Unmet Need for the Utilization of Women’s Labor: Findings from Three Impoverished Communities in Outer Beirut

Marwan Khawaja, American University of Beirut
Rozette Jurdi, University of Western Ontario
Shireen Assaf, American University of Beirut

This paper examines cause-specific labor force non-participation among women living in three impoverished communities in the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon. It uses an expanded labor force utilization framework, separating the socially discouraged from other labor non-participants. This study is based on data from a 2699 households, carried out in 2002. A multinomial logit model is then fitted to the data in order to uncover the impact of individual and household characteristics on the socially discouraged group as well as women labor force participation. The focus is on covariates pertaining to both women and their spouses, but several human-capital, demographic and socio-economic factors are also included. Our findings overall indicate a strong influence of social and demographic factors on discouragement. These include residence, marital status, households with children and experience. Surprisingly, education of head and women, presence of children and income have no noticeable influence on social discouragement.