation
Percentage of communities with representatation in Shuras
20 20
12 20
50 57
68 56
40 35
17 35
Percentage of communities with representatation in CDCs
11 41
16 37
19 68
27 61
57 61
61 60
a
The gender gap is calculated as the ratio between the female and male indicator multiplied by 100.
Generally, early marriage and associated early births have been a major cause of rapid population growth, high maternal mortality, inability of girls to finish education, additional constraints to women’s mobility and participation, and escalation
of demands for public investments on social services. Fortunately, very early marriage appears to decline, as the percentage of women who were married before age 15 declined from 11 percent among women who are now 30-34
years old to 3 percent for the currently 15-20 year olds Section 3.3.2. A somewhat smaller decline is suggested for the share of those who were married before age 18.
The average spousal age gap has also narrowed down to five years among younger couples, compared to eight years among older couples. The large age gap between spouses and male casualties during the three decades of war contribute
to a greater number of women than men that have become widowed at age 40-64 3 percent for men and 19 percent for women and beyond 64 years 17 and 61 percent, respectively. There are over half a million widows, who can largely
be classified as being in vulnerable position, along with 70 thousand female heads of households. Sharp focus on these groups of women and their families is needed in implementing the PRSP.
Women are much less predisposed to migration, as men represent the large majority migrants Section 3.5.1. This especially applies to international migration. Women tend to migrate relatively more from rural to rural areas, probably
due to marriage rather than to employment. Overall, female migrants are more likely to be economically inactive. These data indicate persistent cultural restrictions to women’s mobility and highlight the dearth of economic opportunities for
women in the country. Given, however, that youth represents a huge percentage of the country’s population and that migration appears to be especially attractive among them, programmes for the youth, especially female youth, may be
implemented to promote trainingjob-related migration as a group. As unstable security situations may be reinforcing female constraints to migration, the identification of ‘peace zones’ that could be classified as safe locations for women’s
in-country migration, may also be explored.
Position of Women
105
10.3.2 Women on the labour market
Women’s participation in economic activities continues to be very low. Many factors bear down upon women’s quest for economic productivity, including restrictions to mobility, reproductive responsibilities, limited economic opportunities, and
open or covert preference for males on the labour market. Although the overall labour force participation of 67 percent in Afghanistan is high compared to the region of South
Asia and the world at large, the gender gap in Afghanistan remains huge, given that only 47 percent of the working
age females are currently active on the labour market Section 4.2. This is only little over half 54 percent of
the 86 percent labour force participation rate of males see Table 10.4. The gender ratio is larger in the rural
and Kuchi populations respectively, 61 and 70 percent, due to female engagement in agricultural and pastoral
activities. In urban areas, the gender ratio is as small as 24 percent because of the very low female labour force
participation of only 21 percent.
The gender pattern for the employment-to-population ratio is almost exactly the same as for the labour force participation rate, reflecting large differences between women and men. However, in terms of unemployment the gender gap is
very small. Nationally, unemployment for women and men is around 7 percent, but that of urban women 18 percent is twice as high as male urban unemployment. This may indicate a strong desire for women to work on one hand and
restrictions to women’s access to the labour market on the other. Education, which is supposed to open the gate for women’s active involvement in the labour market, does not seem to help, as data show a significantly higher percentage
of educated women than educated men who are unemployed 18 and 8 percent, respectively. Greater incidence of female unemployment was also consistently noted among youth under age 25 15 percent for females and 10 percent
for males and among literates 16 percent for females and 7 percent for males. Apparently, the Afghan labour market provides difficult access to new entrants and educated women, implying a serious wastage of human resources.
Given the under-representation of women on the labour market, most industries are predictably dominated ranging from 74 to 99 percent by males. The only sector with large female representation 44 percent is agriculture and livestock,
while manufacturing has overall a 70 percent majority of women in largely home-based crafts industries among Kuchis even as high as 95 percent. This pattern does not hold true for urban areas where there is almost gender parity in
education and manufacturing sectors 49 and 48 percent women, respectively and more women than men are engaged in the agriculture and livestock industry.
The share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector MDG-3.2 is only 8 percent, indicating a serious disadvantage in securing paid jobs. Overall, 95 percent of working women work as own-account or family workers MDG-
1.7, against 67 percent of men. Thus, employed women have a 41 percent greater likelihood of being in vulnerable employment, characterised by informal work arrangements, insecure jobs, low productivity, and unstable and inadequate
earnings. As employed women also work fewer hours than men, Afghan women face a cumulative disadvantage on the labour market: fewer work, for less hours and in less secure jobs.
There are around two million working children in the age group 6 to 17 Section 4.4. The working incidence for girls is consistently lower at around 60 percent of that of boys, except for urban areas where it is even lower and the gap is
increasing with age. Overall, at least 13 percent of children in age 6-17 are specifically involved in child labor, which is internationally considered to be unfavorable for their health and development. This corresponds to around 1.2 million
children, of which close to 800 thousand are boys and 400 thousand are girls. Around 73 percent of girls work inside the dwelling compared to 25 percent of boys. The corresponding figure for work on the land is 18 percent for girls and
47 percent for boys. Confinement to home-based work is even higher among urban girls at 90 percent of the total. The adverse impacts of work to the children’s educational development, appears to be more serious for boys than girls.
Labour migration is almost an exclusively male phenomenon representing 94 percent of all in-migrants Section 4.5, confirming that economic opportunities are not a primary motivating factor for internal migration of females.
Measurement of the gender gap
In order to indicate gender inequality consistently throughout this section, the gender gap is calculated as the ratio between a female
development indicator and the corresponding male indicator multiplied by 100. A result of 100 would indicate perfect equality; a
figure of less than 100 would indicate that women’s or girls’ score on the development indicator is less than the corresponding boys’
or men’s indicator, expressed as a percentage of the latter.
