More than Words: Do Gendered Linguistic Structures Widen the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurial Activity?

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 797-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana M. Hechavarría ◽  
Siri A. Terjesen ◽  
Pekka Stenholm ◽  
Malin Brännback ◽  
Stefan Lång
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Relativity Theory ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Linguistic Structures

Leveraging linguistic relativity theory which suggests that language systems structure thought and action, we investigate the relationship between gendered linguistic structures and the persistent gender gap in early–stage entrepreneurial activity. We use country–level data from 105 countries in 2001–2015 with 55 different languages, and incorporate 32 controls covering a broad range of factors previously associated with entrepreneurial activity. We find that in countries where the dominant language's structure incorporates sex–based systems and gender–differentiated pronouns, there is a greater gender gap in entrepreneurial activity. Our results suggest that gendered linguistic structures reinforce gender stereotypes and discourage women's entry into entrepreneurship.

scholarly journals Gender stereotypes can explain the gender-equality paradox

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (49) ◽  
pp. 31063-31069
Author(s):  
Thomas Breda ◽  
Elyès Jouini ◽  
Clotilde Napp ◽  
Georgia Thebault
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Economic Constraints

The so-called “gender-equality paradox” is the fact that gender segregation across occupations is more pronounced in more egalitarian and more developed countries. Some scholars have explained this paradox by the existence of deeply rooted or intrinsic gender differences in preferences that materialize more easily in countries where economic constraints are more limited. In line with a strand of research in sociology, we show instead that it can be explained by cross-country differences in essentialist gender norms regarding math aptitudes and appropriate occupational choices. To this aim, we propose a measure of the prevalence and extent of internalization of the stereotype that “math is not for girls” at the country level. This is done using individual-level data on the math attitudes of 300,000 15-y-old female and male students in 64 countries. The stereotype associating math to men is stronger in more egalitarian and developed countries. It is also strongly associated with various measures of female underrepresentation in math-intensive fields and can therefore entirely explain the gender-equality paradox. We suggest that economic development and gender equality in rights go hand-in-hand with a reshaping rather than a suppression of gender norms, with the emergence of new and more horizontal forms of social differentiation across genders.

scholarly journals Custody and Care of Children in Spain: Can the Two Rights be Reconciled?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Jabbaz Churba
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Parental Authority ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Children’S Voices ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis study aims to analyse the legal decision-making process in the Community of Valencia (Spain) regarding contentious divorces particularly with respect to parental authority (patria potestas), custody and visiting arrangements for children, and the opinions of mothers and fathers on the impact these judicial measures have had on their lives. It also considers the biases in these decisions produced by privileging the rights of the adults over those of the children. Three particular moments are studied: (1) the situation before the break-up, focusing on the invisible gender gap in care; (2) the judicial process, where we observe the impact of hidden gender-based violence and gender stereotypes; and (3) the situation post-decision, showing how any existing violence continues after divorce, by means of parental authority. The concept of ‘motherhood under threat’ is placed at the centre of these issues, where children’s voices are given the least attention.

scholarly journals Intersecting race and gender stereotypes: Implications for group-level attitudes

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1172-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis E. Phills ◽  
Amanda Williams ◽  
Jennifer M. Wolff ◽  
Ashley Smith ◽  
Rachel Arnold ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Men ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
South Asians ◽  
The United States ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Minority Men ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

Two studies examined the relationship between explicit stereotyping and prejudice by investigating how stereotyping of minority men and women may be differentially related to prejudice. Based on research and theory related to the intersectional invisibility hypothesis (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008), we hypothesized that stereotyping of minority men would be more strongly related to prejudice than stereotyping of minority women. Supporting our hypothesis, in both the United Kingdom (Study 1) and the United States (Study 2), when stereotyping of Black men and women were entered into the same regression model, only stereotyping of Black men predicted prejudice. Results were inconsistent in regard to South Asians and East Asians. Results are discussed in terms of the intersectional invisibility hypothesis (Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008) and the gendered nature of the relationship between stereotyping and attitudes.

scholarly journals The Gender Gap in Employment Hours: Do Work-Hour Regulations Matter?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liana Christin Landivar
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Work Hour ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Household Allocation ◽  
Weekly Work

In all developed countries, women, especially mothers, work fewer paid hours than their spouses. However, the magnitude of the gender gap varies significantly by country, ranging from 2 to 20 hours per week in this study. Using data from the 2002 International Social Survey Programme, this article investigates whether work-hour regulations have a significant effect on household allocation of paid labour and gender work-hour inequality. Two main types of work-hour regulations are examined: standard weekly work hours and the maximum allowable weekly work hours. Results show that households in countries with shorter maximum weekly work hours had less work-hour inequality between spouses, as each additional allowable overtime hour over the standard workweek increased the work-hour gap between couples by 20 minutes. These results indicate that couples’ inequality in work hours and gender inequality in labour supply are associated with country-level work-hour regulations.

scholarly journals Using Facebook Ad Data to Track the Global Digital Gender Gap

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masoomali Fatehkia ◽  
Ridhi Kashyap ◽  
Ingmar Weber
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Mobile Access ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Official Data

Gender equality in access to the internet and mobile phones has become increasingly recognised as a development goal. Monitoring progress towards this goal however is challenging due to the limited availability of gender-disaggregated data, particularly in low-income countries. In this data sparse context, we examine the potential of a source of digital trace `big data' -- Facebook's advertisement audience estimates -- that provides aggregate data on Facebook users by demographic characteristics covering the platform's over 2 billion users to measure and `nowcast' digital gender gaps. We generate a unique country-level dataset combining `online' indicators of Facebook users by gender, age and device type, `offline' indicators related to a country's overall development and gender gaps, and official data on gender gaps in internet and mobile access where available. Using this dataset, we predict internet and mobile phone gender gaps from official data using online indicators, as well as online and offline indicators. We find that the online Facebook gender gap indicators are highly correlated with official statistics on internet and mobile phone gender gaps. For internet gender gaps, models using Facebook data do better than those using offline indicators alone. Models combining online and offline variables however have the highest predictive power. Our approach demonstrates the feasibility of using Facebook data for real-time tracking of digital gender gaps. It enables us to improve geographical coverage for an important development indicator, with the biggest gains made for low-income countries for which existing data are most limited.

scholarly journals Gender Discourses as a ‘Technology of Power’ in Nepalese Primary Level Textbooks

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Pragya Paneru
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Gender Representations ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Primary Level ◽  
Gender Binary ◽  
Nutritional Health ◽  
And Gender

 The Gender gap is one of the most prominent problems in the context of Nepal. Even if Nepal constitution promotes gender equality and equity, there is still a huge gap between male and female. Women lag in literary percentage, nutritional health conditions, ownership, and employment opportunities. One of the obstacles in the path of gender equality is our systemic education materials especially our textbooks which reinforce the stereotypical concept of male and female through textbook representations. Researchers have shown that gender stereotypes have been seen in the textbooks of highly developed countries like America, Australia, and Hongkong. In this context, all the compulsory textbooks of grade four and five prescribed by the Curriculum Development Centre in the context of Nepal were observed. In all the books, stereotypical representations of male and female characters were found. Most of the men and women were presented doing conventional gender roles, and male-centered themes are found in the narratives. This research claims that when conventional attitude regarding gender is transferred to young children, it ultimately reproduces similar gendered personalities and helps to maintain the gender gap. This research uses the concept of ‘technology of power’ by Foucault to interpret gender representations in textbooks. A Ccritical Discourse Analysis has been used to analyze the data from textbooks. The findings suggest that there are biased gender representations suggesting stereotypes and gender binary which could potentially affect the learners both male and female as it fosters false knowledge regarding gender and overburdens the male whereas humiliates the females.

Exploring the relationship between holistic spirituality and gender essentialism among Swiss university students

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Zemp ◽  
Ulf Liebe
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Spiritual Beliefs ◽  
Gender Essentialism ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

Do women and men with stronger spiritual beliefs, experiences, and practices tend toward more or less ambivalent sexism and self-stereotyping? To shed more light on this issue at the intersection of religion and gender, we will analyze a survey of 379 Swiss university students, both women and men, to establish whether a positive or negative relationship between holistic spirituality and gender essentialism is empirically more plausible. Our data show a gender gap: women express stronger spiritual beliefs and they report on more spiritual experiences and practices than men. We also find, inter alia, associations between religious orientation and holistic spirituality as well as spiritual beliefs and ambivalent sexism for both women and men; yet, stronger spiritual beliefs are correlated with less self-stereotyping for men but with more self-stereotyping for women. In sum, our results tend to support a positive relationship between holistic spiritualty and gender essentialism.

Performance and financing strategies of female and male entrepreneurs in the Republic of Serbia

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danijela Stošic Panić
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Female Entrepreneurs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Net Profit ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The paper examines gender differences in the performance and financing strategies of female and male entrepreneurs in the Republic of Serbia. The aim of this study is to explore the gender dimension – a much under-researched aspect of entrepreneurship in the Republic of Serbia – and to link the findings with those of other environments. Design/methodology/approach To explore gender-based differences in entrepreneurial activity, a random sample of 327 units was drawn from the Serbian Business Registers Agency’s Register of Companies. In total, 101 completed questionnaires were received. The chi-square test of association was used to assess the relationship between two categorical variables, while the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test was used to assess the statistical importance of the differences between groups of female and male entrepreneurs. The relationship between the performance and different sources of financing was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Findings The results confirm the existence of a gender gap in the net profit, employment growth rate, return on assets (ROA) and in use of various types of alternative financing sources. The evidence shows that those male entrepreneurs who use personal funds achieve lower levels of net profit and ROA compared to those who use internal business sources. Lower ROA is also achieved by those male entrepreneurs who use alternative sources of financing, relative to those who do not use these sources. Female entrepreneurs who applied for bank loans realized higher net profit value compared to those who did not apply for a loan. Moreover, female entrepreneurs who use some kind of state-supported funding achieve higher ROA than those who do not. Other gender differences found regarding the various aspects of the financing practices lacked statistical significance. Originality/value Although the generalizability of part of the findings is weakened due to the lack of statistical significance, most of the expected gender differences were found to exist at the sample level. This encourages further studies of similarities and differences between female and male entrepreneurs’ financing strategies and their impact on business performance. This is particularly important for the environments in which the gender aspect of entrepreneurial activity is under-researched.

Overcoming the Gender Gap: The Possibilities of Alignment between the Responsibility to Protect and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

This article examines the relationship between the Women, Peace and Security (wps) agenda and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P remains ‘gender-blind’, inadequately addressing gender issues encompassed within the wps agenda. Currently, women are limited by gendered structural inequalities and marginalisation in conflict, where the wps agenda has failed to be incorporated in R2P and broader conflict mechanisms. I argue that the wps agenda and R2P are mutually beneficial and complementary in their protection mandates to enable lasting peace. I identify three common intersecting commitments of these two normative frameworks to provide a more holistic, gender-sensitive approach to conflict. These are prevention and early warning systems, protection and gender-sensitive peacekeeping, and women’s participation in peace processes. I conclude that identifying common areas of engagement could potentially effect positive changes for women and men on the ground in conflict prevention and protection, and post-conflict reconstruction.

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