Determinants of female labor force participation: implications for policy in Qatar

Figures & data

Table 1. Profiles of the respondents by gender and employment status

Demographics Variables	Males			Females			Total
	Working	Not working	P-value	Working	Not working	P-value	Working	Not working	P-value
	No. (%)	No. (%)		No. (%)	No. (%)		No. (%)	No. (%)
Age Group
18–29	87 (32.95)	39 (55.13)	0.0000	46 (30.18)	93 (51.72)	0.0000	133 (31.93)	132 (52.7)	0.0000
30–39	76 (28.83)	3 (3.248)		58 (33.92)	26 (12.89)		134 (30.69)	29 (10.13)
40–49	49 (19.39)	4 (4.565)		39 (24.12)	19 (9.727)		88 (21.12)	23 (8.247)
50 +	35 (18.83)	21 (37.06)		15 (11.77)	44 (25.66)		50 (16.25)	65 (28.93)
Marital Status
Never married	72 (24.47)	36 (50.27)	0.0001	47 (24.5)	75 (38.26)	0.0064	119 (24.48)	111 (41.69)	0.0000
Ever married	175 (75.53)	31 (49.73)		111 (75.5)	108 (61.74)		286 (75.52)	139 (58.31)
Number of Children
0–1	32 (19.2)	5 (14.81)	0.3805	21 (20.49)	26 (25.79)	0.0176	53 (19.68)	31 (23.1)	0.0200
2–3	54 (29.6)	7 (25.04)		40 (36.1)	20 (18.57)		94 (31.99)	27 (20.16)
4–5	53 (29.97)	8 (24.17)		33 (27.53)	30 (26.93)		86 (29.07)	38 (26.25)
≥6	35 (21.23)	11 (35.98)		17 (15.88)	31 (28.7)		52 (19.26)	42 (30.49)
Education Level
Vocation or less	33 (16.13)	17 (27.94)	0.0455	9 (6.46)	44 (25.72)	0.0000	42 (12.58)	61 (26.35)	0.0000
Secondary/ diploma	112 (44.91)	33 (47.15)		58 (35.51)	98 (52.47)		170 (41.45)	131 (50.97)
University/ Graduate	102 (38.97)	16 (24.91)		92 (58.03)	41 (21.81)		194 (45.97)	57 (22.68)
Monthly Income (in US Dollars)
<$14,000	102 (45.57)	24 (42.00)	0.6314	70 (48.12)	78 (48.94)	0.8894	172 (46.5)	102 (46.94)	0.9196
≥$14,000	131 (54.43)	36 (58.00)		78 (51.88)	85 (51.06)		209 (53.5)	121 (53.06)

*Percentages are weighted to the population; frequencies are not.

Table 2. Conceptual model: FLFP indicators

Items	Statements
Support FLFP	Women should be allowed to work outside the home if they wish.
	(2) I would support my own daughter/ wife working outside the home if she wished.
	(3) A woman working outside the home is sure to cause problems.
Societal obstacles	(1) Fear that others will view the woman/family negatively
	(2) Fear that it will become more difficult to get married
Work obstacles	(1) Lack of available jobs
	(2) Low wages compared to men
	(3) Inflexible working hours
	(4) Insufficient educational qualifications
	(5) Lack of agreement from family
Policies	(1) To what extent would you support or not support a law in Qatar that guarantees a certain proportion of places for women in the government?
	(2) To what extent would you support or oppose a law in Qatar that guarantees a certain proportion of executive positions in the public and private sector for women?
	(3) To what extent would you support or not support a law in Qatar that promotes equal salaries for men and women working in the same position?

Table 3. KMO and Bartlett tests

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling
KMO	0.634
Bartlett test of sphericity
Chi-square	491.18
Degrees of freedom	21
p-value	0.000

Table 4. Total variance explained

Factor	Eigenvalue	Difference	Proportion	Cumulative
Factor1	1.75407	0.63225	0.2506	0.2506
Factor2	1.12182	0.13266	0.1603	0.4108
Factor3	0.98916	0.07736	0.1413	0.5521
Factor4	0.9118	0.07885	0.1303	0.6824
Factor5	0.83295	0.08285	0.119	0.8014
Factor6	0.7501	0.11001	0.1072	0.9086
Factor7	0.6401	.	0.0914	1

Table 5. Rotated factor loading

Variable	Factor1	Factor2
Lack of available jobs		0.6634
Low wages compared to men		0.4384
Inflexible working hours		0.4626
Insufficient educational qualifications		0.6491
Lack of agreement from family		0.3815
Fear that others will view the woman/family negatively	0.8015
Fear that it will become more difficult to get married	0.7939

Table 6. Logistic regression for the labor market in Qatar

Demographics Variables		Model 1Male			Model 2Female
		OR	95% CI	P-value	OR	95% CI	P-value
Age Group	18–29	Ref
	30–39	6.35	(1.64–24.63)	0.008	3.14	(1.52–6.48)	0.002
	40–49	3.9	(0.92–16.55)	0.065	3.16	(1.34–7.46)	0.009
	50 +	0.41	(0.15–1.13)	0.084	0.67	(0.26–1.69)	0.390
Marital Status	Never married	Ref
	Ever married	3.28	(1.38–7.81)	0.007	1.29	(0.69–2.39)	0.419
Education Level	Secondary or less	Ref
	Diploma or less	1.68	(0.65–4.38)	0.285	2.35	(0.87–6.33)	0.090
	University/ Graduate	1.83	(0.66–5.11)	0.245	8.9	(3.21–24.64)	0.000
Monthly Income (in US Dollars)	<$14,000	Ref
	≥$14,000	0.9	(0.44–1.85)	0.781	0.71	(0.39–1.31)	0.272
Support FLFP		1.01	(0.61–1.68)	0.957	0.8	(0.4–1.6)	0.531
Society obstacle		1.22	(0.85–1.76)	0.289	0.62	(0.44–0.87)	0.006
Work obstacle		1.21	(0.69–2.1)	0.504	1.31	(0.84–2.05)	0.234
Policies		0.94	(0.64–1.38)	0.74	0.86	(0.61–1.2)	0.374

Table 1. Attitudes toward FLFP by gender and work status

Statement	Male		Female
	Working	Not working	Working	Not working
Women should be allowed to work outside the home if they wish.
Strongly agree	61.1	48.9	85.1	84.4
Somewhat agree	32.4	42.6	13.7	13.4
Somewhat disagree	3.0	3.2	1.2	0.7
Strongly disagree	3.6	5.4	0.0	1.5
I would support my own daughter/ wife working outside the home if she wished
Strongly agree	54.6	50.3	83.9	82.5
Somewhat agree	26.2	39.0	14.3	16.2
Somewhat disagree	7.9	4.8	1.1	0.5
Strongly disagree	11.4	5.9	0.7	0.8
A woman working outside the home is sure to cause problems.
Strongly agree	12.7	17.3	6.1	11.5
Somewhat agree	34.5	28.1	31.5	35.4
Somewhat disagree	27.5	28.3	22.7	19.8
Strongly disagree	25.3	26.2	39.8	33.3

Table 2. Attitudes toward FLFP obstacles by gender and work status

Statement	Male		Female
	Working	Not working	Working	Not working
Lack of available jobs
An obstacle to a large extent	34.6	38.3	42.0	41.4
An obstacle to some extent	27.1	22.6	33.6	28.4
An obstacle to a small extent	6.4	4.9	4.7	5.1
Not an obstacle at all	31.9	34.2	19.7	25.1
Low wages compared to men
An obstacle to a large extent	14.1	15.5	18.9	21.4
An obstacle to some extent	29.4	20.0	26.6	27.1
An obstacle to a small extent	5.7	4.3	8.3	5.8
Not an obstacle at all	50.8	60.2	46.2	45.7
Inflexible working hours
An obstacle to a large extent	32.0	58.7	39.9	53.4
An obstacle to some extent	43.4	20.3	40.8	29.1
An obstacle to a small extent	10.6	6.5	4.6	6.9
Not an obstacle at all	14.0	14.4	14.7	10.6
Insufficient educational qualifications
An obstacle to a large extent	35.6	38.0	33.3	41.3
An obstacle to some extent	24.3	30.7	37.7	33.7
An obstacle to a small extent	3.1	4.0	5.7	6.2
Not an obstacle at all	36.9	27.4	23.3	18.8
Lack of agreement from family
An obstacle to a large extent	47.7	39.2	42.4	38.3
An obstacle to some extent	21.4	29.3	28.8	30.1
An obstacle to a small extent	6.1	8.7	5.4	10.3
Not an obstacle at all	24.8	22.7	23.4	21.3
Fear that others will view the woman/family negatively
An obstacle to a large extent	12.7	13.7	8.8	6.1
An obstacle to some extent	21.6	21.5	21.3	14.6
An obstacle to a small extent	9.2	7.5	9.5	6.5
Not an obstacle at all	56.5	57.3	60.5	72.9
Fear that it will become more difficult to get married
An obstacle to a large extent	7.3	15.7	7.3	3.7
An obstacle to some extent	22.8	23.8	28.9	18.9
An obstacle to a small extent	13.0	7.7	11.2	7.4
Not an obstacle at all	56.8	52.8	52.6	70.1

Table 3. Attitudes toward FLFP state-directed policies by gender and work status

Statement	Male		Female
	Working	Not working	Working	Not working
To what extent would you support or not support a law in Qatar that guarantees a certain proportion of places for women in the government?
Strongly support	34.4	29.6	54.1	45.3
Somewhat support	40.9	42.4	31.2	31.1
Somewhat oppose	5.3	6.6	5.0	10.2
Strongly oppose	19.3	21.3	9.6	13.4
To what extent would you support or oppose a law in Qatar that guarantees a certain proportion of executive positions in the public and private sector for women?
Strongly support	30.4	26.0	42.4	40.0
Somewhat support	42.9	44.9	43.8	36.5
Somewhat oppose	4.7	11.8	5.8	11.6
Strongly oppose	22.0	17.3	8.1	11.9
To what extent would you support or not support a law in Qatar that promotes equal salaries for men and women working in the same position?
Strongly support	70.5	60.8	80.6	78.7
Somewhat support	14.7	20.3	13.6	13.2
Somewhat oppose	6.3	10.3	2.5	1.8
Strongly oppose	8.5	8.6	3.3	6.3