To understand female migration and its interrelation with socio-economic development, a consideration of the selectivity of female migrants, their characteristics and differences with respect to female non-migrants as well as male migrants together with an analysis of the forces leading to such selectivity is an important first step. The general structural determinants of female migration have been categorized as: (i) those related to the economic development context and stemming mostly from government policies that influenced gender-based economic opportunities and constraints in areas of origin and destination; (ii) those determinants related to institutional factors that maintained gender inequalities; (iii) those determinants arising from the socio-cultural system of gender roles and relations operating in accordance with prevalent norms, values and expectations.