Addressing Gender Gaps in the Ugandan Labour Market
2017
Kasirye, Ibrahim
Four out of every five women in Uganda are employed in agriculture, according to the 2008 Gender and Productivity Survey(GPS) in Uganda (EPRC, 2009); and 42 percent of women in the labour force are unpaid family workers—receiving no incomedespite contributing the largest proportion of the agricultural labour. Gender discrimination in the labour market is a pervasiveeconomic problem in developing countries.1 Discrimination based on sex can take many forms in the labour market—from restrictedaccess to certain sectors of employment—to differential pay by gender. As earlier noted, whereas 42 percent of womenin Uganda are unpaid family workers, the corresponding rate for men is only 16 percent according to the 2008 GPS. Furthermore,the 2008 GPS shows that in the private sector, women in Uganda receive on average lower pay than men. Gender gaps in thelabour market do not only lead to reduced incomes for women but also affects the status of women within society. Nevertheless,gender norms continue to dictate what a woman can and cannot do in Uganda and whether she can work outside her maritalhome. This environment has ensured that female exploitation in the labour market persists. As such, there is a need to addressgender equity in labour market in Uganda—especially as the country attempts to attain the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs).
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