Ensure childcare at workplaces, paid maternity leave for mothers

During the 1993–2018 period, for each child under six, the percentage of a married mother having a job dropped by six percent, according to a study by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

The study was conducted on married mothers aged between 15 and 49.

The impact was significant on urban women, who are mostly engaged in non-farming activities or employment outside the home, and jobs that are more challenging to carry on alongside childcare activities, said the study.

It suggested the need for public and private investment in paid maternity leave, childcare facilities in workplaces, and daycare centres to boost female employment, particularly in urban areas.

The study, titled "Fertility and Female Employment in Bangladesh," was jointly conducted by BIDS research director Kazi Iqbal and research officer Kazi Zubair Hossain.

Zubair yesterday presented the study during the Dhaka Winter Conference in Economics 2023, jointly organised by the Bangladesh Economics Research Network, Association for Economic and Development Studies on Bangladesh, and BIDS, at BIDS's conference room in the capital's Agargaon.

The study examined the causal impact of having children under six on female employment in Bangladesh using six rounds of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) spanning from 1993 to 2018. Female occupations were categorised into farming and non-farming.

"During the 1993-2018 period, for each child under six, the probability of 15-49-year-old married mothers working in the non-farming sector dropped by five percent," said Zubair.

"For women living in urban areas, the probability decreased by 8.3 percent when we studied the impact by categorising the samples into urban and rural, he added.

"Balancing work and taking care of children requires time. Any effort to support women in raising children can give them more time to focus on their career goals," Zubair said.