Unemployment and discrimination in Cote D'Ivoire: A Gender Analysis

• Author: Akaffou KoffiKaudjis Agnes - Kouassi Patrick Franklin
• Position: University Alassane Ouatt ara of Bouaké - Ecole Supérieure Africaine des TIC
• Pages: 9-28

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

Vol. 3 No. 1

January, 2019

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

9

Unemployment and discrimination in Cote D’Ivoire:

A Gender Analysis

Dr. Aka ou Ko Kaudjis Agnes (Ms YAO)

University Alassane Oua ara of Bouaké

Dr. Kouassi Patrick Franklin

Ecole Supérieure Africaine des TIC

Abstract

Are Women really discriminated in the Côte d’Ivoire’s labour market? Accordingly, di erent

variables that may help be er understanding women’s discrimination among job seekers have

been determined making use of data concerning 1.204 unemployed persons, on which both

pre-discrimination and discrimination analyses are based. Pre-discrimination’s determinants

are assessed with the unemployed data. The vulnerability and un-employability rates are

computed and unemployment duration econometric models are built. The results show that

women are e ectively discriminated. The nature of the constraints faced by women for f‌i nding

jobs reveals the prevalence of pre-discrimination. The literature’s survey refers to two economic

theories, Human Capital and Market Segmentation that contribute to a be er understanding

of discrimination towards women. It comes out that the more signif‌i cant variables for women

entry on the job’s market are those of market segmentation.

Keywords: gender, unemployment, pre-discrimination, human capital, market segmentation.

Introduction

Job search is a test for every human being (Remillon D., 2006). It is a period full

of uncertainties concerning research methods, promising sectors, as well as the

future, f‌i nancial means, etc. The longer this period, the more the conf‌i dence of the

unemployed is eroded and its employability is a ected. Job search methods are

therefore not well known to all. This uncertainty is much more radical than assumed

by job search models. There are diculties in evaluating the unemployment test

because there are selection barriers using CVs such as: the lack of recognized diplomas

and the barrier of age. In addition, the job search methods used by the unemployed

are of several kinds. They are classif‌ied into three main groups of procedures:

market procedures, the use of institutional intermediaries and the social network.

First, market procedures are spontaneous applications and classif‌i eds. They involve

direct contact with potential employers when submi ing the application. Secondly,

the use of institutional intermediaries concerns organizations specializing in labour

market intervention, such as State structures, temporary employment agencies

and recruitment agencies. To these, local institutions are added, whose primary

vocation is not to act on the labour market. These are the municipalities, the consular

organizations, the associations of the social f‌i eld (local missions ...). Finally, the social

Vol. 3 No. 1

January, 2019

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

10

network is none other than the use of personal relationships (family, friends) and

professional.

Theoretically, three approaches are used to deal with discrimination in the labour

market. The f‌i rst assumes that there is a "taste" for discriminating between economic

actors, which is ref‌l ected in the "displeasure" behaviour of an individual in contact

with another being part of one or other Groups of people. The second, called interest-

based discrimination, introduces the notion of monetary gains that a discriminatory

person expects. Finally, the la er, called statistical discrimination, presupposes an

imperfect (or even insu cient) information environment on the economic qualities

of workers. Thus, by referring to the di erentiation of economic opportunities and

remuneration among comparable individuals in terms of productivity, discrimination

can have eects throughout a person's life cycle (Aka ou K., 2017). This explains the

distinction between pre-discrimination and market discrimination.

According to the clear and operational def‌inition of Arrow, the inclusion of

discrimination as an economic fact induces three remarks. First, it must be identif‌i ed

by measurable factors in the labour market. Second, as a collective phenomenon, only

systematic di erences which do not vanish within large groups should be considered

as market discrimination. Finally, any dierential resulting from an average

di erence in productivity of groups is naturally imputed to pre-discrimination; as for

di erentials a ributed, for example, to sex or race, to constant productivity, they can

be a ributed to market discrimination (Combarnous F., 1994). Thus, using the data

collected and by means of an econometric analysis, it focuses on the determinants

of the pre-discrimination of women in Côte d'Ivoire, notably in Abidjan. Through

factors common to most of the data collected for this paper, the ref‌l ections conducted

are subdivided into two sections. The f‌i rst deals with models related to job search.

The second focuses on the determinants of women's discrimination in the Ivorian

labour market. Before doing these, it appears important to deal with the problem

statement and the methodology.

1. Problem statement

Discrimination is def‌i ned by the ILO in Convention No. 111 as "any distinction,

exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national

extraction, social origin ..." (BIT, 2003: 25). In practice, it consists of di erentiating

the elements of a set by means of one or more criteria, in order to apply a specif‌i c

treatment to each subset thus constituted. Socially, it is the fact of di erentiating a

group of people from others and applying to it a specif‌i c treatment, without objective

link with the criterion used to distinguish it.

The combination of policies and actions for women has resulted in a relative

improvement in the situation of women, in relation to what was previously the case in

Côte d'Ivoire. Women have greater access to education, training and participation in

the labour market. Indeed, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics

(INS) in 2002, their occupancy rate was 83.65% against 89.04% for men. However, major

obstacles to women's access to employment persist despite progress in integrating

them into the economic development of Côte d'Ivoire. Moreover, according to the