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This paper explores the gender dimensions of access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in South Africa. It shows that women are more vulnerable to HIV infection than men, but that women access HAART in disproportionately large numbers. Regression analysis on data from the South African Demographic and Health Survey suggests that men in general access health services less readily than women. This 'masculinity factor' accounts for most of the difference between men and women when it comes to accessing HAART. Although men were more likely to favor traditional medicine than women, this was not a statistically significant factor, and it appears that visiting a traditional healer is complementary to, rather than a substitute for, accessing HAART. In short, it seems that gendered norms that make it difficult for men to admit weakness and seek medical attention are the main probable cause for the low proportions of men accessing HAART. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global AIDS policy has failed to stop the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa because prevention programs are limited by an unscientific theory of disease causation, which assumes that differences in HIV prevalence among populations are adequately explained by variation in rates of unsafe sexual behaviors. But differences in sexual behavior cannot explain 250-fold differences in HIV prevalence among countries and increasing divergence in incidence. Such disparities point to biological characteristics of the pathogen, the host, and the environment, all of which influence individual risk of infection and the spread of infectious diseases in populations. This paper explores the ways in which Western constructions of race and sexuality have drawn attention to sexual behavior alone and away from scientific evidence of biological risk factors that increase HIV transmission in poor populations. Much of the discussion addresses sub-Saharan Africa, but the biological implications could apply to poor people in other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses dictator experiments to examine gender differences in altruistic behavior in the United States when decisions are made individually and jointly. In anonymous individual giving to charity, women give substantially more than men, and in paired settings, mixed-sex groups give the most while all male pairs give the least. Evidence supports social information and negotiation effects as participants change giving toward that of their partners. Social image effects are found only in mixed-sex groups, indicating a gender-based component to the value of the social signal sent. Although men and women appear to have similar influence, the positive social image effect pushes giving in mixed-sex pairs above the sum of the members' individual gifts because the less altruistic partners (usually men) adjust their giving upward more than the more altruistic partners (usually women) reduce giving. Therefore, increasing women's participation in traditionally male spheres of decision making may result in more altruistic economic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the dormitory labor system, a specific Chinese labor system through which the lives of Chinese women migrant workers are shaped by the international division of labor. This dormitory labor system is a gendered form of labor use that underlies the boom of export-oriented industrial production in China, which has been further boosted by China's accession to the World Trade Organization. Combining work and residence under the dormitory labor system, production and daily reproduction of labor are reconfigured for the sake of global production, with foreign-invested or privately owned companies controlling almost all daily reproduction of labor. Drawing upon the findings of a 2003 - 4 case study of an electronics factory in South China, this paper analyzes the operation of the dormitory labor system, detailing both its role in increasing output and profits and its role in supporting workers' resistance to their employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the changes in China's gender regime during the reform period, especially during China's accession to the WTO. The analysis provides a framework to relate these changes to the consumption behavior of women, especially the increased consumption of cosmetics, to interpret the impact of accession on the gender regime in China. Institutionalist theories that model consumption decisions as a personal display of group identity are extended to the special case of gender identity. According to this framework, the desire to display identity, such as social status or lifestyles, shapes the decision to consume commodities that also display gender such as cosmetics. Thus, the new gender regime is an unintended consequence of a complex pursuit of identity. When consumption is understood as a performance of identity, we can see how the expansion of aggressive marketing tactics affects consumption by influencing the associations of goods with social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper explores the gender dimensions of population control and land tenure policies in a rural village in Northeast China. Gender bias was explicit in the implementation of both policies in the village between 1980 and the mid-1990s. Since that time, explicit gender bias has been reduced and both policies have stressed market incentives more, reflecting China's modernization goals and accession to the WTO. Yet the policies are not gender neutral in their implementation, effects, and interactions. Women remain the target of the eased population policy, and they are more likely to become "landless" at marriage. The policies work together to reinforce traditional and emerging forms of gender bias, though at times they offset each other. They impact women's bargaining power within the home, status in the community, and social security. Together they provide a richer view of the gendered experience of living in the village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are an important mainstay of agricultural production in China, though their access to land is characterized by even greater ambiguity than that of their male counterparts. As part of its path toward liberalization, China undertook agricultural land management policy reforms that were aimed at increasing the security of land tenure rights, but these reforms have paradoxically exacerbated the uncertainty surrounding women's claims to land. Utilizing sample survey data collected from 412 rural households in Shaanxi and Hunan provinces in 2002, this paper documents and analyzes gender differences in land allocations. The findings of this study shed light on the degree to which community characteristics coupled with current local practices (such as frequency of reallocation) influence gender disparities. Results suggest that a growing number of women experience loss of contract land coincident with marrying, and this trend may be expected to increase given the current direction of land policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earnings of mothers make up an important, but difficult to quantify, component of parental expenditures on children. This paper compares the long-term earnings of women with children, women without children, and men. The study conducts separate analyses for less educated, moderately educated, and highly educated people in eight Anglo-American, Continental European, and Nordic countries. The study finds that, for the most part, these countries cluster into three groups, with mothers in the Continental European group experiencing the largest earnings differentials, mothers in the Nordic group experiencing the smallest, and mothers in the Anglo-American countries occupying the middle position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US, marital status is more important than work history in determining economic security for many older women. Two-thirds of older women in the US receive spouse or widow Social Security benefits. These benefits generally require recipients to be currently married or to have had a ten-year marriage. Declining marriage rates, coupled with shorter marriages, dramatically change the distributional impact of these benefits on each cohort as they become eligible for Social Security. This paper uses June 1985, 1990, and 1995 CPS supplemental data to trace the decline in marital rates for women from five birth cohorts. We find that the proportion of persons who will be eligible as spouses or widows is decreasing modestly for whites and Hispanics, but dramatically for African Americans. This growing race gap in marital rates suggests that older black women will be particularly unlikely to qualify for these benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterodox "Post Keynesian" school, which emphasizes fundamental uncertainty and the time structure of economic activity, overlaps feminist economics in its treatment of subjectivity and its understanding of the relation between micro and macro phenomena. Why, then, is the intersection of the two fields in the published literature so small? This paper argues that Post Keynesians have adopted a number of additional institutional assumptions that have the effect of excluding gender from their analytical frame. These assumptions can be jettisoned without impairing fundamental Post Keynesian analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the effect of career breaks on the working lives of women using survey data from the state of Queensland in Australia. After estimating the income penalty faced by women with career interruptions - according to the duration of, and reasons for, the interruptions - we seek to address a wider set of issues regarding: patterns of job change and income gains or losses related to job change; determinants of career re-entry plans; and satisfaction with hours worked. As women increasingly combine motherhood and employment, they face both penalties and costs, particularly if they have taken a career break in order to care for their young. This general labor market failure that penalizes motherhood should be addressed by relevant measures related to their income, working hours, and the type and status of employment, particularly on their re-entry into employment after a child-related career break. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present estimates of the Human Development Index and the Gender-Related Development Index in the Autonomous Communities of Spain. Our case study of Spain, a developed country with clear gender and regional differences, demonstrates the importance of adjusting human development indices in accordance with gender discrimination and regional inequalities. We also show the significance of the income component in assessing the development level of women in countries like Spain, where lack of employment or low remuneration are the chief characteristics of women's inequality. Our analysis makes clear that the Gender-Related Human Development Index has limited applicability in developed countries; it also illustrates the need for alternative variables or models to assess inequality in those countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how Amartya Sen's capability approach can be applied to conceptualize and assess gender inequality in Western societies. I first argue against the endorsement of a definitive list of capabilities and instead defend a procedural approach to the selection of capabilities by proposing five criteria. This procedural account is then used to generate a list of capabilities for conceptualizing gender inequality in Western societies. A survey of empirical studies shows that women are worse off than men on some dimensions, better off on a few others, and similarly placed on yet others, while for some dimensions the evaluation is unclear. I then outline why, for group inequalities, inequalities in achieved functionings can be taken to reflect inequalities in capabilities, and how an overall evaluation could be arrived at by weighting the different capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional methods of analysis of poverty assume resources are shared so that each individual in a household or family has the same standard of living. Nonmonetary indicators of living standards and deprivation are increasingly being used in measuring household poverty. This paper argues that such indicators can be used for a rather different purpose - the exploration of differences in living standards within households. It illustrates this by using indicators of deprivation of the type used in recent studies of poverty at household level to measure differences between spouses in a large Irish sample. It then discusses the limitations of these indicators for the purpose at hand and points to the need to develop more sensitive indicators of deprivation designed to measure individual living standards and poverty status, which can fit within the framework of traditional poverty research using large samples. While the discussion is specific to Ireland, the methodology developed is relevant outside the Irish context, in developing as well as developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A citizens' basic income scheme is based on the principles of individuality, universality, and unconditionality; when combined with the notion of meeting "basic needs" it would serve to provide a minimum income guarantee for all adult members of society. However, implementation would entail radical reform of existing patterns of welfare delivery and would bring into question the institutionalized relationship between work and welfare, a basic premise of modern welfare states. To date, the debate over a citizens' basic income has emphasized its effects on labor markets, thereby displaying an androcentric bias. Although the role of women in society is central to social policy reform, the existing basic income literature is disturbingly void of any comprehensive treatment of women. No genuine discussion has taken place about the nature of women's lives and work and how these should be valued. Social policy reform should take account of all gender inequalities and not just those relating to the traditional labor market. This paper argues that the citizens' basic income model can be a tool for promoting gender-neutral social citizenship rights, but that any future marriage of justice and efficiency must first divorce work from income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absent from the important debate on the determinants of rapid Asian growth is the role of gender inequality. This paper argues that gender wage inequality has stimulated growth, with Asian economies that disadvantaged women the most growing the fastest from 1975 to 1990. Low female wages have spurred investment and exports by lowering unit labor costs, providing the foreign exchange to purchase capital and intermediate goods which raise productivity and growth rates. These results contrast with recent studies that argue income equality at the household level contributed favorably to Asian growth by reducing political conflict. The divergent findings can be explained by the fact that gender norms and stereotypes that convince women to accept their low status curb labor and political unrest, stimulating investment. The results indicate that which group bears the burden of inequality in the process of economic growth matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Rawls's solution to the problem of justice between generations is premised on the idea that “a generation cares for its immediate descendants, as fathers say care for their sons” (John Rawls 1971: 288, emphasis added). This paper brings mothers into the Rawlsian social contract. I argue that, when children have more than one parent, there is a contradiction between the assumption of concern for descendants, which underpins Rawls's account of justice between generations, and the mutual disinterest assumption, which characterizes parties negotiating in the “original position.” Concern for descendants creates connections within generations as well as across generations. The critique is internal and nonradical, but its implications are subversive. It demonstrates that an “add women and stir” liberal feminist reworking of Rawls's theory cannot be successful; bringing sexual reproduction out of the realm of nature and into the social contract necessitates a radical reconstruction of Rawls's theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we emphasize the need for more theoretical research using dynamic models that include gender as a variable of analysis. We begin by summarizing some of the main observations characterizing fertility, gender, and economic growth. We then explore three types of theoretical models: one-sex dynamic, two-sex static, and two-sex dynamic. We conclude that more models of the last type – dynamic models that include gender in the analysis – are needed to analyze issues that involve both an intertemporal and a gender dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gendered social norms and institutions are important determinants of agricultural activities in southwestern Burkina Faso. This paper argues that gendered land tenure, in particular, has effects on equity and efficiency. The usual view of women as holders of secondary, or indirect, rights to land must be supplemented by a more nuanced understanding of tenure. Women's rights are in fact considerably more complex than the simple right to fields from their husbands. First, women's rights to property obtained from men may be coupled with other rights and obligations. In many ethnic groups, women have share rights to the harvest of their husbands. Second, despite land scarcity and rises in land value certain types of rights are strengthening. Specifically, women are more and more able to obtain land through the market. Finally, government intervention in the gendering of tenure seems to have eroded women's individual rights to land even when government projects explicitly try to incorporate women as "partners" in land-use programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist economists have used feminist thought to analyze and revise the discipline of economics. This paper extends these analyses to the teaching of economics in college and suggests that feminist teaching methods might serve economists well in transforming the economics classroom to one that is more hospitable to wider audiences. The approach explored proceeds from the intersections of two avenues for incorporating more inclusive teaching methods. In the McIntosh tradition, stages for making course contents more inclusive are presented along with a discussion of how to develop inclusive classroom learning environments. The interaction of contents and methods and the implications of feminist thought for the teaching of economics are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her study of occupational segregation in the United States using the 1960 Census, Barbara R. Bergmann found black males with low levels of education more concentrated in low-skill service and laborer occupations than white males and virtually excluded from higher status occupations. Utilizing a crowding index which, similar to Bergmann's, controls for the education level of the worker, this paper presents an analysis of the employment patterns of black males and females in fifty-nine occupations in Wayne County (Detroit, Michigan) and Allegheny County (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) in 1990. Within blue-collar and service employment, males are under-represented in the craft occupations and concentrated in low-skill operative, laborer, and service occupations. Females are under-represented in both craft and operative occupations and concentrated in low-skill service occupations. Within white-collar employment, both males and females are largely excluded from high-skill private sector managerial occupations. Black representation in public sector managerial and private sector professional occupations is better in Detroit than Pittsburgh. The decline in manufacturing employment in both counties has left black males with fewer occupational options and black females over-represented in low status clerical and service occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine the inadequacies of the rational economic man approach for understanding individual economic decision-making, and we suggest an alternative concept which we call ''gendered moral rationalities.'' We carry out this critique in the context of research on lone motherhood and paid work. This is an important social and political issue where analyses commonly use the rational economic man approach (although often only implicitly). However, these analyses have not, we argue, been able to understand the social processes by which lone mothers take up, or do not take up, paid work. In this paper we take the debate further by using recent empirical work on the employment position and values of lone mothers in Britain, integrating information from interviews with census data. The results suggest that it is nonmarket, collective relations and understandings about motherhood and employment which are the primary factors in explaining lone mothers' uptake of paid work. We term these ''gendered moral rationalities.'' While individual levels of human capital and policy constraints remain important, in a causal sense these are best seen as contingent, secondary factors. The source of economic rationality therefore, at least in this case, primarily lies outside the market and in the domain of collective, and highly gendered, understandings about proper social behavior. This critique parallels recent work by feminist economists who call for a complete restructuring in how economists think and conduct their research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper by Gudeman and Gudeman on the nature of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is a valuable contribution. This comment argues that they neglected one important aspect affecting CMC, namely ideology, and suggests that the ''Debating Markets'' exchange had long-term negative impacts on Femecon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]