Social institutions, gender attitudes and female labour force participation in sub‐Saharan Africa

Using data from the Ethnographic Atlas and World Values Survey within a structural equation modelling (GSEM) framework, we analyse how historical social institutions and current gender attitudes influence female employment outcomes, specifically female labour force participation in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). We find that patriarchal systems generally reduce female labour force participation, in relation to matriarchal systems. We also find that current gender attitudes have negative effects that appear to be dominated by the historical social institutions. The findings suggest that historical social institutions are important in understanding gender dynamics in SSA because they inform on gender identification and appropriate gender roles.