Feminist EconomicsPub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2081353
Ignacio González, B. Seo, M. Floro
{"title":"Gender Wage Gap, Gender Norms, and Long-Term Care: A Theoretical Framework","authors":"Ignacio González, B. Seo, M. Floro","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2081353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2081353","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"84 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45380580","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 : 2022-05-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2061029
Bilge Erten, P. Keskin
{"title":"Does Knowledge Empower? Education, Legal Awareness, and Intimate Partner Violence","authors":"Bilge Erten, P. Keskin","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2061029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2061029","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"29 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46167361","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 : 2022-04-19DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2057565
Jinwoo Lee
{"title":"The Gendered Outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea","authors":"Jinwoo Lee","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2057565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2057565","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"89 - 111"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47716174","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 : 2022-04-10DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2056224
Nicola Daniele Coniglio, Rezart Hoxhaj
{"title":"Heterogeneous Firms in International Markets and Gender Inequalities: New Evidence from Vietnam","authors":"Nicola Daniele Coniglio, Rezart Hoxhaj","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2056224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2056224","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT 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.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"1 - 28"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41558060","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2044499
J. Olmsted, Edward Sayre
{"title":"Gender and Mandated Benefits: The Impact of Israeli Reserve Duty on Wages","authors":"J. Olmsted, Edward Sayre","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2044499","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2044499","url":null,"abstract":"Neoclassical theory suggests that mandated benefits drive a wedge between the wages of those that receive benefits and those who do not. Much of the empirical literature focuses on family leave programs that primarily benefit women. In Israel, two major mandated benefits are family leave and military reserve leave. This study exploits differences in the pattern of benefits/leave probabilities for men and women, Jews and non-Jews, as well as changes to the structure of reserve duty in the mid 1990s to see if employers respond to anticipated leave changes by adjusting wages. It finds that younger Jewish men made small gains relative to older Jewish men, but that young Jewish women made even greater gains during this period, suggesting little evidence that employers adjusted wages in response to the change in reserve duty requirements in Israel. This finding contributes to evidence suggesting gendered political and cultural factors shape wages. HIGHLIGHTS In Israel, mandated maternity leave and reserve duty leave are similar in terms of cost to employers. This provides a unique opportunity for analyzing how employers respond to costs associated with such leaves by gender. Israeli reserve soldiers, comprised almost exclusively of Jewish men, do not experience a wage penalty. Findings challenge standard neoclassical labor theory, which argues that higher cost workers earn lower wages. Wage determination is driven not just by economic factors, but also cultural and political ones.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"280 - 302"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41513307","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2044497
R. Vasudevan, S. Raghavendra
{"title":"Women’s Self-Employment as a Developmental Strategy: The Dual Constraints of Care Work and Aggregate Demand","authors":"R. Vasudevan, S. Raghavendra","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2044497","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2044497","url":null,"abstract":"The promotion of self-employment through financial inclusion initiatives has been adopted as a means of harnessing the entrepreneurial and productive capacities of women within the neoliberal developmental policy framework. This study presents a simple analytical model in the Post-Keynesian tradition to investigate the linkages between self-employment, aggregate demand, and unpaid care work by developing a two-sector model. It shows that a developmental strategy based on fostering women’s self-employment is constrained, on the one hand, by the macroeconomic conditions driving aggregate demand and, on the other, by the trade-off between the time allocation between unpaid care and paid work that the gendered division of care work responsibilities imposes on the self-employed woman worker. The promotion of self-employment cannot serve as a viable development strategy without policies that directly boost aggregate demand and at the same time relieve the burden of care responsibilities on women through public investment and social provision of care. HIGHLIGHTS Self-employment is too often uncritically prescribed as a vehicle for improving women’s livelihoods. Increased self-employment creates competing claims on women’s time between paid work and unpaid care. Women’s self-employment perpetuates gendered asymmetries of care responsibilities within the household. Macroeconomic demand conditions constrain the potential for women’s self-employment to increase livelihoods and support development. Financial inclusion policies alone have limited scope in sustaining women’s self-employment.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"56 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49240841","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2037684
V. Pandey, Abhishek Gupta
{"title":"Can Multi-Sectoral Development Interventions Boost Livelihoods and Women’s Labor Supply? Evidence from NRLM in India","authors":"V. Pandey, Abhishek Gupta","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2037684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2037684","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Diversifying household livelihoods and increasing women’s labor force participation is a major developmental challenge in South Asia. Multi-sectoral development approaches can provide better economic opportunities and women’s employment simultaneously. This study provides evidence on the livelihoods and women’s labor supply impacts of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), a $5.1 billion livelihoods initiative. The study matches primary data from 4,202 households and 726 villages using the 2011 Population Census and the 2012 Socio-Economic and Caste Census. The instrumental variable estimates suggest that participation in NRLM is associated with an improvement in the number of household livelihoods by 0.707, livelihood diversification by 0.13σ, and women’s working participation rate (WPR) by 15.4 percent. The study identifies two sets of channels, namely, formation of productive assets and access to formal credit, through which NRLM influenced livelihoods and women’s WPR. Heterogeneous program effects suggest that women in socially and economically deprived households benefitted most. HIGHLIGHTS The study highlights India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), the world’s largest livelihoods initiative. NRLM improved opportunities for women’s gainful employment in farm and nonfarm productive activities. The program’s impact reflects the efficacy of multi-sectoral development interventions. It relies on a unique multi-sectoral approach that mobilizes rural poor women into SHGs and their federations. The study argues for interventions that influence gender roles in the context of rural growth and development.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"217 - 246"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45647751","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2044498
Özlem Onaran, Cem Oyvat, Eurydice Fotopoulou
{"title":"A Macroeconomic Analysis of the Effects of Gender Inequality, Wages, and Public Social Infrastructure: The Case of the UK","authors":"Özlem Onaran, Cem Oyvat, Eurydice Fotopoulou","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2044498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2044498","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this study is to develop a model to analyze the macroeconomic effects of two dimensions of inequality – gender inequality and functional income distribution – and public spending, in particular on social infrastructure, on output, productivity, and hours of employment of men and women. This study estimates the model econometrically using an IV-GMM estimator and time series data for the period of 1970–2016 for the UK. For the estimation of productivity, the article uses IV-GMM estimations based on panel data for eighteen industries for the period of 1970–2015. The study finds that output in the UK is both gender equality-led and wage-led, and hence generally equality-led. Public social infrastructure investment has a high positive effect on both output and employment. Despite a strong positive effect on productivity, the employment of both men and women increases in the medium run. HIGHLIGHTS Output in the UK is gender equality-led and wage-led; hence the UK is equality-led. An upward convergence in wages by closing gender pay gaps leads to higher output. Public social infrastructure spending has a positive effect on output and productivity. Public social infrastructure leads to higher employment for both men and women. A mix of labor market and fiscal policies can achieve both equality and employment.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"152 - 188"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45358534","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2042473
Lynda Pickbourn
{"title":"Is Migration in Africa always a Household Decision? Consensus and Contestation in the Rural–Urban Migration Decisions of Ghanaian Women","authors":"Lynda Pickbourn","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2042473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2042473","url":null,"abstract":"The dominant theoretical framework for analyzing migration in Africa rests on the assumption of cooperative intrahousehold decision making regarding the mobility of household members. This framework, applied to women’s migration, overlooks the varied decision-making processes underlying their mobility, and obscures their ability to act as purposeful agents in making decisions about migration. Drawing on a study of women’s rural–urban migration in Ghana, this article argues that women’s migration decisions exist on a continuum defined by the presence or absence of intrahousehold contestation and the degree of agency exercised by the migrants themselves. Consequently, household models of migration may not always be the appropriate theoretical framework for the analysis of women’s migration in this context. The findings presented have implications for economic analyses of women’s migration and remittances, for our understanding of migrant women’s capacity for agency, and for the design of effective policies to improve migration outcomes for women. HIGHLIGHTS The study directly elicits information from women about their migration decisions. Women’s migration is the outcome of complex decision-making processes. The dichotomy between household and individual models of migration ignores these complexities.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"64 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45547112","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 : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2042583
H. Szymborska
{"title":"The Evolution of Gender Wealth Inequality in the United States in a Changing Institutional Context","authors":"H. Szymborska","doi":"10.1080/13545701.2022.2042583","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2022.2042583","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the patterns of household-level gender wealth inequality in light of financial sector transformation in the US since the 1980s. Securitization, the subprime lending expansion, and wider liberalization measures influenced wealth disparities by determining access to different types of wealth, asset values, and relative indebtedness. The evolution of the gender wealth gap in the context of these institutional changes is not yet clearly established in the literature. Using the US Survey of Consumer Finances between 1989 and 2019, the study examines changes in wealth inequality between unpartnered male-headed and female-headed households and its determinants. It finds substantial heterogeneity of the gender wealth gap, and within-group inequality for female-headed households, across different categories of marital status, family structure, race/ethnicity, and percentile of wealth distribution. Homeownership is estimated to have an equalizing impact, while differences in employment income, age, self-employment, and ownership of high-yielding assets are associated with increasing wealth disparities. HIGHLIGHTS The study examines the unconditional and conditional wealth gaps across unpartnered households. Gender wealth inequality increased in the subprime era and after the Great Recession. The highest inequality is observed across marital status, family structure, and race. The highest inequality is found among the least wealthy households. Wealth inequality can be lowered by reducing disparities in income and asset ownership.","PeriodicalId":47715,"journal":{"name":"Feminist Economics","volume":"28 1","pages":"32 - 63"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42473827","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}