This study analyses the effects of owner’s gender on the gender composition of the firm’s workforce by using the firm-level survey data (World Bank Enterprise Survey data) of Myanmar’s firms. We find that gender of the owner strongly influences the gender composition of the firm’s workforce. Female employers employ significantly more female workers even in the predominantly female-working industries. Most of the difference in the share of female employment in male-owned vs female-owned firms can be explained by covariates effects, specifically, if the firm is in garment industry, has female top-level manager, and is located in Yangon. The study also finds a significant association of having top-level female managers in the firms with employment of female workers especially when the owner is a male. Duflo (2012) states that women empowerment and economic development are strongly related possibly in both directions. Though our findings does not identify causation directly, it can still be interpreted that increasing female leaders will lead to women empowerment in Myanmar.

This work was partly supported by The Sumitomo Foundation (Grant for Environmental Research Projects #153421) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 16H05704, 16K03628, 16H03610 and 16H03673.