Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2120205
V. Vakulabharanam, Sripad Motiram
{"title":"Gender and Work Patterns in Indian Cities: A Socio-Spatial Analysis","authors":"V. Vakulabharanam, Sripad Motiram","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2120205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2120205","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"64 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47670222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2023.2183973
M. Iqani
{"title":"The Crooked Codes of the Luxury Handbag: Narratives of Empowered Feminine Consumption in Africa","authors":"M. Iqani","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2023.2183973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2023.2183973","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"178 - 198"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41707414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2023.2174566
Valerie Mueller, K. Grépin, A. Rabbani, Anne Ngunjiri, A. Oyekunle, C. Wenham
{"title":"Domestic Burdens Amid Covid-19 and Women’s Mental Health in Middle-Income Africa","authors":"Valerie Mueller, K. Grépin, A. Rabbani, Anne Ngunjiri, A. Oyekunle, C. Wenham","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2023.2174566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2023.2174566","url":null,"abstract":"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).","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"192 - 218"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45821290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-03-16DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2023.2168025
Pareena G. Lawrence, Catherine Hensly
{"title":"Gender-Based Policies and the Role of Patriarchal Norms: Evidence from Northern India","authors":"Pareena G. Lawrence, Catherine Hensly","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2023.2168025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2023.2168025","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"252 - 278"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46912224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-03-14DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2159056
E. Vimefall, J. Levin
{"title":"Income Diversification Among Farming Households Headed by Women in Rural Kenya","authors":"E. Vimefall, J. Levin","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2159056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2159056","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"219 - 251"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49491679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-03-07DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2023.2174567
D. Vo, Chi Minh Ho
{"title":"Determinants of Wealth Outcomes in Female-Headed Households in Vietnam","authors":"D. Vo, Chi Minh Ho","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2023.2174567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2023.2174567","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"154 - 191"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44668321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2157856
Manuel García Dellacasa
{"title":"Residential Segregation and Women’s Labor Market Participation: The Case of Santiago De Chile","authors":"Manuel García Dellacasa","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2157856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2157856","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"96 - 128"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47340053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2022-12-09DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2125167
E. Zhllima, D. Pojani, Elvina Merkaj, D. Imami
{"title":"Unlanded Class: Albania's Gender Gaps in Land Ownership and Inheritance","authors":"E. Zhllima, D. Pojani, Elvina Merkaj, D. Imami","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2125167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2125167","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"32 - 63"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47392868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2022-12-07DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2128198
J. Humphries, Ryah Thomas
{"title":"‘The Best Job in the World’: Breadwinning and the Capture of Household Labor in Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century British Coalmining","authors":"J. Humphries, Ryah Thomas","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2128198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2128198","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"97 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41788325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2022-12-07DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2128199
Nabamallika Dehingia, J. Klugman, E. Ortiz, A. Raj
{"title":"Race/Ethnicity and Sex Differences in Attitudes Toward Policies for Gender Equality in the United States","authors":"Nabamallika Dehingia, J. Klugman, E. Ortiz, A. Raj","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2128199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2128199","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":"1 - 31"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43688897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}