The Costs of Exit: Female Labor Migration and Gender Equality in Source Countries

Abstract

Does women’s work abroad improve gender equality at home? We investigate the impact of female labor migration (FLM) from low- and middle-income countries on gender equality in female migrants’ countries of origin or ‘source countries’. We estimate this impact using annual variations in oil prices as a source of exogenous change in demand for female labor from countries with high levels of FLM to Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). We find that FLM is a mixed blessing for gender equality in female labor migrants’ source countries. While FLM correlates with lower gender gaps in primary and secondary education, it is also associated with less support for gender equality, especially among women, and lower female political representation in source country democracies. We suspect that FLM drains source countries of women with more gender egalitarian attitudes, thus undermining women’s representation. At the same time, FLM incentivizes source country households to invest in their female members’ education, reducing gender gaps in human capital