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Economic Development and Gender Equality: Is There a Gender Kuznets Curve?
Abstract
This research note examines the relationship between economic development and gender equality. Drawing on the concept of the Kuznets curve, the authors hypothesize that the relationship between economic development and gender inequality is curvilinear (S shaped), with three distinct stages. In the first stage, economic development improves gender equality because it enables greater female labor-force participation. An independent income stream increases women's intrahousehold bargaining power. The opportunity to develop human capital confers greater political and social recognition. In the second stage, labor-force stratification and gender discrimination encourage divergent male/female income trajectories, which decrease the opportunity costs of female labor-force withdrawal and lend traction to social resistance against burgeoning gender norms. Consequently, there is a deceleration in initial equality gains. In the final stage, gender equality again improves, as greater educational participation and technological advancement provide new employment opportunities for women, increase the opportunity costs of staying home, and encourage the evolution of new social institutions and norms that overcome prior discriminatory practices. The authors find support for this argument in statistical tests of the relationship between economic development and gender equality on a panel of 146 developing countries for the period 1980–2005. They employ four indicators that reflect distinct dimensions of women's political, social, and economic status. They find economic development positively influences gender equality when per capita incomes are below $8,000–$10,000. These equality gains level off or decline slightly in the second stage, from $8,000–10,000 to about $25,000–$30,000. Beyond this level, economic development is again associated with improvements in gender equality. The key implication is that the effect of economic development on gender equality is contingent on the level of development. Policymakers and social activists should develop policy correctives to ensure that economic development confers improvements in gender equality across phases of development.
... For example, Forsythe et al. (2000), used a sample of developed and developed countries to evaluate how the different development approaches (neoclassical, WID, GAD) affect women's status. In the same vein, Eastin and Prakash (2013) looked at how development advances women status using several indicators of gender inequality. Their analysis did not however consider the combined effect of development on the status of men and women. ...
... Accordingly, studies that empirically examine linkages between a range of measures of sustainable development and gender equality are limited particularly in the African context. Although Efobi et al. (2018) attempted an answer to this question from an African perspective, like Forsythe et al. (2000) and Eastin and Prakash (2013), they focused on women's empowerment. Therefore, this study seeks to close these gaps by answering two research questions; ...
... Thus, we are motivated by prior research that suggests an important mechanism through which development affects social inclusion is its effects on gender equality and this effect is expected to change over time as efforts are being made to meet the SDGs deadline (Johnston, 2016;United Nations, 2021). This thesis thus evaluates this relationship by identifying a set of indicators that affect gender equality and differ from Eastin and Prakash, (2013) and Forsythe et al., (2000) who captured development from a strictly economic perspective (GDP per capita). Also, studies that utilize economic participation as an indicator centered on the proportion of female participation rate ( Spinelli- De-Sá et al., 2017;Zhang & Zhang, 2021a, 2021b; the proportion of male participation rate (King & Elliott, 2021); while another group used both rates separately within their evaluation (Krantz et al., 2005;Milner et al., 2020). ...
Sustainable development is achieved when policies are effectively implemented to foster the well-being of all. Research on equality has generally focused on women’s empowerment as the foundation of empowering a nation. Similarly, there has been increased attention given to working with men in gender equality. However, researchers have not considered these two lines of thought side by side to achieve sustainable development. We examine the relationship between gender equality and development by empirically identifying country-specific factors that are associated with the level of gender equality over time for a sample of 44 African countries. Using trend analysis, we find a linear relationship between male and female inclusion in economic participation and opportunity. In particular, the empirical findings suggest that among the socio-economic, infrastructural, and governance-related factors, income, rural revitalization, mobile subscription, fixed telephone subscription, and rule of law are important factors in explaining the level of gender balance. In contrast, we find that unemployment positively impacts gender equality. We associate this outcome with the role expansion theory. These findings support debate in the literature that when economies grow, they stand better chances of fostering gender equality.
... The second school of thought revolves around the work of Piketty (2014) and is an extension of the Kuznets' hypothesis. In this case, the assumption is that the gender inequality and economic development nexus follows an S-shape pattern, which is marked by three stages (Alawin & Sbitany, 2019;Eastin & Prakash, 2013;. In the first stage, improvements in the social, economic and political rights of women lead to economic development and cause gender inequality to fall. ...
... Several studies on the relationship between economic development and gender inequality exist with various findings, which have been inconsistent (Eastin & Prakash, 2013). In analyzing cultural, economic, political, and religious factors, most studies agree on a curvilinear U-shaped curve ( Haas, 2007;Ndinga, 2012;Mujahid & Uz Zafar, 2012;Lechman & Kaur, 2015;Kennedy, Smyth, Chapman, 2015); others, an S-shaped curve (Alawin & Sbitany, 2019;Eastin & Prakash, 2013;Shahbaz, 2010), for different countries/regions. ...
... Several studies on the relationship between economic development and gender inequality exist with various findings, which have been inconsistent (Eastin & Prakash, 2013). In analyzing cultural, economic, political, and religious factors, most studies agree on a curvilinear U-shaped curve ( Haas, 2007;Ndinga, 2012;Mujahid & Uz Zafar, 2012;Lechman & Kaur, 2015;Kennedy, Smyth, Chapman, 2015); others, an S-shaped curve (Alawin & Sbitany, 2019;Eastin & Prakash, 2013;Shahbaz, 2010), for different countries/regions. This paper aims to identify the direction of relationship for the selected eight African countries. ...
This paper examines the gender inequality and economic development nexus for eight selected African countries. Data for the study were collected from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators for the period 1994−2018. The study employs the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag model and an error correction mechanism to ascertain the relationship that exists between the variables of interest. To measure the socio-economic and political status of women in the selected African countries, we focus on the following two indicators: female labor force participation, and the proportion of seats held by women in the national parliament. Our findings are inconsistent for different countries. On one hand, we find that in the long run female labor force participation enhances economic development in the following countries: Botswana, Egypt, and Mauritius. On the other hand, the results reveal that the number of female members in the national parliament and female labor force participation decline with advances in economic development in Tunisia and Gabon. We propose that policies that increase women’s access to higher education, female labor force participation, and women's representation in the political space are imperative for women’s empowerment and economic development in Africa.
... To conclude, feminist or socio-sexual theories maintain that the secondary role society gives women positions them in a situation of disadvantage in the labour market (Bakar 2014;Greene, Ackers, and Black 2002;Longarela 2017;Seron et al. 2016;Tobío 2012). In all countries, women are exclusively or mainly responsible for household chores and the care of their children and economic support mainly corresponds to men (Cohen 2004;Eastin and Prakash 2013;Rodrigo 2015;Russell, McGinnity, and O'Connell 2017). This trend also affects the importance of cultural and social factors that place women at a disadvantage in the workplace (Bettio and Verashchagina 2009;Powell, Bagihole, and Dainty 2009;Seron et al. 2016;Simpson 2005;Stanworth 2000), understanding that dominant societal gender stereotypes are reflected in female occupations (Anker 1997;Blackwell 2001;Greene, Ackers, and Black 2002;Grönlund 2007;Seron et al. 2016). ...
... Even though it is thought that economic progress favours the correction of inequalities, some authors have shown that the relationship between development and equality between men and women is complex and constantly evolves in different directions. For example, Eastin and Prakash (2013) note the influence that different sources of growth (exploitation of natural resources, promotion of human capital) have on labour discrimination by gender since there can be different implications of segregation depending on whether progress is based on one or another factor, given that various sectors and agents may be more or less inclined or indifferent about gender equality. ...
Gender inequality affects the labour market of any territory. Despite government measures to eradicate it, it continues to cause discrimination. In this article, the gender inequality in the European labour market between 2002 and 2021 is analysed to advance the knowledge of this complex phenomenon. After reviewing the main theoretical contributions, the most suitable indicators are defined. The results reveal that the gender pay gap has increased in the European labour market, despite indicators such as the Gender Equality Index, employment rates, or levels of occupational segregation showing favourable progress. Therefore, governments must design efficient policies, mainly on pay equity, to achieve equal conditions in the European labour market.
... According to Inglehart and Norris (2003), the transition from agricultural societies to industrial societies often leads to a change in gender attitudes, which can be used to infer the positive effect of economic development on gender equality. In addition, by drawing on Simon Kuznets's thesis, Eastin and Prakash (2013) proved that there is a non-monotonic relationship between economic growth and gender inequality. ...
... The coefficient reveals that when GDP per capita rises by $1000, GII in reverse is increased by 0.009 units. This empirical result resonates with previous studies showing that economic growth indeed improves gender performance and mitigates the gender gap (Eastin & Prakash, 2013;Inglehart & Norris, 2003). ...
Aid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment has gathered significant momentum over the past decade and has also sparked a renewed debate over the effectiveness of foreign aid. Is gender aid a panacea that will help the recipient countries confront the challenges of the gender inequality deeply ingrained in their societies, or is it just a placebo pretending to be effective? Is there any difference between gender‐focused aid and gender mainstreaming aid in terms of aid effectiveness? To answer these key questions, this article examines the impact of gender aid on gender inequality using a sample of 116 recipient countries that covers the period from 2010 to 2019. By adopting a hybrid method that incorporates fixed‐ and random‐effects models, we obtain results indicating that increasing amounts of gender mainstreaming aid over time successfully reduce gender inequality and close the gender gap. In stark contrast, gender‐focused aid lacks the statistical significance needed to prove its potency. In addition to confirming gender aid's effectiveness, this article provides further policy implications regarding the gender mainstreaming strategy in the field of international development, particularly when considered in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
... Countries with equal rights and economic opportunities for males and females are the world's wealthiest countries (Eastin and Prakash, 2009). It shows the positive relationship between the level of development and female rights. ...
... These advancements have shifted the role of women from household to industry. Additionally, Eastin and Prakash (2009) conducted a panel analysis on 146 countries from 1982 to 2005. They indicated a cubic functional relationship between gender equality and income, known as the gender Kuznets curve based on Kuznets (1955). ...
Gender inequality is a more pronounced phenomenon in developing countries, which may be rooted in poor governance, and inadequate social and religious institutions. Therefore, this research tests the effects of religious tensions, governance, economic growth, and education on gender equality in a panel of 59 developing countries from 1995–2015. Moreover, religious tensions may have spillovers in neighboring countries in this modern age of media and globalization. Therefore, we apply Spatial Durbin and Autoregressive models to consider spatial autocorrelation in the religious tensions model. We find that both gender equality and religious tensions have spillovers in neighboring countries. Moreover, reducing religious tensions and increasing economic growth promote gender equality and have positive spillovers in neighboring countries as well. Bureaucratic quality has a positive effect on gender equality in home countries and has insignificant spillovers on gender equality in the neighboring countries. However, education could not affect gender equality in developing countries.
... Living in a country with a gender-balanced workforce multiplies the chances of recurrent interactions with working women who display self-confident and assertive behaviours (Majlesi, 2016). These situations and interactions likely transform the stereotypes about women's capabilities and duties (Seguino, 2007) by dispelling traditional myths about women's weakness and limited capabilities (Eastin & Prakash, 2013). This new understanding that women are purposeful, autonomous actors in the economic field plausibly reverberates into other fields and gradually produces a general shift in gender. ...
This article explores the relationship between gender balance in the workforce and attitudes towards abortion worldwide. Studies on macro-level conditions related to abortion attitudes overlook the role of gender balance in the workforce-specifically the degree of female representation in a country's workforce. There are strong reasons why this factor could shape abortion attitudes. We argue that such a gender balance creates necessary conditions to break with traditional, anti-abortion ideology and facilitates dissemination and public acceptance of pro-choice views. We test this argument with two different datasets - the Integrated Values Survey and three waves of the International Social Survey Programme-along with two outcomes: general tolerance towards abortion and tolerance towards abortion for pregnant women of low income. Using three-level random intercept models and multiple controls for individual and country-level conditions, the results support our hypothesis: In countries with higher gender balance in the workforce, individuals display higher tolerance towards abortion.
... The vital role of women in protecting the environment is evident [36], and a more gender-equal platform in environmental policymaking will harbor improved outcomes against climate change and better environmental quality [37,38]. Koengkan and Fuinhas [39] found gender inequality to be a driving force of carbon-dioxide emissions in 14 EU countries. ...
This study investigates the interaction between two opposite indicators of gender equality-women's political empowerment index and neopatrimonial rule index-and environmental quality to elucidate further the mechanism behind the divergence between the theoretical and empirical literature on democratic rights and environmental quality nexus. By analyzing OECD country data between 1980 and 2018 and utilizing the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator, it is shown that higher levels of women's participation in decision-making processes alleviate the environmental deterioration via the direct effects. With further exploration of data, the study also exposes that one of the critical reasons creating the divergence between the theoretical and empirical literature is the indirect effects via welfare channel becoming more dominant as society becomes less gender-equal. In other words, the deterioration in environmental quality remains relatively low due to destitution in less gender-equal countries.
... N. Bandiera, Ashwini;O. N. A. Bandiera, 2013;Bhalotra & Rawlings, 2011;Branisa, Klasen, & Ziegler, 2013;Cabeza-García, Brio, & Oscanoa-Victorio, 2018;Chant & Sweetman, 2012;Da Rocha & Fuster, 2006;Duflo, 2012;Eastin & Prakash, 2013;A. Fatima & Sultana, 2009;Ferguson, 2011;Hiller, 2014;Kabeer, 2015;Kassie, Ndiritu, & Stage, 2014;Klasen, 2018a;Lincove, 2008;Seguino, 2011;Syed & Ali, 2019;Verick, 2014;Wang & Zhang, 2018). ...
... Our estimated relations postulate a linear relation between aspects of gender equality and income equality. It is, however, possible that the underlying relations might be nonlinear (see, for examples, Eastin & Prakash, 2013;Goldscheider et al., 2015). For instance, the relation of fertility to gender equality or economic development can be sensitive to the prevailing level of gender equality. ...
This paper studies the influence of different aspects of gender equality or female empowerment on income inequality. A key question addressed is: Are there positive spillovers from gender equality to income equality? Using data drawn from 162 nations over the years 1985–2019, results show that nations with a long history of women's suffrage, greater representation of women in the government, lower fertility rates and better overall gender equality experienced lower income inequality, ceteris paribus. These results are largely supported in several robustness checks, including different model estimation strategies to address potential reverse‐causality issues, considering alternative measures of income inequality, and considerations of persistence and nonlinearities in the gender inequality measures. The spillovers from some dimensions of gender equality are found to be sensitive to existing income inequality. Policymakers ignoring the payoffs from gender empowerment on income distribution might be underinvesting in initiatives to empower women.
... Another factor that could warrant for this outcome could be the ghost worker 15 syndrome which has plagued the Nigerian public sector for decades [54], [55], [56] and [57]. This is an act of stealing from the State and Federal Government at large under the disguise of paying wages to employees that do not exist in person without due contribution to the productivity of the Nigeria civil service and public sector as a whole. ...
Gender inequality is generally perceived as a deterrent to economic growth and as a result much of effort by the United Nations, World Bank, NGOs, Nigerian government and governments around the world have been enunciated to cauterise it. While several policies have been put in place to promote gender equality in Nigeria, progress in this area is rather slow. The need to achieve gender equality is crucial. Therefore, the paper empirically examines the influence of gender inequality and female labour force participation in the civil service on the economic growth of Nigeria. The data cut across 35 states in Nigeria from 2008 to 2016. The model is estimated using a panel data Fixed Effect estimation. The findings suggested that the economic cost of an increase in men’s employment at the expense of women’s employment may have a negative impact on economic growth. Thus, the pursuit of equi-gender representation is an important measure towards, women empowerment, reducing their dependency, elevating their socio-economic status, and achieving economic growth.
... When these few studies are compared with the results of this study, the results are not compatible with Özer and Biçerli (2003) and Demirtaş and Yayla (2017), Niemi and Llyod (1981), Bibi and Afzal (2012), Mujahid (2013), Anyanwu et al. However, the results are consistent with the studies of Augustine (2013), Eastin and Prakash (2013), Awan and Sadia (2018), Özkök and Polat (2020) and Sertçelik (2021). ...
Enflasyon nominal milli gelirin reel milli gelire göre artması anlamına gelmektedir. Bu durumda fiyatlar genel düzeyi, sürekli ve hissedilir şekilde yükselmektedir. Enflasyon, hane halkının satın alma gücü üzerinde olumsuz bir etkiye sahiptir. Bu nedenle, aslında çalışma isteğinde olmayan kadınlar, enflasyonun yüksek olması nedeniyle aile gelirleri azaldığından, aile bütçelerine destek olmak amacıyla işgücüne daha fazla katılma eğilimi sergileyebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada Türkiye’de kadın istihdam oranları ile enflasyon oranları arasındaki ilişki 1990-2020 dönemi için araştırılmak istenmektedir. Araştırma kapsamında Fourier temelli testler kullanılmıştır. Değişkenlerin durağanlık düzeyleri hem geleneksel birim kök testleriyle hem de Fourier ADF birim kök testi ile sınanmıştır. Yapılan testlerin sonucunda, değişkenlerin düzeyde durağan olmadıkları, birinci mertebeden durağan oldukları tespit edilmiştir. Değişkenler arasındaki uzun dönemli ilişkinin tespiti için ise Fourier ADL eşbütünleşme testi yapılmıştır. Sonuç olarak, kadın istihdam oranı ile enflasyon oranları değişkenleri arasında eşbütünleşik bir ilişki olduğu tespit edilmiş olup, uzun dönemde enflasyon oranındaki artış yönündeki değişimlerin kadın istihdam oranlarını artırdığı tespit edilmiştir.
... Dozens of empirical studies following Kuznets's work confirm the inverted U-shaped effect of economic growth on income inequality, which is now known as the Kuznets curve 5 . Inspired by the Kuznets curve hypothesis, some scholars hypothesize and confirm similar relationships between economic growth and other phenomena, including environmental degradation [11][12][13] , gender inequality 14 , and crime 15 . However, no studies explore whether there is a subjective wellbeing Kuznets curve. ...
Happiness studies generally investigate average levels of happiness rather than happiness inequality between regions, and studies of social inequality usually measure it based on the distribution of life opportunities (e.g., income) rather than life results (e.g., happiness). Inspired by the Kuznets curve, which illustrates the inverted U-shaped correlation between income inequality and economic growth, this study investigates whether there is a subjective wellbeing Kuznets curve. It uses data from ten waves of the Chinese General Social Survey to construct a panel data set and runs panel data models to investigate the hypothesized curvilinear relationship between happiness inequality and economic growth. The results show that happiness inequality, measured as the standard deviations of respondents’ self-reported happiness, first increases and then decreases as per-capita GDP increases in Chinese provinces. These findings strongly support the subjective wellbeing Kuznets curve hypothesis and suggest that strategies for reducing happiness inequality must consider stages of economic development.
... Globally, the FLFP rate (defined by the World Bank as the percentage of females aged fifteen years and over who are employed in paid work) looks stubbornly stable over the last 30 years (figure 1 ), but this masks significant variation at the country level. Figure 2 displays country-level FLFP data from the year 2018, and we see wide variation in female employment across the world, with notably low rates in the Middle East and North Africa, parts 6 Eastin and Prakash (2013) posit that the relationship between FLFP and economic development looks more like an S-curve, as FLFP (and gender equality more broadly) increases during the initial stages of development, decreases during a second stage, and increases again with the rise of the service sector. 7 Mary Brinton's pioneering work seeks to understand why levels of female labor force participation vary so widely across East Asian economies. ...
As countries integrate ever further into globalized production processes, scholars have found significant country-level variation in the extent to which women are able to increase their participation in the formal economy. In this paper, I improve on existing work by disaggregating globalization into its different processes, each of which has different expected effects on female labor force participation (FLFP). I examine how trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and natural resource exports affect FLFP in a cross-national time-series analysis of 129 low- to middle-income economy countries over a twenty-eight-year period. A major contribution of this paper is to show an interaction effect between trade and FDI: I find that generally trade and inward FDI have a negative effect on FLFP that diminishes as they increase together, suggesting that export-oriented FDI creates more opportunities for women than domestic-oriented FDI and trade openness unaccompanied by significant foreign investment. I also find that the more positive effect of export-oriented FDI depends on the extent to which a country has experienced industrial upgrading, suggesting that gender segregation by industry also affects the extent to which global economic integration creates employment opportunities for women in developing countries.
... There is an accumulation of empirical evidence that advancement in the status of women is linked to economic development (Eastin & Prakash, 2013;King & Mason, 2000). In places where economic growth was stable, women advanced; in places of stagnation, women were restricted. ...
This paper explores the differences in the content of commentary reports that the United Nations (UN) addressed to Islamic countries in the Stereotypes section. A significant association was found between types of violations and the level of the state’s economic development. For high-income level countries, the commentaries addressed social perceptions violations. For low-level income countries, the commentaries focused on physical practices violations. Hence, the Islamic character of the country was found to be a minor factor in comparison with the state level of development. The UN’s approach to gender stereotypes in low-income countries involves simplification and reduction, as it treats the symptoms rather than the causes.
... In a similar study, Forsythe et al. [14]present evidence for the Gender Kuznet Curve (gkc) in some regions and levels of income and a positive linear relationship between development and gender equality. Closely related to these findings is that of Eastin and Prakash [10]. Specifically, their results suggest a curvilinear-'a discernible S-shape gender Kuznets curve'. ...
In developed countries, there is a substantial gender convergence over the last century. This cannot be said for Sub-Saharan Africa. Women are underrepresented in most economic and political spheres of the region. The implication
is that the overall productivity decreases in the region. This study provides empirical evidence of gender inequality
on economic development in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. I conduct panel regression of 29 Sub Sahara African
countries over the period from 1996 to 2019. The results show that there is a significant negative impact of gender
inequality on economic development in the region, holding other variables constant. Conversely, gender parity has
a positive effect on economic development as evidence in the results. I also find that, Capital accumulation (proxy as
Gross Capital Formation), trade openness and population growth are key drivers of economic development of the
region. I recommend policies that promote gender equity, trade openness, and growth of healthy population to
promote economic development in the region
... in which: i, t denote country i at year t; GE is gender (in)equality; and Income is income level, which represents economic development. The inclusion of income and the square term of income (Income^2) control for the gender Kuznets curve hypothesis (see Eastin and Prakash (2013)). Agri is the share of the agricultural sector in output to represent economic structure; HC is human capital accumulation (log of the human capital index); Trade is trade openness (% GDP); LawCiv, LawCom, Socialist, Colony are dummy variables to proxy for culture and social characteristics; Dotour, Outtour, and Visitor are proxies for domestic tourism spending, outbound tourism spending, and international tourism spending (in % of GDP), respectively. ...
This study investigates the nexus between tourism development and gender (in)equality in a global sample of 111 economies from 1995 to 2017. Notably, this study (i) examines mutual relationships between the two factors, and (ii) carries out a comprehensive and inclusive analysis of three kinds of tourism (domestic, outbound, and international), using two measures (spending, and number of tourists) and four dimensions of gender (in)equality (employment, education, health, and rights). First, there is a mutual relationship between tourism development and gender (in)equality. Second, domestic tourism spending, visitor spending, and number of tourist arrivals generally appear to improve gender equality in employment, education, and rights. However, outbound tourism spending seems to increase gender inequality in employment and rights. In turn, gender equality likely stimulates travel activities in terms of both spending and number of tourists.
... The feminist and the neoclassical perspectives argue that the effect is positive and monotonic; Boserup (1970) hypothesizes that the relationship follows a U-shaped pattern (i.e. equality decreases in the initial stages of development and then increases beyond some economic threshold); and Eastin and Prakash (2013) show that development's effect on gender equality resembles an S shape (i.e. development first increases equality, then decreases or decelerates equality, and finally increases again). ...
The conditions under which women's national football teams do better or worse in international tournaments remains an open question. Using data from 116 countries worldwide, we have examined three arguments accounting for the gender gap in international football success, focusing on positive externalities from economic development and women's empowerment, and the active policies promoting women's football. Our findings show that the international performance of women's national football teams compared to men's national football teams increases with women's empowerment and in countries committed to the promotion of women's football, while economic development is not relevant. The general question we address is whether gender gaps disappear because of economic and social development, or if active policies promoting women are required to achieve gender equality.
... In a similar study, Forsythe et al. [14] present evidence for the Gender Kuznet Curve (gkc) in some regions and levels of income and a positive linear relationship between development and gender equality. Closely related to these ndings is that of Eastin and Prakash [10]. Speci cally, their results suggest a curvilinear-'a discernible S-shape gender Kuznets curve'. ...
In developed countries, there is a substantial gender convergence over the last century. This cannot be said for Sub-Sahara Africa. Women are underrepresented in most economic and political spheres of the region. The implication is that the productivity of men increases relative to women thus decreases the supply of women’s labor force and increases the supply of men’s labor force. This study provides evidence of gender inequality on economic development in the Sub-Sahara Africa region. I conduct panel regression of 29 Sub Sahara African countries over the period from 1996 to 2019. Our results show that there is a significant negative impact of gender inequality on economic development in the region, holding other variables constant. Conversely, gender parity will positively affect economic development as evidence in our results. I also find that, Capital accumulation (proxy as Gross Capital Formation), trade openness and population growth are key drivers of economic development of the region. I recommend policies that promote gender equity, trade openness, and growth of healthy population to promote economic development in the region.
JEL: A, B, E, H, J, O
... The HDI is composed of measures of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators [28]. Development status and economic strength are often associated with gender equality; this allows us to partial out development and gender equality from institutional features' effects on women's representation [29][30][31][32]. ...
Underrepresentation of women in politics is a matter of great concern to social scientists, citizens, and policymakers alike. Despite effort over the past decade to ameliorate it with gender quotas of different types, scientific research provides a mixed picture on the extent to which quotas can close these gender gaps under different conditions. We approach this puzzle by focusing on the orientation of electoral systems— candidate -centered vs. platform -centered—as a context that conditions the effect of quotas on representation. Our analyses of 76 countries’ electoral rules and legislatures show that contrary to expectations, it is in candidate -oriented systems that quotas facilitate stronger effect on women’s representation. Even after considering proportional representation, district magnitude, human development, or labor-force participation as alternative explanations, we show that quotas foster greater increases in gender representation in candidate-oriented systems. The broader implications are that in electoral systems that tend to have larger gender gaps, quotas have a substantial contribution to equal representation.
... Eastin e Prakash 14 analisaram a relação entre desenvolvimento econômico e igualdade de gênero. Eles explicam que os primeiros avanços na igualdade de gênero estão associados aos estágios iniciais de desenvolvimento econômico 14 . Esses ganhos são desafiados e sofrem retrocesso quando ameaçam instituições patriarcais profundamente arraigadas 14 . ...
Enquanto crises econômicas desencadeiam o aumento da insegurança alimentar (IA) e da desigualdade de gênero (DG), o apoio social tem mostrado aliviar esses impactos. No entanto, diferentemente de outros choques econômicos, a pandemia de Covid-19 incluiu no cenário de crise o isolamento social. Este estudo utilizou dados de pesquisa transversal coletados em 18 países da América Latina (AL) para avaliar as mudanças nas percepções de DG e sua associação com a IA e o apoio social durante período de crise econômica na região. Os resultados mostraram aumentos graduais nas percepções de DG na AL e que os entrevistados com IA e baixo apoio social eram os mais propensos a perceber a DG. Mulheres são mais vulneráveis à IA e à violência doméstica, e o isolamento social pode ser um agravante. Políticas públicas devem garantir que mulheres tenham maior controle sobre a renda e bens produtivos.
... The Kuznets curve has been adapted to gender inequality in the form of the GKC (Sileem, 2020); however, the empirical evidence is inconclusive. The influential work of Eastin and Prakash (2013) on GKC emphasises that economic development and gender inequality are contingent on the developmental phase, but it is not a simple inverted-U shape relationship. Therefore, this study checks for the existence of GKC by adding the square term of the economic development variable (Income) to Eq. (1): ...
Gender inequality has improved slightly over recent decades, but it is still a critical issue across the globe, especially in developing countries. This study investigates the influence of energy poverty reduction on gender inequality, using a sample of 51 developing countries from 2002 to 2017 and considering four dimensions: employment, health, education, and socio-political-economic rights. By applying a two-step system generalised method of moments estimator to deal with endogeneity, the results are shown to be statistically robust. Reduction in energy poverty appears to increase employment opportunities for women, especially in industry and service sectors, which results in an improvement in the number of female wage and salaried workers in comparison with their male counterparts. Energy poverty reduction is also found to re-balance gender inequality in health indicators. Notably, reduced energy poverty is an influential factor in gender equality in education and socio-economic rights. The results are checked for robustness by five different proxies of energy poverty reduction and different estimate strategies. Based on these findings, the governments of developing countries should focus principally on alleviating energy poverty as the first and most crucial policy to curb gender inequality.
... As women's empowerment rises, a nation's collective human capital increases. Not only does this improve the quality of labor available but the benefits compound when competitive labor markets stimulate economic expansion and promote the exchange of ideas across an increasing number of workers (Klasen and Lamanna, 2009;Eastin and Prakash, 2013). Gender integration has been shown to have economic benefits at the national level, but these positive outcomes have not been examined at the level of local labor markets. ...
Theories of endogenous economic growth propose that the exchange of information between workers with different knowledge facilitates innovation. In this study, we explore whether occupational gender segregation poses a barrier to endogenous growth by limiting the extent to which women and men workers exchange information, ideas and perspectives. Focusing on technology industries as a sector where information exchange plays a large role, we use error correction models to test for the potential long-term costs of occupational gender segregation on industry growth and productivity across US local labor markets from 2005 through 2019. Results indicate that occupational gender segregation stalls tech growth, while also hindering productivity. Conversely stated, the occupational integration of women and men provides a boon to growth and productivity in local tech sectors. As regions strive to be competitive in the new economy, those fostering collaboration between women and men will be better positioned to succeed.
... Globalization without regulations and counterchecks will lead to depletion of natural resources as well as social capital. Inequalities that globalization is responsible for within and between countries need to be addressed (Dabla-Norris et al. 2015). Globalization disrupts native culture by universalizing a global culture. ...
... The impact of this process on dowry murders resembles a Kuznet's curve. Though the mechanisms differ, Kuznet's curves have been found in income inequality, (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2002;Nielsen & Alderson, 1997), state stability (Huntington, 2006), environmental degradation (Stern, 2004) and gender inequality (Eastin & Prakash, 2013). ...
Why do some informal institutions increase in prevalence while other informal institutions decline? We study why dowry deaths have increased with economic development in some Indian states but have decreased in others. We argue that when economic development is low, traditional institutions rather than state institutions govern behaviour. But as economic development increases to a high level, modern formal institutions replace traditional informal institutions. Women are increasingly exploited and murdered over dowry as incomes increase from a low level, but fewer deaths occur as incomes increase from a high level. We test this argument using a dataset of dowry deaths in years 2001–2011 for 32 Indian states and territories. Our paper contributes to understanding how exploitation through informal institutions rises and falls with economic development.
... Over time, rates of women's labor force participation have increased rapidly [5,15]. In addition, as gender equality in the labor market continues to increase [16] and women's economic activities increase, barriers to women's employment and income disparities between men and women are decreasing [17,18]. Women have improved their qualifications for jobs and are employed in higher-level positions [19,20]. ...
This study aimed to examine the relationship between maternal economic well-being and children’s mental health outcomes in adulthood and to consider the moderating effect of race/ethnicity. This study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 for Children and Young Adults. The two datasets were merged, and 4224 pairs were selected for the final sample. Ordinary linear regression and logistic regression analyses were used. Poverty and lower net worth among mothers were positively associated with their children’s depression in young adulthood. Race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between maternal poverty and children’s depression. Therefore, women’s economic resources may be an important factor in the development of mental health issues among their children in young adulthood. Developing anti-poverty policies that target women may assist in reducing depressive symptoms in their children once they reach young adulthood, specifically for non-Hispanic White children.
... Disponible en: http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GDI. desarrollados en los que las mujeres tienen menos oportunidades que los hombres (dificultades para acceder al mercado laboral, para formar su capital humano o tener un mayor poder de negociación en el reparto de las tareas del hogar), es un incentivo para acceder a profesiones mejor remuneradas aunque no se correspondan con sus preferencias personales (Eastin & Prakash, 2013). ...
¿Están los roles adoptados por mujeres y hombres determinados por su biología? ¿Cobran las mujeres menos que los hombres por realizar el mismo trabajo? ¿Tienen las mujeres las mismas posibilidades de llegar a puestos de alto mando que los hombres? ¿Deben poder las mujeres ofrecer sus servicios sexuales a cambio de una contraprestación económica? ¿Es el machismo la causa principal de la violencia en pareja? ¿Qué estrategias retóricas utiliza el feminismo dominante para expandir su mensaje? Este libro analiza y aclara algunos de los principales postulados del feminismo dominante en la actualidad en Estados Unidos y Europa Occidental. Y plantea una nueva narrativa que apuesta por el empoderamiento, la igualdad ante la ley y la protección de la libertad individual, ante el asedio a la presunción de inocencia y la libertad de expresión.
The underlying literature hypothesises and provides randomised evidence for the positive impact of promoting the broad-based inclusion, empowerment, and representation of women on regional ecosystems. This study seeks to isolate a female agency-driven development factor in external sovereign emerging market debt and finds evidence for superior risk-adjusted returns from tilting towards female agency leaders. We propose the female agency factor as an additional scope in the modern investor’s toolbox of holistic credit assessment, allowing investors to isolate the issuers which are the most effective sovereign transmission mechanisms of sustainable development capital. This contribution to the corpus supports the notion of integrating sustainability factors into portfolio construction and reinforces the argument for supporting female-led development from a financial markets’ perspective.
İşgücü piyasasında cinsiyet temelli ayrımcılık hem sosyal adaleti hem de ekonomik
kalkınmayı olumsuz yönde etkilemektedir. Cavalcanti ve Tavares (2007), işgücü piyasasında cinsiyet temelli ayrımcılığın, sosyal adaleti ve toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliği idealini zedelemesinin yanı sıra, ek ekonomik maliyetlere de neden olduğunu belirtmektedir. Araştırmacılar tarafından yapılan teorik ve ampirik çalışmalar, ayrımcılığın refah üzerindeki etkilerini kavramada önemli bir rol oynamaktadır. Bu tür eşitsiz uygulamaların sosyal refahı düşürmesi sorunlu görülmüş ve içsel gerekçelerle bu eşitsizliğin giderilmesini savunanları yadsımayan ancak ekonomik performansa odaklanarak ayrımcı uygulamaların neden olduğu düşük kadın işgücü katılım oranlarının, kalkınmanın sonuçları üzerindeki araçsal etkilerini araştıran bir literatür gelişmiştir.
The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis assumes the nonlinear relationship between production and its environmental effects, suggesting that the negative effect of production on the natural environment is reversed at higher levels of development. In contrast to the majority of the studies, this paper considers the possibility of non‐linear effects of per capita output on agricultural land use (cropland), as one of the natural resource stocks, and additionally examines the influence of demographic and productivity variables on the agricultural land use. The study draws on panel data from 143 economies over the 1990–2019 period and employs a series of panel econometrics techniques (including panel unit root and cointegration tests, panel ordinary least squares, generalized method of moments, and panel quantile models). The results unequivocally indicate the inverted U‐shaped relationship between the GDP per capita and cropland use, as per EKC hypothesis. The results are robust with respect to employing different techniques, the identified turning points correspond to low and low‐middle‐income levels, and the effects of agricultural productivity and population density on land use are respectively negative and positive.
Climate change and global warming are major modern challenges, while gender inequality has been a social issue throughout the history of humankind. This study attempts to investigate how natural threats influence gender inequality. The study estimates the influence of the likelihood of suffering harms due to natural hazards on gender inequality in education, health, employment, and rights for a sample of 130 countries from 2011 to 2019. Natural threats appear to reduce the proportions of waged and salaried female workers in comparison with males, while inducing higher levels of self-employment among women. Natural threats increase gender inequality in education at both primary and tertiary levels. Natural threats seem to decrease the health status of men more than that of women, which is reflected in increased ratios of female/male life expectancy or survival to age 65. Natural threats are, surprisingly, found to improve women's rights. Abstract 3 Climate change and global warming are major modern challenges, while gender inequality 4 has been a social issue throughout the history of humankind. This study attempts to 5 investigate how natural threats influence gender inequality. The study estimates the 6 influence of the likelihood of suffering harms due to natural hazards on gender inequality in 7 education, health, employment, and rights for a sample of 130 countries from 2011 to 2019. 8 Natural threats appear to reduce the proportions of waged and salaried female workers in 9 comparison with males, while inducing higher levels of self-employment among women. 10 Natural threats increase gender inequality in education at both primary and tertiary levels. 11 Natural threats seem to decrease the health status of men more than that of women, which 12 is reflected in increased ratios of female/male life expectancy or survival to age 65. Natural 13 threats are, surprisingly, found to improve women's rights. 14
The biggest barrier to an egalitarian Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) appears to be deeply ingrained structural obstacles and gender imbalances. The significant prevalence of gender inequities, which have both structural and economic ramifications, must be addressed if SSA is committed to achieving the Africa 2063 Agenda (the Africa we want) and Sustainable Development Agenda 2030: gender equity and equality, and economic development. Using partial least squares simultaneous equation modeling (PLS‐SEM), this study examines the effects of gender inequality and occupational segregation on economic growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa. The explanatory power of the structural path model indicated that 17.3% of the variations in latent endogenous variable economic growth in SSA are explained by gender inequality and occupational segregation. This is evidence that gender inequality and occupational segregation account for a significant portion of economic growth in the SSA region. The results of a bootstrapping simulation indicate that, in SSA nations, the direct impact of gender inequality on economic growth is insignificant (β = 0.068, p > 0.05) while occupational segregation, macroeconomic policies, and globalization have a significant impact. However, the indirect effects of both gender inequality (β = −0.048, p < 0.05) and occupational segregation (β = −0.011, p < 0.05) on economic growth via the coordinating power of macroeconomic policy and globalization are significant. This demonstrated that macroeconomic policies are not gender‐neutral. It is therefore recommended that the most significant progress toward achieving an egalitarian SSA be made through an adequate fiscal policy interplay that considers the socioeconomic level of SSA people. Advocate for trade liberalization policies and globalization to benefit from the spillover effects of greater demand for female labor, which promotes gender equality and economic expansion. Even though the gender gap in education and health is closing, SSA countries should fully implement the International Labour Organization (ILO) treaties on gender equality. This will help to lessen social consumption spending and encourage investment spending, which generates returns to develop the economy in the realization of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 and the Africa 2063 Agenda (the Africa we want).
South Korea has been faced with a widening economic gender gap during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. To inform discussion of Korean women’s future following the pandemic, this article explores the country’s history of women’s empowerment. It identifies cultural, educational, economic, and political changes, and their long-term effects on women’s role and status. The analysis is based on data collected from Korea’s national statistical database and a review of relevant literature. Findings inform policy directions for advancing women’s economic empowerment in Korea and other countries following a similar development path and contribute to expanding our understanding of the factors and relations influencing women’s empowerment.
JEL codes: J160
This article analyzes the status of women in Pakistan as well as the effectiveness of new legislation on women's empowerment in Pakistan. I examine the impact of governmental efforts to empower women on social practices in Pakistan. The concept of women's empowerment is becoming popular horizontally, but vertically, actual empowerment is hindered because of the glass-ceiling and social taboos; hence, a lot of sincere and strenuous efforts are required to change the prevailing mindset. To support gender equality, Pakistan, like other states, encourages women's participation in social, political and economic spheres. However, the success of a few female role models tends to obscure the obstacles faced by the majority of women workers. This article underscores that Pakistan has introduced positive amendments to its constitution in order to reinforce women's positions in different sectors during the last two decades, but that several anomalies are attached to women's involvement in social, political and security sectors. The legal policies of Pakistan are built on universalistic assumptions aiming to uplift women's status. However, the domestic situation is different in its presuppositions and hampers the implementation of the law. This paper raises the question of why longstanding governmental efforts have not achieved the goal of women's empowerment? In researching this paper, a close societal level observation was made. Afterwards, books, official documents, websites, articles and opinions were examined to support an objective and real analysis. The intended purpose of this paper is to analyze the barriers to the implementation of laws favouring women's empowerment. Additionally, this paper presents policy recommendations for ensuring vertical empowerment and development of leadership skills for women in Pakistan.
This paper aims to provide insights into the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of firms from emerging and developed countries relative to their control mechanisms and institutional framework. The main objective is to determine which of these board, ownership and country-level drivers exert the greatest explanatory power in ESG performance. In other words, this paper examines the behaviour of the board of directors, ownership and the effect of institutional pressure. Using a sample of 69,461 firm-year observations from 2012 to 2018, and following a two-stage analysis model, the results point to interesting findings for both blocks of countries. In emerging environments, the country effect prevails and the positive effect of the board of directors guarantees its efficiency, while in developed countries, the main mechanism affecting ESG performance is the board of directors, with the ownership effect also playing a key role.
Understanding the complex interactions among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is key to achieving all of the SDGs and ‘leaving no one behind’. However, research about dynamic changes of SDG interactions is limited, and how they change as sustainable development progresses remains elusive. Here, we used a correlational network approach and a global SDG database of 166 countries to analyse the evolution of SDG interactions along a progression of sustainable development measured by the SDG Index. SDG interactions showed nonlinear changes as the SDG Index increased: SDGs were both more positively and more negatively connected at low and high sustainable development levels, but they were clustered into more isolated positive connection groups at middle levels. The identification of a process of decoupling followed by re-coupling along the SDG Index strengthens our understanding of sustainable development and may help to suggest action priorities to achieve as many SDGs as possible by 2030.
Economic development may have distinct implications for the environment based on
gender-diferentiated employment in various sectors of the economy. This is the frst
major attempt to incorporate gender in environmental modeling using sector-wise female
employment status and gender parity index. In this study, we investigate the environmentgender nexus through the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in 36 Asian
countries for the period 1991–2017 by panel data estimations. We fnd in all estimations
through panel FMOLS that (a) per capita GDP positively afects CO2 emissions and (b)
per capita CO2 is afected by per capita GDP squared negatively, thus confrming EKC
for panel Asian data with 971 observations. The estimations of the paper also confrm the
EKC hypothesis through panel data models in which GDP and GDP squared variables.
Our fndings suggest male and female labor market participation impacts the environment
diferently, particularly in the agricultural sectors. We also fnd that an increased schooling ratio (gender parity index) negatively impacts environmental degradation. The fndings
of the present study are expected to give insights into policymakers for understanding the
theoretical and statistical association between environmental quality and male/female labor
force in agricultural and industrial sectors for 36 Asian countries.
Toplumsal hayatta kadın ve erkeklerin eğitim, çalışma hayatı ve çeşitli sosyal alanlarda eşit olarak görülmemesi bir sorun olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bireylerin cinsiyetleri nedeniyle maruz kaldıkları eşit olmayan tutum ve davranışların şekillenmesinde gelenek ve görenekler önemli rol oynar. Kadın ve erkeklerin toplumsal yaşamın her alanında eşit söz sahibi olmaları bir gelişmişlik göstergesi olan İnsani Gelişmişlik İndeksi’nin de bileşenlerinden birini oluşturur. Birçok ülke çeşitli politikalarla toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliğini desteklemektedir. Literatürde yer alan çeşitli çalışmalarda ekonomik büyüme ve cinsiyet eşitliğinin birbirini desteklediği görülmüştür. Cinsiyet eşitliği sadece toplumsal gelişim üzerinde etkili olmakla kalmayıp aynı zamanda kadınların yaşam kalitesi üzerinde de bir etkiye sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, bireylerin sosyo-ekonomik ve demografik özelliklerinin, politik görüşlerinin, demokrasiye olan inançlarının ve dindarlık düzeylerinin cinsiyet eşitsizliği kavramına bakış açıları üzerindeki etkileri değerlendirilmiştir. Dünya Değerler Anket verisinden hareketle Gizli Sınıf Analizi ile yapılan değerlendirmede toplumun cinsiyet eşitsizliği hakkındaki düşüncelerinin genel olarak iki farklı sınıfta incelenebileceğini sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Bu sınıfların belirleyiciliği üzerinde etkili olan değişkenler eğitim düzeyi, cinsiyet, politik görüş ve demokrasiye olan inanç düzeyidir. Bununla birlikte yaşın, sosyal statünün ve dindarlık düzeyinin bu grupların belirlenmesinde önemli olmadığı görülmüştür.
Africa’s digital future makes an important and timely contribution to the literature on Africa, exploring the many opportunities and challenges that the continent faces in a world characterised by accelerating technological change.
The overarching question that Africa’s digital future addresses is whether African countries have the foresight, resources and motivation to leverage the considerable power of digital technologies to transform their economies in sustainable and inclusive ways.
The book comprises 10 chapters which examine a wide range of topics that are central to Africa’s growth and development prospects – industrialisation, global and regional value chains, transport and logistics, trade facilitation, labour-market dynamics, employment, education, policies and regulations, and more – all through a digital lens, with digital trade forming the backdrop to several of the chapters.
The steady encroachment of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and other digital technologies into people’s lives has attracted much research interest around the world. But few publications (until now) have delved deeply and thoroughly into the implications of digitalisation for Africa specifically and what countries on the continent need to do to chart a steady course into the future.
Written in an engaging style which will appeal to a wide audience, Africa’s digital future combines academic rigour with reflective policy-related commentary, emphasising the need for Africa to realistically consider its future while not forgetting its past. The word ‘action’ in the title is intended to convey a sense of urgency and to emphasise that Africa needs to own its future if it is to benefit from it.
There are different interpretations of the relation between globalization and gender. One school advocates that participation in the global financial market, improves the quality of life of women, promotes social integration, supports women's employment and investment. The other holds that economic globalization reinforces patriarchal institutions, increasing the exploitation of female labor, deepening existing inequalities and create new ones. The third orientation is based on the view that in the early stages
of development, macro and micro patriarchal institutions restrict the ability of women to be employed, while in the latter interval, the participation of women in the labor market increases. Many economic analyzes have so far shown that the entire burden of global reconceptualization of space and structural adjustment of the economy falls on the urban population, the working class and women. It is these social structures are in some way alleviate the "shock therapy" of neoliberal economic policies designed to increase the price reduction of social services, the abolition of privileges and the introduction of co-payments for education and health - austerity, and increasing uncertainty and
unpredictability in employment and earnings – precarity.
Key words: women, globalization, social development, neoliberalism, social isolation.
As women’s labor participation has increased, the fertility rate has decreased. However, there is little research addressing economic well-being among females and the effect of females’ economic well-being on the fertility rate. Through this study, we examines the effects of females’ economic well-being on fertility and differences in the association across ethnicity/race. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 was used. 3734 females were selected for the final sample. The sample consists of 1834 non-Hispanic Whites, 1175 African Americans, and 725 Hispanics. Ordinary Linear Regression Analyses and Logistic Regression Analyses were conducted. There were ethnic/racial disparities in economic well-being amongst females. Poverty was positively associated with both having more children and higher numbers of miscarriages/stillbirths. Interaction effects were found: African Americans and Hispanics moderated the association between poverty and number of children. This research contributes to further understanding ethnic/racial disparities between females’ economic well-being and fertility.
We present trends in intra-household gender inequality for forty five different countries across a four decade period (1973–2016), using global micro-data from 2.85 million households. Intra-household gender inequality has declined by 20% in the four decades that we study. However, current levels are still significant so that any neglect of intra-household gender inequality results in a substantial underestimation of overall earnings inequality. For a sub-sample of countries, we show that the relationship between intra-household gender inequality and household economic status is non-monotonic – that we refer to as the “micro-GKC” (micro Gender Kuznets Curve) relationship. We also develop an empirical framework to measure the aggregate welfare loss from intra-household gender inequality. For a range of plausible inequality aversion assumptions, we report a median welfare loss of over 15% of aggregate earnings.
This paper mainly aims at exploring factors affecting women's career progression in Bahraini banking sector. To achieve the objectives of the study, qualitative research approach was applied through semi-structured interviews specifically designed to collect primary information from(37) female managers working in banks. The collected data was analysed using content analysis. The results showed that organisational, societal, and individual factors had a large impact on women's career progression, where organisational factor includes impeding women from attending leadership training and mentorship programmes, lack of women role models, disempowerment, lack of confidence in women's performance, and bias and discrimination. While, societal factor includes stereotyping, societal norms and perceptions, and clash of cultures. Individual factor includes lack of personality traits, lack of education and mentorship, and hesitation and fear. In light of these results, the researcher recommended that it should be an understanding of the male perception of barriers that impede female career advancement.
China has earned a reputation for lax environmental standards that allegedly attract corporations more interested in profit than in moral responsibility and, consequently, further negate incentives to raise environmental standards. Surprisingly, Ka Zeng and Joshua Eastin find that international economic integration with nation-states that have stringent environmental regulations facilitates the diffusion of corporate environmental norms and standards to Chinese provinces. At the same time, concerns about "green" tariffs imposed by importing countries encourage Chinese export-oriented firms to ratchet up their own environmental standards. The authors present systematic quantitative and qualitative analyses and data that not only demonstrate the ways in which external market pressure influences domestic environmental policy but also lend credence to arguments for the ameliorative effect of trade and foreign direct investment on the global environment.
"The authors make some very critical interventions in this debate and scholars engaged in the environmental 'pollution haven' and 'race to the bottom' debates will need to take the arguments made here seriously, re-evaluating their own preferred theories to respond to the insightful theorizing and empirically rigorous testing that Zeng and Eastin present in the book."
—Ronald Mitchell, University of Oregon
"This book conducts a solid, multilevel empirical examination of the effects of international market and economic globalization on domestic environmental policy and corporate environmental governance in China. The findings challenge both the 'pollution haven' and the 'race-to-the-bottom' assumptions about China's environmental practice. The book is an excellent addition to the existing literature on environmental studies, and should receive a warm welcome among scholars, policymakers, and environmental movement activists."
—Sujian Guo, San Francisco State University
While the existence of occupational gender segregation is well known, it has been usual to see it as a reflection of women’s disadvantage. However, cross-national data show that the greater the segregation, the less tends to be women’s disadvantage. The solution to this puzzle entails the introduction of the two orthogonal dimensions of segregation, where only the vertical dimension measures inequality while the horizontal dimension measures difference without inequality. Furthermore, the two dimensions tend to be inversely related, with a tendency for the horizontal component to be larger and so have more effect on the resultant overall segregation; hence the inverse relation between overall segregation and inequality. The usual explanations of segregation, being focused on inequality, are inadequate. To understand the situation it is necessary to take account of the many related factors in social change, and to recognize that horizontal segregation reduces opportunities for gender discrimination within occupations. An exploratory test of the argument is conducted for the US, Canada and Britain. With pay as the vertical dimension the results are essentially as predicted. With CAMSIS, a measure of occupational advantage, a slight advantage lies with women. The test is less clear but consistent with the argument.
Examinant les differentes versions de l'argument de la societe civile en faveur de la democratie liberale, l'A. interroge les raisons socio-economiques qui poussent les gens a rejoindre de mauvaises organisations qui portent prejudice aux associations et a l'efficacite democratique.
In the world of feminist activism, the time is ripe for reflection and review. We need to ask why change is not happening, what works, and what is next. This article points to the fact that while women have made many gains in the last decade, policies that successfully promote women's empowerment and gender equality are not institutionalised in the day-to-day routines of State, nor in international development agencies. We argue for changes which re-delineate who does what, what counts, who gets what, and who decides. We also argue for changes in the institutions that mediate resources, and women's access, voice, and influence. We outline key challenges, as well as ways to envision change and strengthen the capacity of State and development organisations to deliver better on women's rights.
Sex differentials in child mortality in rural Punjab persist unexpectedly despite relative wealth, socioeconomic development including rapid universalization of female education, fertility decline, and mortality decline. The most striking finding is that discrimination against girls is not generalized but highly selective: sex differentials in mortality are affected far more by birth order than by socioeconomic factors. While mother's education improves quality of childcare, it does not reduce discrimination against higher birth order daughters. Fertility reduction appears to heighten such selective discrimination. Sex discrimination has often been attributed to a lack of female participation in productive activities and also to economic hardship. This analysis emphasizes the role of women's structural marginalization in this patrilineally organized society in explaining the existence as well as the persistence of sex discrimination.
In the period 1946-2001, there were 225 armed conflicts and 34 of them were active in all of or part of 2001. Armed conflict remains a serious problem in the post-Cold War period. For three decades, the Correlates of War project has served as the main supplier of reliable data used in longitudinal studies of external and internal armed conflict. The COW datasets on war use the relatively high threshold of 1,000 battle-deaths. The Uppsala dataset on armed conflict has a lower threshold, 25 annual battle-deaths, but has so far been available for only the post-Cold War period. This dataset has now been backdated to the end of World War II. This article presents a report on armed conflict based on this backdate as well as another annual update. It presents the procedures for the backdating, as well as trends over time and breakdowns for the type of conflict. It assesses the criteria for measuring armed conflict and discusses some directions for future data collection in this area.
Abstract The relative status of women is poor in the developing world,
Women have made less progress toward gender equality in the Middle East than in any other region. Many observers claim this is due to the region's Islamic traditions. I suggest that oil, not Islam, is at fault; and that oil production also explains why women lag behind in many other countries. Oil production reduces the number of women in the labor force, which in turn reduces their political influence. As a result, oil-producing states are left with atypically strong patriarchal norms, laws, and political institutions. I support this argument with global data on oil production, female work patterns, and female political representation, and by comparing oil-rich Algeria to oil-poor Morocco and Tunisia. This argument has implications for the study of the Middle East, Islamic culture, and the resource curse.
Does the implementation of a World Bank structural adjustment agreement (SAA) increase or decrease government respect for human rights? Neoliberal theory suggests that SAAs improve economic performance, generating better human rights practices. Critics contend that the implementation of structural adjustment conditions causes hardships and higher levels of domestic conflict, increasing the likelihood that regimes will use repression. Bivariate probit models are used to account for World Bank loan selection criteria when estimating the human rights consequences of structural adjustment. Using a global, comparative analysis for the 1981–2000 period, we examine the effects of structural adjustment on government respect for citizens' rights to freedom from torture, political imprisonment, extra-judicial killing, and disappearances. The findings show that World Bank SAAs worsen government respect for physical integrity rights.
Large-n studies of conflict have produced a large number of statistically significant results but little accurate guidance in terms of anticipating the onset of conflict. The authors argue that too much attention has been paid to finding statistically significant relationships, while too little attention has been paid to finding variables that improve our ability to predict civil wars. The result can be a distorted view of what matters most to the onset of conflict. Although these models may not be intended to be predictive models, prescriptions based on these models are generally based on statistical significance, and the predictive attributes of the underlying models are generally ignored. These predictions should not be ignored, but rather need to be heuristically evaluated because they may shed light on the veracity of the models. In this study, the authors conduct a side-by-side comparison of the statistical significance and predictive power of the different variables used in two of the most influential models of civil war. The results provide a clear demonstration of how potentially misleading the traditional focus on statistical significance can be. Until out-of-sample heuristics - especially including predictions - are part of the normal evaluative tools in conflict research, we are unlikely to make sufficient theoretical progress beyond broad statements that point to GDP per capita and population as the major causal factors accounting for civil war onset.
The Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Gender, Institutions and Development Data Base (GID-DB) is a new cross-country research tool with comprehensive measures of gender equality. It improves upon existing sources because it is the only data base on gender that systematically incorporates indicators of social norms, traditions and family law. The GID-DB thereby permits analysis of hypotheses that link cultural practices to gender equality, human development and economic growth. A cross-country comparison of the data indicates that inequalities in social institutions are particularly pronounced in countries with low female literacy rates, but correlate less strongly with Gross Domestic Product per capita. Similarly, our econometric analysis suggests a clearly negative correlation between gender inequality of the OECD Development Center and women's labor-force participation.*The views expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the authors
Although the Muslim world is sometimes depicted as a homogeneous civilization lacking democracy and gender equality, Muslim
countries show tremendous economic, political and cultural variation. In this paper, this variation is used to gain insight
into the determinants of women’s labor market participation (LMP) in the Muslim world. We use data on 45 Muslim countries
and apply SEM models to determine effects of modernization, democracy, cultural background, and state Islamization on women’s
participation in the formal economy (absolute LMP) and on the share of women in the labor force (relative LMP). Women’s absolute
LMP is higher in Muslim countries with higher levels of economic development and in the oil-exporting countries. For women’s
relative LMP, practical democracy (the degree to which people actively participate in the system) takes in a key position.
It has a strong positive effect on women’s relative LMP and mediates the effects of economic development (positive), formal
democratic structures (positive) and state Islamization (negative) on women’s relative LMP. Results indicate that in these
countries modernization may lead to empowerment of women by increasing their absolute LMP, but that for attaining gender equality
the political opportunity structures is most important.
The relative importance of marital and fertility characteristics upon female employment rates is tested in an attempt to explain the significant differential in women’s nonagricultural participation rates between Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. Despite the striking differences in characteristics between the two populations with respect to variables centrally related to woman’s employability, there is not enough evidence of the influence of these differences upon female employment rates. When the female population in Chile is subjected through standardization analysis to the same marital and fertility characteristics of Egypt, they continued to manifest high overall participation rates. Estimation of the womanpower potential in three Middle Eastern countries given their present marital characteristics shows that if women in these societies had the same propensity to be employed as women in Latin America, the overall nonagricultural female activity rate would increase threefold in Morocco, fivefold in Egypt and sevenfold in Pakistan. It is suggested that the explanation for the regional differential has to be sought in a comparative study of family and kinship organization between Latin American and Middle Eastern societies with special reference to the role of the kinship unit in the system of social control.
With the end of the Cold War economic issues moved to the fore of the international agenda. The integration of markets, dominated by multi-national corporations and orchestrated by international financial institutions, has many concerned for the political and economic rights of the common citizen. This is a comprehensive cross-national study examining the effect of globalization on the attainment of the subgroup of human rights known as personal integrity rights. The impact of global economic patterns on the attainment of these rights is mixed.
We examine the reduced-form relationship between per capita income and various environmental indicators. Our study covers
four types of indicators: urban air pollution, the state of the oxygen regime in river basins, fecal contamination of river
basins, and contamination of river basins by heavy metals. We find no evidence that environmental quality deteriorates steadily
with economic growth. Rather, for most indicators, economic growth brings an initial phase of deterioration followed by a
subsequent phase of improvement. The turning points for the different pollutants vary, but in most cases they come before
a country reaches a per capita income of $8000.
The relative importance of marital and fertility characteristics upon female employment rates is tested in an attempt to explain
the significant differential in women's nonagricultural participation rates between Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.
Despite the striking differences in characteristics between the two populations with respect to variables centrally related
to woman's employability, there is not enough evidence of the influence of these differences upon female employment rates.
When the female population in Chile is subjected through standardization analysis to the same marital and fertility characteristics
of Egypt, they continued to manifest high overall participation rates. Estimation of the womanpower potential in three Middle
Eastern countries given their present marital characteristics shows that if women in these societies had the same propensity to be employed as women in Latin America, the overall nonagricultural
female activity rate would increase threefold in Morocco, fivefold in Egypt and sevenfold in Pakistan. It is suggested that
the explanation for the regional differential has to be sought in a comparative study of family and kinship organization between
Latin American and Middle Eastern societies with special reference to the role of the kinship unit in the system of social
control.
Gender inequality is magnified in situations ofwar, andwomen are disproportionately disadvantaged in terms of personal safety, access to resources, and human rights. This article summarizes the effects of armed conflict on women and women's greater vulnerability to health and mental health concerns because in war, women's bodies become a battleground. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 is introduced as an international framework to address women's participation in solutions to war, reconstruction, and nation building. The article also indicates ways in which socialworkers can be part of implementing this resolution to defend the human rights of women.
It is argued that P-values and the tests based upon them give unsatisfactory results, especially in large samples. It is shown that, in regression, when there are many candidate independent variables, standard variable selection procedures can give very misleading results. Also, by selecting a single model, they ignore model uncertainty and so underestimate the uncertainty about quantities of interest. The Bayesian approach to hypothesis testing, model selection, and accounting for model uncertainty is presented. Implementing this is straightforward through the use of the simple and accurate BIC approximation, and it can be done using the output from standard software. Specific results are presented for most of the types of model commonly used in sociology. It is shown that this approach overcomes the difficulties with P-values and standard model selection procedures based on them. It also allows easy comparison of nonnested models, and permits the quantification of the evidence for a null hypothesis of interest, such as a convergence theory or a hypothesis about societal norms.
This paper identifies three theoretical perspectives on women's relative access to relatively prestigious, influential occupations: a modernization perspective, an economic discrimination perspective, and a dependency/world system perspective. It draws a set of contrasting hypotheses from these perspectives and tests them, through panel regression, with data from 57 nations. The empirical evidence offers support for the dependency/world system and the modernization views, but contradicts the economic discrimination perspective.
This report assesses the impact of culture on women's share of the labor force. Measuring both economic factors and cultural milieu, we found that culture was related not only to levels of women's share of the labor force but, in some instances, to changes in those levels. A secondary finding of the study was that the economic development of a nation had a strong positive association with increases in women's share of the labor force and that one measure of dependency (commodity concentration) had a strong negative association with such change.
Mit seinem Werk über die „stille Revolution“ avancierte der am 5. September 1934 in der amerikanischen Hafenstadt Milwaukee/Wisconsin
geborene Ronald Inglehart rasch zum Papst der Wertewandelforschung. Wie alle Päpste ist auch dieser keineswegs unumstritten.
1956 erlangte der Autor mit dem Bachelor seinen ersten Universitätsabschluss an der Northwestern University, sechs Jahre später
folgte der Master der Universität von Chicago. An der niederländischen Univsität Leiden hielt er sich in den Jahren 1963 und
1964 als Fulbright-Stipendiat auf, bevor er 1967 in Chicago mit einer Studie über die politische und wirtschaftliche Einigung
Europas promoviert wurde. Bereits ein Jahr zuvor war er Mitglied der Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften der Universität von
Michigan geworden, an dessen Institute for Social Research Inglehart seit 1978 als Professor für Politikwissenschaft wirkt.
Daneben nahm Inglehart verschiedene Gastprofessuren wahr, so etwa in Mannheim, Genf, Kyoto, Leiden, Rom und Berlin. Von 1994
bis 2000 gehörte er dem wissenschaftlichen Beirat des Berliner Wissenschaftszentrums an. Darüber hinaus ist er im Herausgebergremium
mehrerer wichtiger Fachzeitschriften.
This paper uses cross-national data to examine how economic, political, and educational structures affect both the participation of women in the labor force and their employment in more powerful and wellrewarded positions. We find that both the level of industrialization and the degree of state corporateness positively influence the participation of women, but that these fail to affect the proportion of women in the administrative and managerial occupations. However, the relative number of women in higher education shows positive effects on both dependent variables. We interpret this finding as a process of ‘institutional demystification’ and discuss the overall pattern of effects as ‘incorporation at the rear of the bus.’
Postmaterialists argue that citizens' values change when economic development expands educational opportunities. In modernized societies, people embrace postmaterialist values such as self-expression and the quality of life, including support for gender equality. We argue that the political processes that accompany modernization influence value formation. Since all societies do not modernize in the same way, citizens in different regions do not share an identical set of values at a particular stage in modernization. We compare East Asia with other regions, arguing that in East Asia, state-driven modernization processes incorporated gender inequality, and citizens' values reflect the norms disseminated by their governments. We use the underutilized Gallup International Millennium Survey, conducted in more than 60 countries in 2000.
Thematic connections between gender, conflict and violence are significant areas of enquiry in recent times. Engendering conflict has been of some concern to academics, given the context of national and international conflict in areas as diverse as Bosnia, Iraq, India, the UK and the USA. The conflicts have taken forms as varied as internal conflicts between religious and ethnic communities in different parts of the world, acts of aggression against sovereign states, terrorist attacks and the global 'war against terror', the stigmatisation and demonisation of the Muslim community. All these factors impact on, and are impacted by gender.
Political scientists are often called upon to estimate models in which the standard assumption that the data are conditionally independent can be called into question. I review the method of generalized estimating equations (GEE) for dealing with such correlated data. The GEE approach offers a number of advantages to researchers interested in modeling correlated data, including applicability to data in which the outcome variable takes on a wide range of forms. In addition, GEE models allow for substantial flexibility in specifying the correlation structure within cases and offer the potential for valuable substantive insights into the nature of that correlation. Moreover, GEE models are estimable with many currently available software packages, and the interpretation of model estimates is identical to that for commonly used models for uncorrelated data (e.g., logit and probit). I discuss practical issues relating to the use of GEE models and illustrate their usefulness for analyzing correlated data through three applications in political science.
Gendering the discourse of globalization will help to develop a better understanding of globalization processes and their consequences for women and men. I argue that gender processes and ideologies are embedded in globalizing capitalism in the separation of capitalist production and human reproduction and the corporate claims to non-responsibility for reproduction; in the important role of hegemonic masculinities in globalizing processes, and in the ways that gender serves as a resource for capital. I also discuss some of the consequences for women and men of these processes of globalization.
Why do some women in Muslim countries adopt fundamentalist Islamic value systems that promote gender-based inequalities while others do not? This article considers the economic determinants of fundamentalist beliefs in the Muslim world, as women look either to marriage or employment to achieve financial security. Using cross-national public opinion data from eighteen countries with significant Muslim populations, we apply a latent class model to characterize respondents according to their views on gen-der norms, political Islam, and personal religiosity. Among women, lack of economic opportunity is a stronger predictor of fundamentalist belief systems than socioeconomic class. Cross-nationally, fundamentalism among women is most prevalent in poor coun-tries and those with a large male-female wage gap. These findings have important implications for the promotion of women's rights, the rise of political Islam, and the development of democracy in the Muslim world.
With the end of the Cold War economic issues moved to the fore of the international agenda. The integration of markets, dominated by multinational corporations and orchestrated by international financial institutions, has many concerned for the political and economic rights of the common citizen. This is a comprehensive cross-national study examining the effect of globalization on the attainment of the subgroup of human rights known as personal integrity rights. The impact of global economic patterns on the attainment of these rights is mixed.
This study examines the relationship between foreign economic capital and the level of government respect for two types of human rights in developing countries. Two opposing schools of thought offer explanations as to what this relationship might be like. According to the liberal neoclassical school, the acceptance of liberal economic doctrine will provide positive political benefits to developing countries. The “dependency” school, on the other hand, argues that because ties between core and periphery elites give governments in developing nations an incentive to repress, human rights conditions will worsen as foreign economic penetration increases. The results of previous empirical queries into this matter have been mixed. In contrast to most studies, we focus on a broader measure of foreign economic capital, including foreign direct investment, portfolio investment, debt, and official development assistance. Using ordered logit analysis on a cross-national sample of forty-three developing countries from 1981 to 1995, we discover systematic evidence of an association between foreign economic penetration and government respect for two types of human rights, physical integrity rights and political rights and civil liberties. Of particular interest is the finding that both foreign direct investment and portfolio investment are reliably associated with increased government respect for human rights.
This paper describes work underway to enrich the present tools to measure women's empowerment -- particularly the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). The authors are developing an African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) on behalf of the Economic Commission for Africa, which is to be launched in 2004. The paper begins with a discussion of gender and power concepts, and then introduces a Women' s Empowerment Matrix as a tool to help link socio-cultural, religious, political, legal, and economic spheres. It then raises some of the difficulties related to the calculation of the GDI and GEM, which the authors are taking into account in the AGDI.
Whose ideas matter? And how do actors make them matter? Focusing on the strategic deployment of competing normative frameworks, that is, framing issues and grafting private agendas on policy debates, we examine the contentious politics of the contemporary international intellectual property rights regime. We compare the business victory in the establishment of the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) in the World Trade Organization with the subsequent NGO campaign against enforcing TRIPS to ensure access to essential HIV/AIDS medicines. Our analysis challenges constructivist scholarship that emphasizes the distinction between various types of transnational networks based on instrumental versus normative orientations. We question the portrayal of business firms as strictly instrumental actors preoccupied with material concerns, and NGOs as motivated solely by principled, or non-material beliefs. Yet we also offer a friendly amendment to constructivism by demonstrating its applicability to the analysis of business. Treating the business and NGO networks as competing interest groups driven by their normative ideals and material concerns, we demonstrate that these networks' strategies and activities are remarkably similar.
Mainstream political economy has tended to treat the family as a unit when examining the distributional consequences of labor market institutions and of public policy. In a world with high divorce rates, we argue that this simplification is more likely to obscure than to instruct. We find that labor market opportunities for women, which vary systematically with the position of countries in the international division of labor and with the structure of the welfare state, affect women's bargaining power within the family and as a result, can explain much of the cross country variation in the gender division of labor as well as the gender gap in political preferences.
This article examines the relationship between women’s status and economic globalization. The expectations of both proponents and skeptics of globalization are discussed with regard to women’s status, and a series of statistical examinations of this relationship are performed using data on 130 countries from 1982 to 2003. To control for the potential sensitivity of findings to the use of particular indicators of women’s status, we use five indicators of women’s status from two different data sources to represent the economic, political, and social spheres of women’s status. As well, four indicators of economic globalization are used. We find that the relationship between economic globalization and women’s status varies by type and era and, in the majority of instances, economic globalization is associated with improved women’s status.
Using a unique set of data drawn from the US census, statistics, city directories, and other sources, the author looks at the differences between men and women in the US labour force. She shows that the `gender gap' in income and job level that has existed throughout history cannot be explained simply as a matter of sex discrimination, nor as a result of inherent structural phenomena in the employment market.
Despite a growing body of development studies over the past 20 years, the impact of broad economic and social change on women's lives and on their status relative to men has been analyzed inadequately. Differences by sex are poorly understood within modernization theory, which remains one of the major perspectives underlying these studies and development policy. Modernization theorists assume that women's status rises with urbanization and capitalist development, which are said to bring a wide range of employment opportunities and to facilitate the equalization of the sexes? But these assumptions are not supported by an examination of development in Latin America, where industrial jobs are few and underemployment is pervasive) New occupations provide opportunities for some urban women~within the professions, clerical work, and social services, but many women lose a measure of independence as the subsistence economy is undermined. Employment opportunities are limited, for most women, to an extension of their household labor for pay. How is women's work shaped by the process of capitalist development in Latin America? While modernization theorists assume it provides a bridge to the modern sector and that women's status rises with urbanization and industrialization, many factors have acted to restrict women's paid work to unskilled, low-paying subordinate jobs. Expansion of capital in underdeveloped regions 3 has preserved pockets of backwardness in the urban areas and intensified women's participation in informal jobs and marginal service work. The problem of women's employment patterns under capitalist development will be explored here, first by analyzing the way in which women's work has been conceptualized within modernization theory. Second, the two types of work in which most Latin American women are engaged--domestic service and informal work such as selling produce and taking in laundry--are examined to provide evidence for challenging modernization theory and for developing a more useful approach. Third, women's domestic and informal work is considered
In the last three decades young, predominantly unmarried, Sri Lankan women have formed the backbone of an enormous economic shift toward export-oriented industrialization. As a result, much attention has focused upon the impacts and outcomes of this shift upon Sri Lankan women, particularly those employed in the nation's numerous Export Processing Zones (EPZs). The rapid absorption of young women into formal employment in EPZs has caused hardships for women in the workplace, at societal level and in terms of related gender subordination. However, employment has also brought about benefits, particularly to families and households where stable incomes are usually non-existent. Both hardships and benefits are reported in the article. However, while acknowledging that factory women in Sri Lanka's EPZs face serious hardships and new forms of gender inequality and discrimination, the research also discovered evidence of some of the benefits which new and stable employment provides. While most research has tended to focus on only the negative impacts industrialization brings upon women as labour in developing nations, the article presents data on and perceptions of two groups of factory women which indicate both positive and negative outcomes of their employment.