ENTRY VERSUS SUCCESS IN THE LABOR-FORCE - YOUNG WOMENS EMPLOYMENT IN SRI-LANKA

In this paper, we contribute to the understanding of women's labor for ce behavior in developing societies through a household-level analysis of young, single women in Sri Lanka We argue that in the context of s aturated and imperfect labor markets of Asian societies such as Sri La nka, it is important to: (a) differentiate between labor force partici pation and employment, (b) consider familial and cultural factors in a ddition to the standard determinants of labor supply and demand, and ( c) examine the labor force activity of the current generation of singl e women. In Sri Lanka, where unemployment among young women is widespr ead, our results strongly support the strategy of differentiating betw een labor force participation and employment. That the determinants of these components of the employment process function in different ways is best illustrated by our findings regarding the effects of educatio n: higher education levels lead to greater labor force participation, but highly educated women are also more likely to be unemployed than t o be employed. In addition, our findings show that the labor market be havior of young women is shaped by familial expectations and resources in terms of the protected role of young daughters in the household, c ultural differences in the acceptability of young women working across ethnic groups, the necessity for women to work across social classes, and class-based advantages in access to information and channels that facilitate job acquisition. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.