Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2001-2002 - Measure DHS

Table 3.7 Type of earnings: menPercent distribution of men employed in the 12months preceding the survey by type of earnings,according to type of employment (agricultural ornon-agricultural), Zambia 2001-2002––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Non-Agri- agriculturalculturalType of earnings work work Total––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Cash only 9.7 83.9 45.4Cash and in-kind 26.7 5.9 16.4In-kind only 7.4 1.6 4.5Not paid 56.2 8.5 33.2Missing 0.0 0.1 0.5Total 100.0 100.0 100Number of men 862 813 1,694––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Note: Total includes 19 men with missing informationon type of employment who are not shownseparately3.6 WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENTThe 2001-2002 ZDHS also collected information relating to women’s employment. The measurementof women’s employment is particularly difficult because some of the activities that women do,especially work on family farms, family businesses, or in the informal sector are often not perceived bywomen themselves as employment and hence are not reported as such. To avoid underestimatingwomen’s employment, the ZDHS asked women several questions to ascertain their employment status.First women were asked, “Aside from your own housework, are you currently working?” Women whoanswered “no” to this question were then asked, “As you know, some women take up jobs for which theyare paid in cash or kind. Others sell things, have a small business, or work on the family farm or in thefamily business. Are you currently doing any of these things or any other work?”It should, however, be recognised that major obstacles standing in the way of women’s gainingaccess to employment with the same opportunities as men are caused by a number of factors, the “mostsignificant being inequality in respect of access to education, discrimination in employment and occupation,which leads to categorisation of jobs according to gender, national laws and regulations, inequalityin respect of access to factors of production, the low level of women's participation in decision-makingand social control bodies and finally, social attitudes” (ILO, 1995). Information on women’s participationin decision-making also was collected in the 2001-2002 and is presented later in this chapter.3.6.1 Employment StatusTable 3.8 shows the percent distribution of women by employment status during the 12 monthspreceding the survey. Fifty-seven percent of women were employed in the 12 months preceding the survey,compared with 79 percent of men (Table 3.5). Employment levels in the last 12 months are higherfor women in rural areas than for their urban counterparts (63 percent and 49 percent, respectively). Thispattern is also generally true for employed men, although their proportions for men in both rural and urbanareas are higher than those for women. Table 3.8 shows that the proportion of women employed inthe last 12 months tends to increase with age and number of living children.The data indicate that women who are divorced, separated, or widowed have the highest employmentrates, followed by those in marital union (72 percent versus 62 percent). Although nevermarriedwomen and men are the least likely to be employed, the proportion for women is much lower(37 percent) than for men (72 percent) (Table 3.5).36 │ Characteristics of Respondents