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on Gender |
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Issue of 2025–08–25
three papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Dancikova, Zuzana |
| Abstract: | Since the 1990s, leave policies for fathers–typically parts of parental leave set aside for fathers–have been gaining popularity as a solution to persisting inequalities in the gendered division of leaves. Research has focused on their contribution to undoing gender and found that changes in parents' division of labour have varied within and across contexts. I argue that to understand the effectiveness of leave policy for fathers, it is helpful to look beyond undoing gender (changes to parents' division of leave), to unstructuring gender (policy effects on multiple dimensions of the gender structure, which, if unchanged, may limit policy effectiveness). To illustrate my argument, I investigate the 2011 Slovak leave policy for fathers, introduced into a context characterized by an inegalitarian gender structure, including societal gendered norms on the division of leave, inegalitarian individual gendered identities and unequal patterns of leave division. Drawing on interviews with 38 mothers and fathers, I find that while the policy has affected a change in parents' leave-division, there was little evidence of change to the prevalent norms or parents' identities. Instead, these dimensions of the gender structure persisted and continued constraining fathers' uptake of the policy and parents' more equal division of leave. |
| Keywords: | gender structure; leave policy for fathers; undoing gender; unstructuring gender |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2025–08–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:129035 |
| By: | Deza, María Cecilia; Dondo, Mariana; Jara, H. Xavier; Rodríguez, David; Torres, Javier |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to assess the extent to which cash transfers, direct taxes, and social insurance contributions help to reduce gender income inequalities in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. We apply microsimulation techniques to household survey data and allocate incomes within the household, assuming that each person retains the income they receive (e.g., earnings, benefits targeting mothers) and pays taxes and social insurance contributions on an individual basis according to each country’s rules. Then, we compare gender income ratios based on market (before taxes and benefits) and disposable (after taxes and benefits) income. Our results show that, at the bottom of the distribution, tax-benefit systems significantly reduce gender income disparities in most countries due to the effect of social assistance benefits received by mothers in poor households. Additionally, we find that women have substantially higher poverty rates than men based on individual disposable income. Gender differences in poverty fade away when income is pooled at the nuclear family level and, even more so, at the household level. |
| Keywords: | taxes; benefits; microsimulation; gender gap; Latin America |
| JEL: | D31 J16 J70 H24 I32 I38 |
| Date: | 2025–08–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:129049 |
| By: | Felix Rusche (University of Mannheim & Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) |
| Abstract: | In poor countries, the interaction of early marriage, early motherhood, and low educational attainment disempowers women and limits their life opportunities. Even as countries grow richer, gender inequality is often sustained by social norms, thereby limiting welfare gains from women’s empowerment. I investigate the use of media as a cheap and scalable policy to empower women. In 2006, India enacted a community radio policy that grants radio licenses to NGOs and educational institutions with the aim to foster local development. I collect original data on the content and coverage areas of all 250+ radio stations. I uncover women’s empowerment as a key theme through topic modeling and ChatGPT-based analyses of radio show recordings. For identification, I exploit topography-driven variation in radio access and develop a novel econometric approach to deal with randomly displaced geolocated household data. The results show that women exposed to radio gain an additional 0.3 years of education and are 4.1pp (11%) more likely to obtain a secondary degree. In line with increased education, exposure reduces child marriages by 1.4pp (22%) and fertility of young women by around 10% while they are 11pp more likely to exhibit autonomy in household decisions. The findings demonstrate that community media can effectively address gender inequality. |
| Keywords: | Mass Media, Policy, Women Empowerment, Spatial Econometrics, Education |
| JEL: | O12 J13 J16 J18 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2025_05 |