Restrictive Reproductive Laws and Women’s Workforce Participation: A Cross-National Comparative Analysis of Canada and Sri Lanka
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This study examines the association between the reproductive policy environment and female labor force participation (FLFP) in Canada and Sri Lanka using panel data from 2013-2023. The analysis introduces a Reproductive Policy Restrictiveness Index (RPRI), a ten-component composite integrating three externally sourced legal variables (abortion legality, contraception access, and the World Bank Women, Business and the Law composite) with seven institutional indicators. The analytical approach in this work uses correlation analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Random Forest feature ranking, and ARIMA forecasting. Findings document a 55.7-point RPRI gap between Canada (mean = 90.6) and Sri Lanka (mean = 34.9), co-varying with a 13.4-percentage-point FLFP gap (pooled r = 0.996). Within-country temporal correlation is essentially zero, indicating the RPRI-FLFP association is between-country. The study contributes the first integrated legal-institutional restrictiveness index for these countries, framed associational rather than causally.
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