Wage Work for Women: The Menstrual Cycle and the Power of Water

22 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2010

See all articles by Yasheng Maimaiti

Yasheng Maimaiti

University of Birmingham

Stanley Siebert

Business School, University of Birmingham; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)

Abstract

We hypothesise that women's participation in wage (off-farm) work is reduced when their greater water needs due to the menstrual cycle are not met because their household has poor access to water. For testing, we use the data from rural villages in China. Controlling for village fixed effects, poor access to water is found to decrease the probability of wage work participation of affected (pre-menopause) women by about 10 percentage points, a large effect. As expected, there is no adverse causal impact of poor household access to water for women post-menopause, or for men, ceteris paribus.

Keywords: wage work, women, menopause, water engineering, rural development, China

JEL Classification: J16, J21, O15

Suggested Citation

Maimaiti, Yasheng and Siebert, Stanley, Wage Work for Women: The Menstrual Cycle and the Power of Water. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4776, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1560903 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1560903

Yasheng Maimaiti (Contact Author)

University of Birmingham ( email )

Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom

Stanley Siebert

Business School, University of Birmingham ( email )

Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT
United Kingdom
(44) 1214146698 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) ( email )

2 Lord North Street, Westminster
London, SW1P 3LB
United Kingdom

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