Norad: Seminar on women's economic participation in the labor force in low-income countries
This seminar provided an overview of the emerging literature on school-to-work transitions in developing countries, with particular attention to interventions aimed at improving female students’ educational and labor market outcomes in contexts shaped by rigid gender norms and other structural constraints. The presentation focused on research findings from two recently published articles on a career guidance intervention among primarily female secondary school students in urban India (joint work with Ankush Asri and Anke Hoeffler). The results highlight both the potential and the limitations of scalable career guidance programs in shaping aspirations, future planning, and gendered labor market expectations, while also underscoring the persistent role of social and structural barriers in influencing young women's labor market transitions.
