Papers > By author > Lopez-Rodriguez Patricia

Women face restrictions of time and resources, they have to dedicate time to caring for children, caring for the elderly, caring for the sick, and dedicate time to find resources to cover expenses and emergencies. The lack of instruments and resources to meet their care and economic needs limits their incorporation into the labour market and their participation in continuous eight-hour work days, as well as their permanence in the formal labour market.

An explanation for the low participation of women in the labour market refers to the economic costs and the restriction of time they face to enter the labour market (Cogan 1977, 1981, Grossbard 2005, Heckman 1988) and the care needs that women have of their children and / or family, mainly elderly or sick people (Apps et al., 2012).

Resources availability and home responsibilities are two ways in which social roles shape the participation of women in the labour market. Men are much more likely to devote their free time to sports activities and recreation. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to do voluntary work related to health, social services and the education of their children. Women spend much more time with their children and dedicate more time to their care as well as general home care, they also use more time to caring for the elderly and the sick. The decision about whether to participate or not and where to participate depends on the resources women have and their available time to devote to those activities. The patterns of women's occupation, the need to combine work and family responsibilities, as well as the lack of financial resources affect women participation in the labour market (Gidengil and O'Neill 2006).

The lack of financial inclusion of women represents another barrier to their incorporation or permanence in the labour market (Demirgüç-Kunt, Klapper and Singer 2013), which also affects their sources of credit and savings to face contingent events or have investment opportunities in productive activities. The evidence suggests that the increase in the proportion of domestic income controlled by women, through their own income or financing sources, changes the destination of household spending, benefiting more children, the elderly and women. Unfortunately, women tend to have less access to financial institutions and secure sources of savings, which creates uncertainty and instability to invest or solve contingent problems.

This study uses the theoretical framework of care economy (Folbre 2006, Sen 2001). The informal networks that women use for care needs and the collective actions that enhance their social participation are used as proxies for social capital. An ordered probit regression model was estimated to analyze the effect of women's' social capital on the probability that they can be working and work more than the regulatory hours (8 hours per day), considering women financial and care needs. A Heckman model was estimated to correct the problem of self-selection. Data were used at the individual (MCS, 2014) and municipal level of Mexican Surveys 2015, as well as the Mexican Survey of Financial Inclusion 2012 (ENIF). The results show that when women use their social capital to find work they are more likely to work a schedule of around 40 hours in a week. Additionally, we found that when women's care needs are met, they are more likely to work more hours, and when they have more financial resources the likelihood of being working is higher.