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Parenthood necessarily increases the scope of unpaid work in households and tends to depress women's employment rates relative to men's. This paper examines the relationship between the use of full-time childcare for children under 3 years of age and employment rates for men and women with one, two, or three or more children under 6 years of age in European households. Panel data from a sample of the (then) twenty-eight European Union member states for the 2005–15 period were analyzed. The results indicate that smaller differences between employment rates of men and women with one, two, or three or more children under 6 years of age are associated with greater use of full-time childcare arrangements for children under the age of 3. HIGHLIGHTS Traditional gender roles impose a greater burden of unpaid work on women than men. Parenthood widens the gap between women's and men's employment rates. The use of childcare reduces gender inequality in the labor market. Part-time work arrangements help women combine parenthood and employment. Long leaves have a negative impact on women's employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between a married woman's paid work participation and her exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) in urban India. Results show that due to the male backlash channel, women in employment face significantly higher levels of IPV compared to women involved in domestic work only. The study does not find evidence that any autonomy women gain by doing paid work lowers their experience of IPV. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the literature on gender-based violence by introducing and testing for a "female guilt channel" – a phenomenon in which women in paid work justify IPV against them more than those not in paid work – that, in turn, further raises their IPV exposure. The paper finds weak evidence for the guilt channel in the overall sample and stronger evidence among women with intermediate levels of education. HIGHLIGHTS Women in paid work in urban India are more likely to accept intimate partner violence (IPV), as well as experience a higher degree of marital controlling behavior by husbands. Urban women and men with tertiary education are most likely to overcome gendered norms for paid work. IPV is higher among urban women in paid work whose husbands are not employed or earning less. Raising women's economic opportunities alone may not lead to universally better outcomes for them inside households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What role did women play during industrialization? Interpretations of this key period of history have been largely based on analyses of men's work. This paper offers evidence of the effects of women's involvement in the industrialization process that took place in Alcoy, Spain, over the period 1860–1914. Using data drawn from historical sources, the study analyzes labor force participation rates and wage series for women and men in the textile industry and three other sectors of activity (education, health, and low-skill services). The paper then connects the gender pay gaps with life expectancy indicators. Results suggest that women's contribution to household income might have favored the female life-expectancy advantage, an effect that seems to have been channeled through a reduction in the relative mortality rates of female infants and girls, at the expense of a higher mortality rate of working-age women. HIGHLIGHTS Analyzing women's early labor market participation helps interpret current trends in women's wages and life conditions. Gender wage gaps in 1860–1914 in Alcoy, Spain are representative of women's earnings during industrialization. The research connects women's earnings with gender differentials in life expectancy. Mortality rates of girls and elderly women decreased as compared to men's rates. The opposite occurred to working-age women, who were exposed to poor working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between parental education and child mortality in Madagascar. Until recently, most research linking parental education and child mortality had overlooked the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the region having a high childhood mortality rate and a low association between parental education and child survival. Adopting a careful empirical strategy based on availability of schooling infrastructure and internal instruments, this paper contributes to the literature by analyzing the role of both the father's and mother's education as well as different educational levels. The results demonstrate that children's survival probabilities increase when they have a mother with at least primary schooling. Controlling for wealth reduces the effect of mothers' education by only one-third. In contrast, fathers' education does not play a significant role in child survival. HIGHLIGHTS Parental education is strongly associated with improvements in child health in many countries. Father's education is not a strong determinant of child survival in Madagascar. Higher levels of maternal education increase child survival in Madagascar. Wealth only accounts for one-third of the total effect of maternal education. Increasing education levels especially for women will likely reduce child mortality in future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of how to organize care in degrowth societies that call for social and ecological sustainability, as well as gender and environmental justice, without prioritizing one over the other. By building on degrowth scholarship, feminist economics, the commons, and decolonial feminisms, we rebut the strategy of shifting yet more unpaid care work to the monetized economy, thereby reinforcing the separation structure in economics. A feminist degrowth imaginary implies destabilizing prevalent dichotomies and overcoming the (inherent hierarchization in the) boundary between the monetized economy and the invisibilized economy of socio-ecological provisioning. The paper proposes an incremental, emancipatory decommodification and a commonization of care in a sphere beyond the public/private divide, namely the sphere of communitarian and transformative caring commons, as they persist at the margins of capitalism and are (re-)created by social movements around the world. HIGHLIGHTS Degrowth aims at creating human flourishing within planetary boundaries. As feminist degrowth scholarship, this study discusses degrowth visions for care work. It problematizes the shifting of yet more unpaid care work to the monetized economy. Instead, it proposes collective (re)organization in the sphere of the commons. Caring commons are no automatism for a gender-just redistribution of care work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to clarify the effect of growth on gender equality for the case of Pakistan, a country that has seen periods of high growth alongside the persistence of stark gender inequalities. The paper addresses this aim by estimating gendered sectoral employment elasticities of growth for the period 1984–2017 and investigates their drivers. It finds that the secular trend toward productivity-driven growth since the turn of the millennium has lowered the responsiveness of men's employment to growth impulses in particular. For women, factors related to Pakistan's gender order are more relevant. Greater gender parity in education enables women to benefit from growth in the form of better employment access. The reverse is the case for improvements in relative women's life expectancy, understood as indicative of their social status. The paper interprets the related effect as a reduction in the precarity of women's employment associated with improved status. HIGHLIGHTS Employment dividends of growth are realized in a highly gender-differentiated way. Pakistan's gender order mediates women's volatile employment responses to growth. We use excess women's mortality as an indicator for Pakistan's gender order. Women workers bear the brunt of recessions through the loss and precarity of jobs. Education is especially relevant in reducing women's employment precarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the methodologies, scope, and impact of manuscripts submitted to and published in Feminist Economics from 1995 to 2019. The analysis finds that in addition to becoming increasingly empirical, Feminist Economics publications have also become increasingly intersectional. However, quantitative empirical submissions, relative to other methodological approaches, are more likely to be desk rejected and less likely to be eventually published if they proceed to peer review. The increasing attention to gender in the mainstream of the economics discipline, proxied by the prevalence of gender analyses in the discipline's top thirty journals, is also associated with increased desk rejection, reflecting a rise in submissions that take a mainstream "add gender and stir" approach. Ultimately, this study aims to understand how feminist economics has evolved since the inception of the journal and to spark conversation about how to continue to make the journal and economics more feminist in the future. HIGHLIGHTS Publications in Feminist Economics have become increasingly intersectional. Non-empirical work has been favored in the publication process. Special issue articles garner more citations on average. Intersectional articles garner fewer citations on average. More "gender" papers lacking feminist engagement have been submitted over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even long-run macroeconomic growth models that allow for endogenous growth rely on simplistic assumptions regarding demographic regimes. This paper develops a model with more realistic variation in such regimes, including both excessively high and excessively low levels of average fertility. Variations in the structure of the market economy shape these population dynamics, and these trends in turn affect macroeconomic outcomes. Like early overlapping generations models of the type proposed by Paul A. Samuelson, our approach points to market failures and the importance of social institutions and nonmarket relationships that influence transfers between the old and the young, and the costs of childbearing. It also highlights current demographic imbalances at the country level and points to the need to develop open-economy extensions of this model that can capture the effects of population redistribution through immigration. HIGHLIGHTS Demographic trends affect macroeconomic outcomes, and vice versa. These dynamics challenge the assumption that individual decisions generate sustainable outcomes. In the long run, below-replacement fertility can have serious economic consequences. The macroeconomic model outlined here suggests that costs of caring for dependents should be more equitably shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper relies on the 2008 and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys and an instrumental variable estimation strategy to estimate the relationship between a Nigerian woman's age at entry into her first and current marriage and entrepreneurship. The result suggests a 5-percentage point higher likelihood of engaging in entrepreneurship for women with an additional year of at marriage entry. Further, there is about a 12-percentage point increase in the likelihood of continuous engagement in self-employed work over the prior year with an additional year of age at marriage entry. This result is consistent for women who reside in rural and urban locations. Premarital investments in education, lower fertility, and better intramarriage bargaining power are the likely operative channels that explain the estimated relationship. HIGHLIGHTS Early marriage entry has economic costs and hurts women's overall empowerment. Early marriage in Nigeria is mainly influenced by religious and cultural factors. Women who marry early are less likely to engage in entrepreneurship and to do so continuously. There are no geographic differences in the effects of early marriage entry on entrepreneurship. Later marriage is associated with better education, declining fertility, and improved bargaining power of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have explored the ways that conventional economic theory does not fully explain the distribution and characteristics of caring labor – the work, unpaid and paid, of caring for those who are young, elderly, or disabled. This paper explores a critical dimension of paid care – high turnover rates in the lowest-wage segment of the sector (including childcare, nursing homes, home health). Using longitudinal data from the 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) in the US, it examines the "flip side" of that turnover by comparing occupational mobility among low-wage care workers to that of other low-wage service workers. The findings indicate that patterns of occupational transition among care workers are distinct in important ways. Understanding occupational attachment among paid care workers is critical to developing theoretical models about care and to creating care-specific policies to address employee turnover and its negative impact on care quality. HIGHLIGHTS High turnover in low-wage jobs in care-related fields has a negative impact on the quality of care. Low-wage care workers have longer job tenures and are more likely to stay in their field than other low-wage workers. Low-wage care workers experience more upward mobility than food service and cleaning workers, but less than office and sales workers. Low-wage care workers have high rates of transition to a period of not working. There is evidence of higher levels of occupational attachment among low-wage care workers than among other low-wage service workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the evolution of childcare policies in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom during the period 2005–15 in order to observe changes possibly related to economic crisis. Applying the concept of degenderization and the method of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA), the study examines: (1) equality of parental leave entitlements, (2) generosity of parental leave-related benefits, (3) accessibility of childcare services, and (4) length of all available leave schemes, at six points in time. The argument is that changes within this period did not lead to a radical transformation in childcare policy, while those shifts that took place could be more often characterized as degenderizing, contrary to expectations. Finally, the study identified policy clusters: four types of genderization (strong genderization, with care payment, with care parity, and with activation), strong and weak versions of degenderization, as well as a mixed case. HIGHLIGHTS This study traces the evolution of childcare policies across nine EU countries during the period of recession between 2005 and 2015. It uses the concept of "degenderization" to develop a typology of childcare policies. A dynamic analysis reveals that despite austerity measures, policies usually remained stable over time. Moreover, despite the crisis, policies tended to promote gender equality in care. Small steps toward degenderization in care policies over time signal that the gender revolution is not "stalled." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reveals that women had a significant presence as shareholders in Spanish financial corporations in the early-twentieth century. In the 1920s and 1930s, on average, 40 percent of the shareholders of Banco Hispano Americano, a leading commercial bank, were women, and they owned more than one-third of the share capital. The legal framework did not discriminate against women's ownership, and bank regulations did not discourage women from investing in shares. The main cause of the large share of women shareholders is kinship with other shareholders. The findings also highlight the importance of inheritance regimes that treat all siblings equally, regardless of sex, to access parents' wealth to reduce the wealth gap. Finally, the study highlights how historical cases may contribute to current debates on how women gain and retain wealth through access to financial assets. HIGHLIGHTS Historical narratives unearth the roots of contemporary financial gender inequality in an effort to narrow the gender gap. The case of the Banco Hispano Americano in Spain highlights effective strategies for promoting women's financial inclusion. Egalitarian inheritance regimes facilitate women's access to financial wealth. Urban areas increase women's agency through access to financial information. Financial assets may secure women's well-being when other support is lacking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1960s, the American Economic Association (AEA) began to address the concerns of the marginalized in the profession with the publication of Job Openings for Economists. Women economists, empowered by the mass women's liberation movement at the time, formed a committee within the AEA to press for equal opportunity and greater access to the job market. This committee focused their early efforts on reforming the labor market with one of the key activities being the creation of a job vacancy publication. The consequence of having a job vacancy publication was the establishment of a path whereby newly trained women economists were made aware of opportunities and the existing informal hiring system was gradually relied upon less. Women economists played an important role in the establishment, legitimization, and broader acceptance of a job vacancy publication that helped to further empower women and other marginalized economists. HIGHLIGHTS Women pursued equal opportunity in economics via reforms to employment-search practices. Published vacancies achieved a greater representation of women in the labor market by formalizing aspects of the labor market. The publication of job vacancies was only a first step to creating an inclusive environment for women. Not all marginalized groups saw their path to acceptance within economics paved by labor market reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home-based work is among the largest forms of employment in the informal economy in India and is overwhelmingly represented by women. Employing a social reproduction framework that reframes what is counted as labor, this article asks how women's unpaid work activities are appropriated as labor in subcontracted home-based work. Applying this analytical framework, it becomes clear that domestic work in the home, often completed by women, is needed and exploited in this production process as a result of gendered constructs of care. The contribution considers how unpaid work is directly appropriated by capital as surplus value. The context of informal work is key here because of the irregular and fragmented production process, the space where work occurs, and the use of unpaid family workers. The goal of this research is to offer empirical evidence that broadens analytical perspectives to account for the context of informality in the Global South. HIGHLIGHTS Subcontracted home-based work in India relies on a gendered, fragmented, and precarious labor force. Unpaid caregiving and household work directly contributes to profit-making. Western analytical concepts of the economy need to be reexamined in the context of the postcolonial informal economies. Research tools that measure economic participation need to capture how unpaid activities directly or indirectly contribute to economic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of men's migration on expenditure by left-behind households on children's education, focusing on the gendered distribution of this expenditure. Using longitudinal survey data of rural households in Pakistan, the effect of men's migration on the share of households' education expenditure spent on girls is estimated using the fixed-effects model (FEM). Results suggest that in households from which men migrate for periods longer than six months, the share of education expenditures spent on girls is up to 31 percent higher than that of the average household in the sample. There is no evidence of a significant impact on households' total education expenditure due to this migration. Overall, in households where men are absent, the distribution of education expenditure tilts in favor of girls. A possible mechanism behind the increase in girls' shares is the greater participation of women in household decisions in the absence of men. HIGHLIGHTS In Pakistan, rural households from which men have migrated have higher expenditure on girls' schooling. Men's outmigration plausibly expands women's participation in household decisions. Women's role in expenditure decisions may improve and increase investments in girls' education. Higher participation of women in household decisions potentially reduces gender inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gendered dimensions of employment and mental health among urban informal-sector workers in Delhi, India. First, the study finds that men's employment declined by 84 percentage points during the pandemic relative to pre-pandemic employment, while their monthly earnings fell by 89 percent relative to the baseline mean. In contrast, women did not experience any significant impact on employment during pandemic. Second, the study documents very high levels of pandemic-induced mental stress, with wives reporting greater stress than husbands. Third, this gendered pattern in pandemic-induced mental stress is partly explained by men's employment losses, which affected wives more than husbands. In contrast, women staying employed during the pandemic is associated with worse mental health for them and their (unemployed) husbands. Fourth, pre-existing social networks are associated with higher mental stress for women, possibly due to the "home-based" nature of women's networks. HIGHLIGHTS In India, men suffered larger employment losses than women during the pandemic. Women reported greater mental stress than men, although both reported high stress. Men's employment losses affected their wives' mental health more than their own. Having many peers is correlated with worse stress for women, but not men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critiques discourses about women consumers of luxury goods in Africa. It does so through the example of the designer handbag, which presented as a key theme in interviews with people employed in luxury sectors in major African cities. The luxury handbag symbolizes an overarching idea of women's success, though women are narrated as taking different routes to achieve it. Employing the spatial metaphor of the "crooked room," this article shows how luxury handbag-talk reproduces taken-for-granted ideas about what successful feminine consumers look like. The "crooked codes" of the luxury handbag refer to skewed expectations, routes, and rationales for the wealth-oriented consumption practices of African women. Luxury handbags thus symbolize the ways in which neoliberal ideology limits African women's quest for economic inclusion. This article argues that this consumption distorts African women's feminist goals while claiming liberation. HIGHLIGHTS The luxury handbag is viewed as a symbol of African women's economic success. This understanding obscures the realities of access to economic equality for most women living in African contexts. Luxury consumption privileges wealth and does not offer alternatives for women's economic empowerment. As evidence of women's achievement, the luxury handbag reveals the limits of neoliberal views for women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes whether competition with China displaced domestic manufacturing jobs in Chile using a panel of 4-digit ISIC manufacturing industries during 1995–2006. The study estimates empirical models for six job aggregates that are matched to occupational types that are either replaceable by technological change (routine) or not (non-routine). Results show that due to tougher competition with Chinese imports, jobs held by men in non-routine and routine manufacturing occupations contracted, whereas jobs held by women in routine manufacturing occupations increased. Only one type of non-routine occupation, managerial jobs, held by women contracted due to the competition with China. HIGHLIGHTS Import competition with China during 1995–2006 reduced men's manufacturing jobs in Chile, but had mixed results for women. Men's jobs declined in management, administrative, clerical, and custodial occupations. Women's jobs decreased in managerial positions, but increased in low-skilled positions. Low-skilled women workers may be substituting men's jobs like machines. A rise in women's routine jobs does not suggest improvement in employment conditions or wages, nor in attachment to the labor force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current context of unprecedented and interconnected ecological and inequalities crises, many in the Global North are hitching their hopes onto Green New Deals (GNDs). This article argues that feminist analysis is crucial for exposing the flaws in GNDs, and that different kinds of feminist questioning lead to different kinds of policy responses, with very different scales of potential transformative impact. In order to transform the structures and root causes underlying the interconnected crises, it is necessary to go beyond feminist demands for the inclusion of diverse women and for gender equality and rely more on feminism as an analytical tool: a way of asking questions that denaturalize received wisdom and that make visible the ways in which gendered meanings play a formative role in shaping the concepts and paradigms that constitute knowledge of our world. HIGHLIGHTS Intersecting global crises impel the question, "what should the goal of economic life be?" Many climate "solutions" embed the same faulty ways of thinking that caused the crisis. Clean energy for the Global North spells toxic tolls for the Global South. GNDs neglect militarism, despite its key role in driving the climate crisis. GNDs remain rooted in a mindset that separates humanity from nature and will thus fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses data from the 2014 Vietnamese Household Living Standards Survey to compare the wealth outcome of Vietnamese female-headed households (FHH) to that of their male counterparts. The study takes an open position on the possible link between being a female head of the household and economic outcomes, focusing on heterogeneity among FHHs. The findings confirm that Vietnam has a small but significant group of married FHHs who have relatively high wealth, which makes the average wealth outcome of FHHs higher than that of male-headed households. The findings disagree with the view that these Vietnamese FHHs all have relatively privileged or advantageous economic conditions. In addition, the study confirms that land ownership, which is considered to play a key role in explaining the relatively strong wealth outcomes, is a distinguishing characteristic of married Vietnamese FHHs. HIGHLIGHTS Investigating the wealth outcomes of female-headed households (FHHs) in Vietnam reveals a heterogeneity of economic circumstances. FHHs are wealthier than male-headed households at upper quantiles of the household net worth. Not all Vietnamese female household heads who are married have high wealth. Wealth in FHHs is sensitive to household size, education, age, and wages. Land ownership plays a key role in explaining wealth outcomes of married FHHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes two longitudinal datasets (October – December 2020; April 2021) of 1,000 and 900 women in Kenya and Nigeria, respectively, alongside in-depth qualitative interviews with women at risk of changes to time use, to study two pandemic issues: women's substitution of paid for unpaid work and how these shifts compromise their mental health. Women devote more time to domestic care (30–38 percent), less time to employment (29–46 percent), and become unemployed (12–17 percent). A rise in domestic work is correlated with depressive (Nigeria) and anxiety symptoms (Kenya and Nigeria). Women with greater agency (Kenya) and fewer children (Nigeria) are less likely to report a domestic burden or loss in paid activities. Social protection programs may fill the void of assistance traditionally provided by informal networks in the short term, while campaigns shifting norms around household work may preserve women's economic participation in the long term. HIGHLIGHTS Women in Kenya and Nigeria reported increases in domestic labor amid the pandemic. Women's agency is negatively associated with the domestic burden and a reduction in paid activities in Kenya. Women in households with two or more children face greater domestic burdens and losses in paid activities in Nigeria. Increases in domestic work render women more likely to be anxious (Kenya and Nigeria) and depressed (Nigeria). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-based seat reservation policies are designed to promote gender parity in political representation by overcoming patriarchal social structures. But laws and policy are created by, and exist within, presiding social structures. These existing structures may undermine the efficacy of such policies, especially in regions where strong patriarchal norms persist. This study examines this phenomenon through a case study of the Panchayat Act in two neighboring states in northern India – Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Using primary data from structured interviews conducted over 2007–09, the article contends that the policy is more effective in empowering women leaders in regions where restrictive patriarchal norms are less entrenched. In parts where patriarchal norms are more persistent, the policy achieves comparatively limited success. Thus, gender-based policies must actively address attitudes and systems perpetuating inequality in addition to providing the necessary legal basis for representation to be substantively effective. HIGHLIGHTS In India, gender quotas aim to promote equity in political representation and offset patriarchy. Yet, longstanding patriarchal norms and cultural expectations of how women behave in the public sphere subvert policy reforms. In Indian states with greater degrees of patriarchy, women had little awareness of their legal protections. Gender quotas are more effective when combined with efforts to address the attitudes and systems perpetuating inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's labor market participation in Chile ranks among the lowest in Latin America. In a country where over 90 percent of the population lives in segregated cities, where employment opportunities cluster in affluent neighborhoods, residential sorting has surprisingly been neglected as an explanatory factor. This article addresses this omission by calculating the effects of residential segregation on labor market participation among less-educated caregivers. Using an OLS fixed effects model, the study finds that segregation entails adverse spatial mismatch effects on labor market participation. No other sub-population is affected in this manner. Hence, residential segregation contributes to the consolidation of three types of inequalities. First, it reproduces gendered inequalities within less-educated households. Second, in the context of increasing labor market participation among more-educated women, residential segregation further increases inequalities between low-income and affluent households. Finally, it deepens geographical inequalities between marginalized and non-marginalized households. HIGHLIGHTS Residential segregation has excluded less-educated caregiving women from paid work. Less-educated communities reside in regions with low job density. A spatial mismatch is a gendered phenomenon insofar as mobility is gendered. Segregation does not affect men's or more-educated women's labor force participation. Segregation aggravates economic, geographic, and gender inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether intersecting identities of race/ethnicity and sex are associated with attitudes toward gender equality policies, using online survey data from a representative sample in the United States carried out in August 2020. Participants (N = 2,443) were categorized as White Male, Black Male, Hispanic Male, White Female, Black Female, and Hispanic Female. Findings reveal that women across racial/ethnic groups and minority men, as compared to White men, have more egalitarian views on the importance of gender equality in policy and politics. While there is general support for women in political leadership, the race/ethnicity by sex differences in attitudes related to gender equality in employment are larger. These findings update and extend prior research on sex differences in gender equality attitudes, including highlighting the presence of a sex and race/ethnicity interaction. HIGHLIGHTS Attitudes are drivers of change when it comes to gender equality. In the US, there is majority support for gender equality, albeit with key gaps by race/ethnicity and sex. Women are more likely than men to hold egalitarian views. Men are more attached to traditional family roles for women, regardless of race. All men tend to relatively gain from patriarchal norms around paid and unpaid work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates gender gaps in access to land ownership and land inheritance in Albanian rural areas by combining a large-scale survey and five in-depth focus groups discussions. The article considers three sets of variables: place-based characteristics; family characteristics; and individual characteristics. Results find that rural societies lack awareness around legal property rights, undermine the confidence of women in myriad ways, and continue to rely on customary laws. Current inequalities are placed in the context of Albania's entrenched patriarchal system. Culture and tradition are as important as, if not more important than, legal frameworks surrounding land ownership and inheritance. The findings bring intersectionality issues into high relief: where patriarchy is combined with poverty, gender inequality is exacerbated. Findings call for a more holistic approach that combines efforts to improve legal literacy, raise awareness among all genders, and alleviate poverty for boosting women's inclusion in the economy. HIGHLIGHTS In Albania, patriarchal customary laws disfavor women when it comes to property ownership, inheritance, and decision making. Women in rural societies, in particular, rely on custom and have low awareness of their legal property rights. Women who are more informed about formal laws view themselves as more equal to men. Where patriarchy is combined with poverty, gender inequality is exacerbated. Education and legal literacy are key to overcoming entrenched patriarchy and fostering women's empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses barriers to women's economic empowerment and opportunities for households headed by women to diversify incomes in the rural parts of Kenya. The study analyzes the full range of income-generating activities at the household level and also accounts for the different types of female-headed households, each of which face different constraints. The findings show that not only do female-headed households diversify and combine their incomes differently than male-headed households but also that there are differences among different groups of female-headed households. HIGHLIGHTS Increasing women's economic empowerment requires identifying barriers to and facilitators of women's opportunities to diversify income. In rural Kenya, female-headed households (FHHs) are heterogeneous when it comes to how they diversify their incomes. FHHs in rural Kenya are more reliant on income from transfers than male-headed households. FHHs receive a smaller share of their earned income from the nonagricultural sector. FHHs are more dependent on work on own farm than MHHs. It is important for future research to account for all types of FHHs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an original household survey conducted in Hyderabad and Mumbai that identifies intra-city spatial coordinates of residents, this study presents a socio-spatial analysis of gender and paid work. The results show that the ease of movement through the city, allocation of care work-related considerations and educational attainment are all crucial to understanding the labor force participation patterns of urban women in India. A gender lens identifies key facets of access and mobility characterizing urbanization in developing countries. Spatial heterogeneity of residence has very different outcomes for the labor force participation of women and men. HIGHLIGHTS Gender and city geographies mutually shape each other. Women's labor force participation varies across and within Indian cities; men's labor force participation is nearly uniform. Women's paid work is higher in cities that have women-friendly transportation. Women's paid work is higher in sub-city zones with superior transportation facilities for all. Policies that ease care or commuting burdens improve women's participation in the labor force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns that started in March 2020 have sparked an increase in domestic labor in many families across the globe. This study focuses on gender differences in the distribution of domestic housework and childcare, as well as how they have impacted couples' conflicts during confinement, in the context of Spain and Italy. It employs a sequential mixed-methods approach in which a quantitative survey was followed by qualitative in-depth interviews. The results of the quantitative study (N = 447) showed that, for women, total household labor performed during confinement led to the perception of an unequal household distribution, which impacted couples' conflicts. In-depth interviews with participants from both countries confirmed the quantitative findings and allowed a nuanced understanding of how conflict negotiations evolved during the confinement. The results provide a comprehensive view of how the pandemic may have worsened women's situation in the household. HIGHLIGHTS Pandemic lockdowns intensified the already unequal distribution of housework in households in Spain and Italy. Women disproportionally spent more hours on childcare and household chores during confinement. Traditional gender norms shaped women's and men's perceptions of unfairness in terms of division of housework. Gender norms also limited women's bargaining power and shaped couples' conflict and negotiation strategies. Policies should aim to alleviate intrahousehold inequality to achieve better work–life balance for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the effects of gender inequality and women's disempowerment in the context of historical coalmining. Across the United States and Europe, ex-coalmining regions are characterized by significant deprivation. While there are many reasons for persistent problems, this study focuses on the restrictions imposed on women's involvement in economic life. Families in mining communities exemplified the male breadwinner structure, in which men's earnings supported wives and children who provided domestic services in return. Using evidence from Britain, this article exposes a different reality of household economics characterized by dominance and subordination: All family members were integrated into the coalmining production process and the creation of profit. Women's unpaid work did not simply provide domestic comfort; it transferred well-being from women and children to men and simultaneously contributed to the colliery companies' profits. These findings revise accounts of mining families while explaining the intransigence of deprivation in ex-coalmining areas. HIGHLIGHTS Women's disempowerment in historical mining communities had adverse effects that persist today. Pit women's labor propped up profits and wages and discouraged infrastructure investment. Breadwinning secured increased leisure time and higher income for men not women. Hours and incomes of "double shift"" factory women compare favorably to pit women. Regeneration must confront the gendered identities embedded in ex-mining communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In low- and middle-income countries, poor cooperation between members of smallholder agricultural households may lead to inefficient allocation of productive resources. This study estimates the causal mediating effects of cooperation between spouses on household welfare and public goods provision in Ugandan and Tanzanian monogamous smallholder coffee farming households. The random encouragement to participate in an intensive training program coaching couples in farming as a household enterprise and participatory intrahousehold decision making, which stimulates cooperation and, in turn, household welfare and public goods provision, enables estimating causal mediating effects while avoiding challenges of endogeneity. Spousal cooperation has positive mediating effects on household welfare, measured by total household income per capita and food security, and on household public goods provision, measured by the adoption intensity of agronomic practices and use of improved seed for food crops. Spousal cooperation has larger effects on total household income per capita with longer duration of marriage. HIGHLIGHTS In Uganda and Tanzania, the Gender Household Approach program aims to improve gender relations by promoting spousal cooperation. Participatory decision making implies strengthening women's voice and ability to include their claims in a household. GHA presents a concept of women's empowerment that avoids backlash by promoting shared control of resources and agency. Programs that promote spousal cooperation can improve the welfare and public goods provision of agricultural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of precarity extends beyond insecure wage work into the conditions of social reproduction: supporting dependents can expose even securely employed, relatively well-paid workers to precarity. Qualitative data from public hospital nurses in Johannesburg reveal how responsibility for social reproduction can contribute to precarity among women in some contexts. This study maps nurses' household networks to obtain a conservative estimate of dependency. Excerpts from interviews demonstrate how responsibilities are converted into precarity through household networks across different marital statuses, household structures, and ages. HIGHLIGHTS Securely employed, professional women may have precarious lives. Familial dependency can induce precarity among black women employed in nursing in South Africa. South African nurses were distressed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gendered value systems and norms contribute to precarious subsistence. Universal basic income could mitigate micro-level crises of social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States' Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 improved and expanded availability of non-group health insurance. Previous studies have shown that women in the US workforce value health insurance more highly than men do. Because prior to the ACA self-employed individuals did not have guaranteed access to affordable health insurance coverage, women's relatively lower rate of self-employment may partly have reflected their greater "job lock" due to employer-based health insurance. This article employs nationally representative survey data for 2009–18 and a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference modeling approach and finds that unmarried women's probability of self-employment increased by 1.2 percentage points in 2015–18, after the ACA's expansion of non-group health insurance came into effect. Among women who have never married, overall probability of self-employment increased by 1.2–1.5 percentage points versus trend, and the probability of transitioning into full-time self-employment increased by 0.9 percentage points. HIGHLIGHTS In the US, unmarried women are less likely than men to be self-employed. The Affordable Care Act improved access to non-employer-based health insurance, reducing the cost of leaving jobs. As a result, from 2015–2018, unmarried women were increasingly drawn to self-employment. The ACA's expansion of health insurance thus provides important economic benefits beyond healthcare access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how teachers' unions differently affect teacher attrition by gender, relying on nationally representative, district–teacher matched data from the United States. To identify union effects, the article employs a multilevel linear model and exploits natural experiments. Results find that teachers' unions reduce teacher attrition and that the union effects greatly differ by teacher gender and teaching subject. The study also finds that the changes in legal institutions restricting the collective bargaining of teachers significantly raise teacher attrition, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. HIGHLIGHTS Teachers' unions help districts deal with teacher shortage problems by reducing attrition of their teachers. Union effects are greater for men STEM teachers than for non-STEM men teachers; the pattern is the opposite for women teachers. Because teaching is dominated by women, districts with higher union membership may imply more room for women's voices. Legal changes that undermine teachers' unions are likely to result in deteriorating employment conditions and, ultimately, poor educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to better understanding firms' behavior in the presence of gender discriminatory laws and its linkages with labor market outcomes for women in a developing country setting. Using data collected through the World Bank Enterprise Surveys in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the study documents the existence of nonnegligible employer discrimination in the presence of discriminatory laws. Interestingly, discriminatory behaviors, and the related limitations in women's autonomy, are more pervasive outside the capital city, Kinshasa, which suggests that differences in enforcement and social norms may be at play. The study also finds that, in those firms that do not enforce discriminatory laws, women benefit from better labor market outcomes, in terms of their representation among the upper echelons of management and their participation in the overall workforce. The positive relationship between nondiscriminatory behaviors and female employment is particularly strong in the manufacturing sector. HIGHLIGHTS In the Democratic Republic of Congo, discriminatory laws are linked to employer discrimination against women. Firms do not follow these laws uniformly, with enforcement varying by geography and type of law. This important nuance helps uncover the interaction between national laws and local norms. Firms that do not impose discriminatory laws have more women employees and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do fluctuations in income affect labor supply decisions, and how do their effects differ by gender? This study analyzes data from a thirteen-year rolling panel in Kyrgyzstan spanning 2004–16. It addresses the endogeneity of fluctuations in income to labor supply decisions by employing shift share instruments that exploit region-level changes over time in growth rates of different sources of revenue and production costs. Estimating a household fixed effects model, the study finds that reductions in income relative to the median spur departure from the household (for example, due to migration), with smaller impacts on women than men. However, women's labor supply at the origin is affected significantly more, with short-term increases in hours of employment and declines in home production and other activities. Reductions in income also fuel temporary migration for both genders, with larger effects for men, and widen the gender gap in pursuit of non-compulsory education. HIGHLIGHTS Declines in income spur household departure, with larger impacts on men than women. Women are not always "left behind" following shocks; like men, they respond through changes in labor supply and livelihood decisions. At the origin, women face significantly greater increases in workloads than do men. Declines in income widen the gender gap in pursuit of non-compulsory education, favoring men. Policies that support women's ability to control income can promote domestic work sharing and ensure income generation empowers women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across many countries, girls perform more unpaid work than boys. This article shows how the time young women and girls spend in unpaid household work contributes to the gender pay gap that is already evident by age 22. The study analyzes employment participation, type of employment, and wages using five waves of the Young Lives longitudinal survey for Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. Spending longer hours in unpaid household work in adolescence positively predicts later employment participation but has a scarring effect in negatively predicting job quality (that is a job with a private or public organization) and hourly earnings, particularly for women. Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions of the gender wage gap show young women's penalty for past household work is due to longer hours of such work rather than a higher penalty for women for a given amount of unpaid work. HIGHLIGHTS Participation in unpaid household work and paid work is gendered from a young age. Time in unpaid household work as children impacts young adults' employment. Time in household work in adolescence is linked to lower job quality in adulthood. Girls' longer hours in household work contribute to the gender wage gap. Girls spend less time than boys in play or leisure at all ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, expanding women's educational opportunities is promoted as an effective strategy for their empowerment. While women's access to education in Bangladesh has increased in recent years, little is known about their participation in educational activities after marriage. Historically, local gender norms expect women to marry at an early age, perform domestic labor, and discontinue educational activities in adulthood. In this study, twenty-four married women and twenty-five married men ages 15–49 were interviewed about women's experiences with post-marital education in Matlab. Results showed that husbands and wives acted within the bounds of persistent, classic patriarchal norms to seek or inhibit access to education within marriage. Despite increases in women's primary and secondary school graduation rates in Bangladesh, this study suggests that women still face barriers to access to educational opportunities and understanding these limitations is crucial to advancing women's pathways to economic and overall empowerment in Bangladesh. HIGHLIGHTS Married women encounter numerous barriers to education in Matlab, Bangladesh. Married couples strategize to negotiate wives' aspiration to pursue education. Married men view wives' post-marital education unfavorably as a means to employment. Women self-restrict education, considering lack of social and familial endorsement. Engaging husbands in research and programs to advance women's education is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's attitudes about how paid and unpaid work should be divided between the members of a couple determine gendered socioeconomic outcomes to a great extent. It is thus important to understand how gender role attitudes (GRA) are formed and evolve. This article concentrates on a path-breaking event in life: becoming a parent. Using longitudinal data from the United Kingdom, the study shows that, in general, becoming a parent significantly shifts women's GRA toward more traditional positions but leaves men's attitudes unaffected. Prenatal attitudes are a critical factor. After parenthood occurs, results find a substantial traditionalization of attitudes for (both) progressive parents, while no significant change is observed for parents with conservative prenatal attitudes. Novel analyses show that the traditionalization of attitudes for progressive individuals, after they become parents, is stronger as postnatal arrangements in the division of paid and unpaid work are more traditional. HIGHLIGHTS Gender role attitudes (GRA) become more conservative once one becomes a parent. Progressive prenatal GRA and traditional postnatal settings are key determinants. Cognitive dissonance and changes in gender identity are two potential mechanisms. Results suggest that traditional institutions can foster conservative GRA. More childcare services, paternity leaves, and part-time work for men are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How gender-based differences in time spent on household and labor-market activities affect men's and women's well-being is of growing interest to economists and policymakers. In many countries, women perform more unpaid work than men and have fewer opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty through education and training. This article analyzes the relationship between poverty and gender inequality in time use among monogamous couples in Ghana. A key finding is that women in poor households face heterogeneous levels of inequality in time use, depending on the type of activity, inequality in time use, and characteristics of the household. The study highlights the importance of devising gender-aware policies and altering entrenched cultural stereotypes, thereby helping to reduce inequality between men and women. This should afford more women the opportunity to play a more productive and economically meaningful role in the formal labor market. HIGHLIGHTS In Ghana, poor households face significantly higher gender inequality in time use compared to rich households. Levels of time-use inequality for poor women vary in relation to activity and household characteristics. Policies should prioritize reducing poverty to alleviate intrahousehold inequality. Gender-aware policies should address norms that impede women's labor market participation and autonomous time allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how sugarcane commercialization impacts gender relations, and processes that shape them, using two differently structured outgrower schemes – a settlement scheme and an European Union-driven block farm in southern Zambia. Results show gendered impacts across the schemes are complex and are shaped by diverse cultural arrangements as micro-processes. Intrahousehold patterns of decision making, land, and labor dynamics reveal that changing the structure, organization, and integration of outgrower schemes does not necessarily make them responsive to strategic gender needs. Further, these processes are insufficient in altering pre-existing sociocultural imbalances. Consequently, even where schemes are intentional about being inclusive, they are likely to replicate structural inequalities and fail to engender transformational changes among participants. This article raises the need to address the politics of land and labor relations, and their implications for different social groups within their cultural-historical context. HIGHLIGHTS Gendered impacts of commercial agriculture reflect market and nonmarket dynamics. Schemes amplify preexisting inequalities despite being intentional on inclusivity. Land ownership shapes women's responses and political reactions in schemes. Inheritance patterns may address land inequalities but more needs to be done. Addressing strategic gender needs requires market and nonmarket interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early marriage is a manifestation of gender discrimination against girls, leading to adverse consequences on their well-being. This article contributes to the literature by examining the effects of early marriage on the mental well-being of women – an area often overlooked in research. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from Indonesia and applying difference-in-differences regression model with fixed-effects, this study finds that marrying early, particularly by the age of 18 years, has a strong negative impact on women's mental health. Specifically, women who marry early are 9.6 percentage points more likely to be depressed. It further finds that a one-year delay in marriage decreases the likelihood of women having depression by approximately four percent of the mean. These findings add to the evidence of adverse health effects of early marriage and provide a rationale for policy interventions implemented toward eradicating it. HIGHLIGHTS Marrying early, particularly by age 18, has adverse effects on women's mental health. In Indonesia, women who married early are more likely to be depressed than women who married later. Restricted labor market mobility and poor physical health are potential mechanisms. Policy interventions must move toward eradicating early marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the ways in which culture plays a role in the gender division of household labor. To explore this issue, the study uses data on early-arrival first- and second-generation immigrants living in the United States who have a married/unmarried partner present in the household. Because all of these individuals have grown up under the same laws, institutions, and economic conditions that prevail in the US, the differences between them in the gender division of housework may be attributed to cultural differences in their countries of ancestry. The study finds that the stronger the culture of gender equality in the country of ancestry, the greater the equality in immigrants' current division of housework. This result is maintained when considering both housework and childcare as household labor. This work is extended by examining how culture operates and is transmitted, and whether culture may influence the work–life balance. HIGHLIGHTS Cultural norms in the country of origin determine allocation of household tasks for immigrants in the host country. More gender-equal norms are associated with a lower gender gap in housework time. Culture affects how and when housework is performed in family life, impacting couples' work–life balance. Policies aimed at transforming gender norms can help to achieve gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patrilocal marriage – living in the husband's natal household – affects Central Asian women and their choices in family planning, labor force participation, and human capital investment. While anthropological evidence suggests that elder household members play a key role in the lives of junior women, empirical studies are scarce. This study uses Tajikistan's 2012 Demographic and Health Survey (TJDHS) to explore the link between domestic violence and the living arrangements of daughters-in-law (DILs). Controlling on observables, propensity score matching (PSM) generates a positive treatment effect: women living with in-laws are far more likely to experience emotional abuse by their husbands. Treatment effects do not emerge between physical violence and in-laws' presence. Results show that these DILs are about 3.6 times more likely than those living in nuclear households to experience emotional abuse regardless of the presence of the father-in-law, leading to the conclusion that responsibility can be plausibly ascribed to the mother-in-law. HIGHLIGHTS Domestic violence in three-generational households is an understudied issue. Patrilocal marriages whereby women live with parents-in-law are common in Central Asia. Women residing patrilocally may have limited ability to make independent choices. Tajik women living with parents-in-law are more likely to endure emotional abuse. A mother-in-law's presence is linked to a higher level of emotional abuse in a Tajik household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent contributions in international economics have highlighted structural differences between firms actively participating in global markets and firms mostly operating in the domestic economy. Using firm-level data from Vietnam, this study found that foreign and domestic firms with global ties – exporters, multinational enterprises (MNEs), and domestic firms belonging to global value chains (GVCs) – play an important role in reducing gendered differences in employment opportunities in the formal sector, in particular for low-skilled women workers. Women workers are more likely than men workers to be employed in low-wage firms, but this gender gap is lower in MNEs, in particular those belonging to GVCs. This study provides evidence of important within-sector heterogeneity not only based on firms' ownership but also on the intensity of participation in GVCs. HIGHLIGHTS Global economic interactions can shape gender inequalities in the labor markets of developing countries. In Vietnam, firms with complex global networks promote a more gender-balanced development trajectory. Foreign and domestic firms participating in global value chains boost employment opportunities but mostly for low-skilled women. Firms' participation in international markets has limited effects on the reduction of gender inequality in wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article exploits the rollout of the 1997 Basic Education Program in Turkey, a reform that extended compulsory school attendance, to estimate the causal effects of education on women's awareness of laws designed to reduce gender inequality and prevent domestic violence. The study implements a regression-discontinuity design and finds that the additional years of schooling improved women's legal awareness. Women exposed to the education reform were more likely to have heard about the new laws and services through newspapers, journals, or books. However, despite these improvements, the study finds no evidence of a significant change in the risk of women experiencing domestic violence or their ability to quit abusive relationships. HIGHLIGHTS Multiple barriers undermine women's access to the justice system in Turkey. Education reform helped remove one such barrier: women's legal awareness of their rights. However, legal awareness did not translate into significant changes in incidence of domestic violence. Raising awareness is a necessary first step but not enough to empower women to access to legal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fact that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has the lowest labor force participation rate for women in the world has been extensively studied, but discrimination in pay against working women has received considerably less attention. Using recently available datasets, this study examines the distribution of wages (inequality) across men and women employed in the public versus the private sector in Egypt. The analysis shows that because working women tend to be more educated than working men, the gender wage gap would have been larger if women had the same endowments. Quantile regressions and recentered influence functions show that the gender wage gap is wide at the top of the distribution, primarily in the public sector, which is a sign of a glass ceiling. The gap is also wider at the bottom of the wage distribution in the private sector, a sign of sticky floors. HIGHLIGHTS The Egyptian public sector has a relatively equitable gender wage structure, except for the top jobs. The gender wage gap is much larger in Egypt's private sector for the low paid. Since lower-educated women often do not work, the gender pay discrimination in Egypt might be even greater than observed. Policy interventions are needed to prepare women for leadership positions and to increase their promotion opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although South Korea is well-known for its aggressive response to COVID-19, little is known about how the risk of infection manifests differently by gender. Using real-time data on confirmed cases, this study empirically examines the gendered outbreak of COVID-19 driven by occupational segregation in South Korea. It investigates gender differences in risk of work-related exposure, particularly for those jobs where essential activities are conducted, such as in the healthcare sector, and that are dominated by women. The results from the multinomial logit model confirm that women have a higher risk of workplace exposure than men, particularly in pink-collar and care jobs. The findings emphasize the need for a gender-aware perspective to policy measures advanced during the pandemic and recovery. HIGHLIGHTS Gender is an important factor for determining infection risks of COVID-19 in workplaces. In South Korea's gender-segregated labor markets, women have higher exposure to infection than men. Women typically occupy jobs in the healthcare and welfare sectors that require frequent interpersonal interaction. They are also underrepresented in occupations with the ability to telecommute. Policy measures must include gender-aware responses and address inequality during the pandemic and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging in developed and developing economies has led to increasing number of older persons in need of care, posing a challenge to the social arrangements of care and creating important aggregate economic implications. This article proposes a simple theoretical framework to evaluate the interplay of gender norms and the gender wage gap, as well as specific characteristics of the paid care market such as occupational segregation and market power rents. By incorporating a degree of substitutability between women's and men's care work, the model shows how declines in the gender wage gap have small effects on the division of long-term care work in the presence of persistent gender norms. The study also shows that market power dynamics, in conjunction with gender norms, perpetuate reliance on women's provision of unpaid care. The model has important implications for policies promoting gender-egalitarian household division of labor and affordable access to quality long-term care. HIGHLIGHTS The market logic of the paid care service sector must be analyzed in conjunction with gender norms. A declining gender wage gap does not translate to more equal sharing of long-term care work due to persistent traditional gender norms. Social norms shape the response of the distribution of care work to changes in market prices and perpetuate reliance on women's unpaid care. Gender-aware policies should encourage egalitarian social norms to reduce women's unpaid care burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]