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Gender Inequality in South Asia & its Effects on Autonomy, Employment & Turnout

Sun, September 1, 10:00 to 11:30am, Hilton, Tenleytown West

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Around the world, women are significantly underrepresented in political and economic life, from participation in politics to holding elected office and accessing employment opportunities. Men and women engage differently with the state, and gender inequalities are apparent in political and economic outcomes. Our panel seeks to identify these inequalities and the mechanisms through which they affect outcomes of interest such as female labor force participation, expression of political preferences, mobilization, and voter turnout. Leveraging original survey and experimental data, we shed light on gender inequality in South Asia where there is not only a dearth of understanding on women’s autonomy, constraints and preferences, but also where gender cleavages run very deep. According to the 2018 Global Gender Gap Report, South Asia is the lowest scoring region when it comes to gender equality metrics, save for the Middle East and North Africa.

Our first paper, co-authored by Kapur, Bamezai, and Vaishnav, analyses the impact of technology on inequalities within the household by engaging in a detailed enumeration of how men and women spend their time throughout the day. Using original data from 7,000 households across India and a unique time use questionnaire, this paper seeks to establish the how inequalities in household tasks affect women’s motivations and opportunities to engage in activities outside the house and the impact that technology can have on changing intra-household dynamics. Although there is a large literature on technology and household decision-making in OECD countries, there is limited work on this relationship in the developing world. Drawing on unique data that provides a window into women’s everyday lives, the paper measures the differential impacts that technologies embedded in public, private, and club goods have on women’s agency and household behavior.

Second, we seek to explain how differences in time use within the household manifest in labor force participation inequalities. Our next paper, co-authored by Badrinathan and Sircar, utilizes a series of survey experiments conducted in four urban clusters in India (Patna, Varanasi, Dhanbad, Indore) to ascertain the causes of labor market entry and exit: income effects, household duties, and physical challenges of commuting. In order to identify the relative importance of each of these mechanisms, the three competing hypotheses are contrasted against each other by relaxing one constraint at a time while holding others constant. Finally, this paper conducts a behavioral experiment on the same sample to understand women’s autonomy in household decision-making. 

Third, we analyze how inequalities in decision-making affect women’s political participation, and how to leverage this understanding for the design of effective civic interventions. Through a survey of 2,500 households in Lahore, Pakistan, Cheema, Khan, Liaqat, and Mohmand document the constraints to participation faced by women: low motivation, low information, restrictive social norms. Next, the paper employs a field experiment to test whether mobilization campaigns designed to address these constraints can improve women’s political participation. The paper finds that such campaigns only work when they engage men in households. 

Lastly, our final paper discusses the effect on policy and governance that comes from the integration of women in politics. Using an original survey of five villages in Madhya Pradesh, India, Prillaman demonstrates how the influx of women in political life changes the very nature of local politics itself. By examining the mechanisms of political networks and collective action, this paper scrutinizes the consequences that women have on policy, politics and society once they have entered the political arena. The survey and administrative data gathered for this survey is used to evaluate the gender composition of political insiders in a politician’s network, as well as how the structure of these politician networks links with the political demands from politicians’ support base.

Through our four papers, we establish a link between time use and decision-making inequalities within the household and their effect on outcomes outside the house such as access to employment and political participation. Collectively, our analyses weave a story of the causes of gender gaps that lead to a lack of participation of women in both employment and politics, the techniques that can be used to mobilize women to participate more, and the consequences of this very participation on politics and society. The papers assembled for this panel use original survey and experimental data to paint a vivid picture of gender inequality in both urban and rural settings across both India and Pakistan. Taken together, our results suggest that financially independent women are more likely to share decision making power within the household, but that participation outside the household improves when the binding constrains on both women and men are lifted.

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