IntroductionAuthor(s): Cynthia NelsonSource: Signs, Vol. 3, No. 1, Women and National Development: The Complexities of Change(Autumn, 1977), pp. 241-243Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173095 .

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WOMEN, EDUCATION, AND LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION

Introduction

Cynthia Nelson

The fundamental conceptual link between the essays by de Miranda and Clignet is that economic development goes along with improved levels of education and training. Paradoxically, however, the upgrading of the labor force during the process of economic development is likely to threaten or constrain female participation. In different but related ways the two essays address this paradox by analyzing women's education and participation in the labor force in the developing societies of two major regions of the world: Brazil and West Africa. Specifically, they question the commonly held assumption of a positive correlation among "educa- tion," "women's labor force participation," and "development" by focus- ing on the concrete social, cultural, and historical factors which influence the level and form of labor and education of women in these two re- gions. Both essays demonstrate empirically that neither in Brazil nor in the Cameroun or Ivory Coast does economic development necessarily mean high levels of women's labor force participation nor participation at the same level of equality with men.

However, it is where these essays differ that provides their more interesting and valuable contribution. For these essays represent excel- lent examples of the various kinds of questions posed, the differential emphasis given to "determining factors," and the conclusions reached when one approaches a similar problem from the different theoretical perspectives of Marxist analysis (de Miranda) or structural/cultural analysis (Clignet). Now de Miranda describes Brazil in a process of "de- pendent capitalist development" which tends toward the marginalization of workers of both sexes, although it affects women more than men.

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242 Cynthia Nelson

Clignet, on the other hand, discusses the growing complexity of societal and cultural "modernizing structures" in the Cameroun and Ivory Coast which shape the currentpattern of sexual differentiation in urban education and employment. Both authors are concerned with the interplay of edu- cation and women's employment on development, but de Miranda places more emphasis on class structure in an analysis of female economic roles in Brazil over the past thirty years; Clignet places more emphasis on cultural models of sex roles, ethnic stereotyping, and per- ceived occupation alternatives. Thus table 7 in Clignet's essay em- phasizes how sexual and ethnic stereotypes interact with one another in influencing the fate of various types of wage earners, while table 9 of de Miranda's essay stresses how women of different social classes have dif- ferent occupational opportunities.1 Each author conceptualizes the principle of inequality quite differently, although they implicitly agree that women's participation at the same level of equality with men is a sine qua non for development.2

Both essays stress the significance of the colonial experience on the changing status of the indigenous female populations. For de Miranda, the colonial impact in Brazil led to the adoption of a particular model of development (dependent capitalism). She analyzes the transformations of the Brazilian women's labor force through a historical description of female economic roles under colonization. In the Cameroun and the Ivory Coast the colonial impact, according to Clignet, created divergent cultural models and stereotypes that compete with their local counter- parts in shaping current patterns of sexual differentiation. Differences in the particular colonial policies of the three countries affect the role played by women in the labor force.

Despite conceptual differences, both authors agree that as de- velopment increases women are concentrated in the tertiary sector. Clignet points out, however, that notwithstanding their shorter history of educational development, women in the Ivory Coast are proportion- ately more numerous in the tertiary sector than their Cameroun coun- terparts. De Miranda's data lead her to conclude that schooling is the most important factor that contributes to an increase in women's labor force participation. Indeed, both authors conclude paradoxically that economic development does not necessarily lead to higher levels of women's participation in the labor market. For de Miranda it is not the

1. Attention should be drawn to Gunnar Myrdal's cautionary note that "educational statistics are probably even less satisfactory than statistics in almost every other field perti- nent to underdevelopment" (The Challenge of World Poverty [New York: Vintage Books, 1970], p. 164).

2. Space does not allow for a critique of that unexamined assumption; however, see Cynthia Nelson and Virginia Olesen, "Veil of Illusion: Critique of the Concept Equality in Western Feminist Thought," in Catalyst, Critiques of Feminism (special issue), ed. Cynthia Nelson and Virginia Olesen (May 1977).

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Introduction: Education and Labor Force 243

process of industrialization per se that creates underemployment and marginalization but a type of industrialization based on and controlled by international, monopolistic finance capital and advanced technology with no prior fundamental changes in the economic structure. For Clig- net, the growing complexity of societal structures does not automatically imply a corresponding increase in the number of alternative choices made available to female adults.

This conclusion seems all the more paradoxical when we read the results of a recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and De- velopment report showing a female labor surge. The impact of the 1973-75 recession was less serious on women than men, according to Ken McLennan of Britain, head of the Social Affairs Division: "One reason for the surge of women into the ranks of workers might be that service industries which so heavily employ females are expanding, while agriculture and industry at the moment are not. But underlying this is a social economic change of the last ten to fifteen years-women now are behaving more like men as having a commitment to work. There has been a fundamental change in the behavior of women toward working."3 Em- ployment in the modern sector, then, requires not only formal training, but also a certain attitude which may best be described as the capacity to work regularly and attentively. Realistic and relevant research must analyze the distributional spread of education among districts, social classes, and the two sexes, and emphasize what is taught, with what intention, in what spirit, and with what effect. The contributions of de Miranda and Clignet are steps in that direction.

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology American University in Cairo

Cairo, Egypt

3. Egyptian Gazette (February 4, 1977).

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