OCCUPATIONAL SEGREGATION AND LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN: CASE OF NORTH CYPRUS

Abstract Previous studies on North Cyprus labor market argued that occupational gender segregation is one of the major cause of low female labor force participation. We aim to shed light on this argument by investigating the extent, patterns and the sources of occupational gender segregation in North Cyprus labor market for 11 years (2004-2014). Segregation measured by D-Index for 9 broad occupational categories for total, and across rural and urban regions employing Household Employment Surveys data. Results show that total occupational gender segregation is high and persistent in North Cyprus. Decomposition of the index show that the main reason for the increase in segregation level is net segregation; the increase in the gender composition of individual occupations. We conclude that high and persistent occupational gender segregation leads to the segmentation of labor market as male and female occupations limiting the mobility of women between occupations affecting women’s labor force participation negatively