Source: Authors’ tabulations for the population age 15 and older using the 2018 Honduras Multipurpose Household Survey (EPHPM). Each of the three simulations assign employment to women who fit the following conditions: 1) she reports being too busy with household tasks as the reason for not searching for work, 2) she is not enrolled in school, and 3) there are no children under the age of 1 in the household. Simulation 1 applies only to spouses of a household head who reports having an agricultural enterprise; Simulation 2 applies to other rural women who are either household heads or spouses of the household head; Simulation 3 applies to other rural women beyond spouses and household heads.

# Conclusion

In this study, we investigate some reasons behind the low labor force participation rates of women in rural Honduras, where only about two of five women of working age report being in the labor force. In this, Honduras is not an outlier – there are comparably low rates of labor force participation of rural women across all countries of Central America and most countries in Latin America. Poverty rates are high among these households and hence understanding the reasons behind these low levels of economic activity are critical for identifying pathways out of poverty. From a policy-making perspective, it is important to understand the extent to which these statistics are accurate. If they are accurate, what are the reasons why women are not involved in economic activities? If they are not accurate, then what are the activities in which women are engaging and what can be done to boost their income potential?

The main finding from this study is that women in rural communities in Honduras do not accurately report their economic activities for pay or for own-consumption in response to the two questions asked in the official household survey to measure employment. Simulations suggest that the rural female labor force participation rate in Honduras is underestimated by 6 to 23 percentage points. Significant discrepancies arise once one compares the household survey responses with tasks completed by rural women. Women reported activities ranging from agricultural production, to commerce and services for pay even though they had previously responded negatively to the questions on economic activity. This shows that there is a disconnect between the definition of employment as meant to be captured in the labor force survey and the definition used by women (and men) in the rural communities visited for this research.

The study identifies two main explanations behind this observed discrepancy. First, women and men each identify with specific spheres of life, with women commonly identifying with the private and hence, the domestic sphere, while men identify with the public sphere and thus the agricultural production sphere. Even in those cases where women perform activities within the agricultural production sphere, they define those as ‘supporting’ activities, as ‘helping’ their husbands and consequently, not as their own economic activity. The results suggest that women identify themselves (and are identified by others) primarily as housewives, and the concepts of housewife and employment are taken as mutually exclusive. As such, their economic activities are considered to be household tasks.

A second explanation identified through this research relates to women defining ‘employment’ based on a set of necessary characteristics. Those characteristics may not all be in place in their own individual cases. The necessary characteristics suggested by interviewees’ responses are as follows: work needs to i) be conducted _outside_ the home; ii) be in exchange for money immediately or in the very short term; and iii) entail sufficient and regular time commitment. Importantly, given the gendered identities and their perceived relationship to work, these conditions are not binding constraints for men to identify their own activities as economic activity. That is, agricultural activities for own consumption and those on crops that 25