Female employment in colombian cities: A descriptive statistical method

Abstract

The objective is to construct a methodology to measure the gender gap in “full and decent employment” and to break it down statistically according to factors that reflect the structure of the labor market and the productive structure of cities. The methodology is applied to 23 Colombian cities. According to the labor structure, the gender gap in full and decent employment is due to differences in labor participation and in the formality of employment, rather than to differences between men and women in unemployment or in the dedication to formal employment. According to the productive structure, the orientation by sex and the composition of sectoral employment in cities have a modest influence on the differences between cities in the generation of full and decent female employment, since these result mainly from differences in the generation capacity of formal employment for both sexes. The methodology is also used to analyze changes over time.