Gender, Labor Forces and Demographic Dividend in Africa

Claude Mbarga Ella, IFORD
Michel Tenikue, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

The examination of the age pyramid shows that the ratio of the working-age population (15-65 years) and dependency population (0-15 years and 65 years and over), can constitute an opportunity or an obstacle to the development of a country, provided that the means and mechanism are taken to capitalize on the window of opportunity period. In this context, women's employment can play a major role in the production mechanism. Its contribution is an avenue to be exploited and capitalized. This article provides an analysis of the contribution of women's employment in the working-age population. The analysis is based on the World Bank's Word Development Indicator (WID) macro data, decomposition, and regression methods. The results show that women's employment is an important lever to seize to benefit from the different windows of opportunity opened in African countries but faces to realities of the African context which opposes its participation.