Determinants of Women’s Participation in Namibia’s Labour Force: A Multinomial Analysis of the 2018 Namibia Labour Force Survey

Opeoluwa Oyedele, UNAM
Fenny Amulungu, University of Namibia

Women’s participation in the labour market is one of the areas that continually receives great interest from researchers in various countries globally. However, not many studies have been conducted on this topic in recent years in Namibia besides Mufune (2013), and none of them used any of the national labour force surveys. Through a quantitative cross-sectional research study of the 2018 NLFS and a multinomial logistic regression, this study performed an empirical investigation to identify determinants of women’s participation in Namibia’s labour force. Results showed that characteristics such as area location, region, age group, marital status, literacy status, and education level were significant determinants of employed women’s participation, while area location, age group, and literacy status were significant determinants of unemployed women’s participation. Therefore, there is a need for a reinforcement of policies and legislative frameworks in place to (further) empower women and enhance their participation in the labour force.