Conference Paper

Female participation in the labour market is very important for the economic and social growth of the countries. Many studies show that economically active females have an important role reducing poverty by assuring welfare of the households. Female participation in the labour market is also important for women’s relative economic and social status compared to men and for their economic empowerment (Patimo et al, 2015). The aim of this research is to investigate the determinants which have influence over female participation in the labour market, in the context of the traditional literature and studies in this area, but also to add a new approach by including the effect of the overall cultural context on a woman’s decision whether to supply her labour. The latter is a major contribution of the paper to the current knowledge. The methodology is based on previous research by Contreras and Plaza (2010). Moreover, a comparative perspective is added by considering countries in the South-East Europe (SEE), Mediterranean countries and Macedonia. We found that the cultural context is an important determinant of the females’ labour market activity which is important in designing government support and policies for promoting females’ activity.