Page 5 With the advent of agricultural mechanization and firm-based production capturing gains from specialization and scale -- and the accompanying development of markets -- initial production for market is generally handled largely by men. This happens especially in cultures that place stronger restrictions on women (Boserup 1970; Schultz 1989; Schumacher and others 1980). 14. As development proceeds, men tend to gain access to newer and more profitable opportunities before women do, whether in agriculture or in industry (Boserup 1970). Usually men account for most initial formal labor force participation, particularly the higher paying, less menial, and more distant jobs (Schultz 1989; Boserup 1970). As market incentives increase, women working at home often diversify their agricultural and nonagricultural production and market an increasing share of it. In Kenya, for example, about two-fifths of small farms are managed by women, and most market substantial quantities of food and nonfood cash crops (World Bank 1989a). In Yemen A.R., as more men have migrated to the oil fields of neighboring countries, women have become more active in agriculture for market (World Bank YAR SURD? Project).

15. As the gains from firm-based production increase and the economy expands to encompass more manufacturing and services, more women join men in the labor force (Boserup 1970). Official data on the formal labor force are often weak (varying in quality and in underlying definitions) and tend to underestimate substantially the participation of women, particularly in smaller enterprises or in smaller towns where culture may frown on women who work outside the home (Anker and Hein 1986; Recchine de Lattes and Warnerman 1982; White and others 1986). But available data suggest that women's share of nonagricultural occupations tends to be highest in Latin America and lowest in the Middle East and Northern Africa (see figure 1). In Korea about 40 percent of women work in the formal labor force; in Thailand, abovt' 60 percent. In those countries, the labor force depends heavily on women. In several East Asian countries and in Mauritius, women constitute the core of the labor force for many of the newer export industries. In Colombia and Mexico, about one out of four women work in the formal labor force -- and about one-fourth of the labor force is female.

16. But increasing labor force participation may not only reflect the pull of newer markets. In some traditional economies (for example, parts of India, Bangladesh, and Nepal), land has become highly scarce as population density has increased, and both women and men are obliged to seek available employment. Typically this involves casual, low-wage work in agriculture or rural nonfarm jobs, construction, and a wide variety of jobs in the urban informal sector (World Bank 1989b, 1989c; Acharya and Bennett 1982; Khandker 1988). Particularly in South Asia, Africa, and the Near East, Islamic culture favors relative seclusion for women, but seclusion is more prevalent among the middle class. The influence of tradition often gives way as the opportunity cost of observing traditional norms rises. In poorer countries such as Bangladesh, women are traditionally secluded but respond considerably to wage opportunities: 'even a patriarch cannot withstand the high opportunity costs of keeping women largely engaged in a household non-market production, such as children" (Khandker 1987). By contrast, in several higher-income Middle Eastern countries where women's labor force participation is comparatively restricted for cultural reasons, fewer than one in seven members of the formal labor force are women (Anker and Hein