Search

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 paper investigates the relationship between gender, attitudes, and test scores in mathematics. The study argues that measures of children's capability in mathematics must include some indicators of attitudes toward the subject. These are particularly important when analyzing gender gaps because attitudes toward mathematics differ by gender. To this end, the study first analyzes the gender gap in attitudes and test scores separately using school fixed effects models. Second, it estimates a structural equation model, which takes into account that mathematical capability is a latent construct for which some indicators (test scores and attitudes) are observed. Using data from the Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of Education Systems (INVALSI) for school years 5 and 10 in 2014 and 2015, results confirm that when mathematics capability, including both attitudes and test scores, is measured, the gap between boys and girls changes, and it is therefore relevant to consider both concepts. HIGHLIGHTS Italy has one of the highest gender gaps in mathematics in the OECD. Gender gaps are substantial both in children's attitudes and their test scores. Tackling gender stereotypes may improve women's self-confidence in mathematics and the gender gap in scores. This may also help close the gender gap in STEM occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that occupations in South Africa are segregated and stratified by gender. While some women (mostly Black and "Coloured") overwhelmingly fill low-paying jobs, others (mostly White and Indian/Asian, but also Coloured) tend to fill higher-paying professional positions. This paper finds evidence of a long-term reduction in gender segregation and stratification, with women and men entering occupations previously dominated by the other gender, although this trend is sensitive to several data considerations. Most recent evidence, however, points to stagnation in this process. Distinct worker characteristics by gender – including education, location, or age – cannot explain the existing segregation or women's overrepresentation in low-paying jobs, compared with men's representation. They do partially explain the overrepresentation of women in some higher-paying positions and the declining stratification of the labor market by gender. Education is the primary driver for upward mobility for women and gender equality in the South African labor market. Note: This study follows the current South African government's usage of the racial category "Coloured," with the caveat that the term is not in acceptable use outside South Africa. HIGHLIGHTS Gendered occupations and pay gaps in South Africa have not been adequately studied. Black women suffer double labor segregation in South Africa, by gender and by race. Post-apartheid progress in reducing labor segregation has been faster by gender than by race. Improved education offers women a route to better-paid professional occupations Although women now access better jobs, managerial positions remain disproportionately male. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]