The Factors Affecting Women's Labor Force Participation in Tehran

One of the most important and effective factors in development is the maximum participation of men and women in labor force. Women, as half of the potential labor force in any society, can accelerate the trend of economic growth and development through their contribution to economic activities. The present paper studies the effect of demographic, social, and economic variables on women’s labor force participation, using 2% sample data from the 2006 Census of Tehran. After reviewing theoretical and experimental literature, the most effective variables (with regard to the available data) in women’s participation were identified. After conducting the bivariate analysis, the final analysis was performed using the logistic regression. The results of the research demonstrated that divorced and never-married women in Tehran had higher labor force participation than married women or widows. Fertility rate had a negative effect on women’s labor force participation. In other words, women without children had higher labor force participation than those with children. Also, education level was another effective variable with a positive effect on with women’s labor force participation in Tehran. Moreover, family economic status had a significant effect on the level of participation. In other words, women in low-income families had higher labor force participation than those in high-income families. The results of logistic regression, with control for age, showed that the effect of variables in all models on the activity of women of all ages was statistically significant at the level of 99%. Education level, with control for other variables, was the most effective variable on the activity of all women, except those aged 20-34 years; while marital status, with control for other factors, was the most effective variable for women aged 20-34 years. The identification level of models according to the related independent variables was identified to be high and the predictability rate of models was more than 80%. All the four analyzed variables, therefore, had high effects on women’s labor force participation. In general, it can be concluded that the level of education not only had direct effect on women’s participation, but also indirectly increased it through affecting marital status (increasing age at marriage and divorce rate) as well as reducing the level of fertility. Therefore, these variables, along with others, affect the decision of women to join labor force.