The aim of this study is to examine sources of gender disparity and the factors that contribute to this gap in labor force participation in Cameroon. From the theories associated to labor market discrimination and making hypothesis regarding labor force participation, our methodology uses models developed from theses hypothesis Based on economic theories explaining gender gaps and using the data from the third Cameroon household consumption survey, econometric methods have been used to decompose the various gaps. We find the following results: 1) the participation rate is a function of age, job training, education and locality of residence; 2) gender discrimination is one explanation of the unexplained gender gap in labor force participation; 3) the total gap between male and female workers, accounted for by the mean probability of labor force participation is 4,09% ; the decomposition shows that this gender gap explained by individual characteristics is 36.56% while Discrimination part is 63.44% of the total gap. The factors that contribute significantly to this difference are: age, years of education, job training, marital status and place of residence.

This document performs profile analysis of income inequalities in Cameroon, between 1996 and 2001.It concerns origin determination and the components of inequalities in Cameroon. The study is structured around the new subgroup decomposition of the Hirschman-Herfindahl index. The economic and empirical pertinence of this indicator holds on its tridecomposition into three components: the within group's, the between group's net and the between group's transvariation. Inequalities are evaluated by grouping and lead to differents interpretations. The selected data for analysis are from the two Cameroonian Surveys to Households ECAM I and ECAM II. The dependent variable (total expenses per head), the independent variables (sex, place of residence and standard of living) and also the method (simulator H-H) have a particular interest in our work. The analyses results indicate that households present a very strong inequality of expenses on considered period. Heterogeneity is very important between groups while, homogeneity is quite considerable within the different groups. The contribution of the transvariation (or overlapping) to the total inequality revealed itself to be incontestable and varies depending on the dependent variable studied. Households directed by women are more victims of disparities. The Inequality is a characteristic of a semi-urban zone, and it is principally a phenomenon relative to poor households. This reflection calls for measures to fight, which must be focus on between groups inequality and on the subgroups of population the most underprivileged.