Essays on gendered labor market outcomes, international trade and economic development

The dissertation is a collection of five essays in two parts on gendered labor market outcomes, international trade, and economic development in developing countries. The common thread of this dissertation is the notion that gender is embedded in labor markets and that to understand outcomes in them we must recognize this and move beyond conceptualizing workers in terms of differences in skill. This dissertation is an investigation into how the forces of capitalism perpetuate and reshape gendered discourses of work and the way they take shape in institutions.;The first part of the dissertation contains two essays that reveal the complexities and path dependencies of gendered labor market segregation. It evaluates the extent of gendered sectoral and occupational segregation in developing countries, using macro-level covariates for econometric analysis. The findings indicate that economic development and progress in closing gender gaps in education and formal labor force participation are not sufficient for addressing gendered labor market segregation, and that such segregation is not rooted in gendered skill differences. They further suggest that while gender equality gains in other areas, particularly education, are important goals unto themselves, the extent that these gains spillover to broader gender social and economic empowerment are likely to be limited by widespread gendered sectoral and occupational segregation.;The second part of the dissertation contains three essays which narrow the lens of analysis to patterns of gendered segregation and processes of feminization and defeminization within the manufacturing sector in developing countries, with the final essay focusing on Bangladesh. Here firm level data is used for econometric analysis, which is conducted across different development levels and different sectors and sector groups based on labor-/capital-intensity. The findings suggest that the gender typing of sectors and occupations and gender discourses of work within firms are more significant than the technical aspects or skill level of production in determining female-intensity. Regarding export-orientation, there appears to be a robust and significant positive relationship across development levels and sector groups, but upon closer investigation this is largely driven by GVC firms---those that both import and export.