M. van Klaveren, K.G. Tijdens, M. Hughie-Williams and N.E. Ramos Martin
Table 7 shows that the skill (qualification) structure of the Azerbaijan female labour force, as captured
in these statistics, has a large low end. Nearly half of all women employed can be found at the bottom
of the labour market, in elementary occupations, against less than one in six men employed. Obviously,
majorities of women working in agriculture et cetera and in wholesale and retail trade have been classified
under “elementary occupations.” For example, in 2008 442,000 women were counted as working in whole-
sale and retail, but only 79,000 --less than one in five-- were classified as service, shop or sales workers. By
contrast, 151,000 of 212,000 men working in wholesale and retail —nearly three in four-- were classified
as service, shop or sales workers. One may question whether such different outcomes are based on a real
valuation of gender differences in skills (qualifications) used, or may reflect a mere statistical bias. Slightly
over 20% of all women could be traced in the three occupational groups ranked highest in organisational
hierarchies, of which over 80% as professionals: another peculiar outcome. We may assume that secondary
and tertiary education teachers, researchers and high-skilled medical staff have been grouped under “pro-
fessionals”, whereas primary education teachers and nurses can be found under ”technicians and associate
professionals”.9 Obviously, these classifications have not been consistently followed here.
Building on Table 7, Table 8 shows the female employment shares by occupational group for 2008.
Compared to the average share of nearly 50%, women were largely overrepresented in elementary occupa-
tions (72%), and slightly overrepresented among professionals (54%) and technicians and associate profes-
sionals (53%). We just present these outcomes here, as we already commented on the classifications and
calculations behind them. It should be emphasized that at the top of the hierarchy, covered by legislators,
senior officials and managers, the female share was with 6% very low. We already saw (section 2.1.2) that in
2004 women occupied less than 12% of all senior decision-making posts in government — an outcome in
line with our findings. By contrast, in 2006 women made up 52% of all researchers, 43% of all university
professors, and 61% of all doctors (Cosby et al 2007; UNECE 2009).
9 According to education statistics, in 2006 86.5% of the primary school teachers were female, as were 66.1% of the secondary
school teachers (UNESCO 2010).
Page • 40