scholarly journals Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Doepke ◽  
Michèle Tertilt
2018 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 358-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Doepke ◽  
Michèle Tertilt

We document evidence on preferences for childbearing in developing countries. Across countries, men usually desire larger families than women do. Within countries, we find wide dispersion in spouses' desired fertility: there are many couples whose ideal family size differs by five children or more. This disagreement between spouses suggests that the extent to which women are empowered should matter for fertility choices. We point to evidence at both the macro and micro levels that this is indeed the case. We conclude that taking account of household bargaining and women's empowerment in analyses of fertility is an important challenge for research.


Author(s):  
Shri Kant Singh ◽  
Deepanjali Vishwakarma ◽  
Bhawana Sharma ◽  
Santosh Kumar Sharma

Background: Over the years, there has been growing evidence of continuous narrowing gender gap in new HIV infections, despite stagnation in overall HIV prevalence in India. Among others, one of the reasons behind the exiting pattern in HIV/AIDS in the country is the poor status of women, lack of control over their sexuality and poor reproductive and sexual rights.Methods: This paper analyses the troika of women’s empowerment, spousal-violence, and HIV prevalence in India using data from two rounds (2005-2006 and 2015-2016) of Indian DHS having a community-based HIV testing.Results: Results corroborate the recent spurts in women’s empowerment in India, which cuts across socio-economic groups. It has positively influenced a decline in spousal-violence even in the lowest socio-economic strata despite significant inequality across states. HIV prevalence among women has not been changed over the last decade (0.22% to 0.23%) despite decreased adult HIV prevalence. Women having control over their sexuality is significantly less likely to have HIV infection. Relationship between marital control behavior of husband and HIV prevalence, which was significant in 2005-06 (OR=1.2, p<0.10), has emerged to be insignificant in 2015-16. This means that increasing women's empowerment has altered their HIV prevalence through increasing sexual-rights and reducing the intensity of marital control behavior.Conclusions: A combative relationship has been established between women’s empowerment and their risk of HIV/AIDS. The results have been consistently showing the variations of inequality in women’s empowerment across different states, consequently affecting the risk of HIV/AIDS. Ensuring sexual-rights of women should be the best strategy.


Author(s):  
Petra Debusscher

Promoting gender equality in EU development aidThe European Commission combines specific funds for women's empowerment with gender mainstreaming in its twin-track approach to gender equality in development aid policies. The strategy is successful in terms of budgets and formal appearance but it is implemented in a limited, interest-guided and expertbureaucratic manner. Furthermore by privileging EU interests the strategy fails to address the needs of the poorest developing countries and it ignores civil society concerns. In practice, the twin-track strategy severely limits the transformative potential of gender equality policies.


Author(s):  
Violet N. Barasa ◽  
Charles Lugo

Since the 1980s, the gender gap in most countries—rich and developing—has been narrowing. Women and girls are going to school more, living longer, getting better jobs, and acquiring legal rights and protections. Despite these strides, women in poor rural communities remain financially excluded from formal financial services. This chapter explores the impact of mobile banking on financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya. The aim is to evaluate whether mobile banking is a form of financial inclusion and women's financial empowerment in Kenya. Firstly, it gives a clear background of a form of mobile banking in Kenya locally called M-PESA. Secondly, it evaluates how M-PESA is a form financial inclusion. Thirdly, it examines if M-PESA is a form of financial empowerment for women and girls in Kenya and lastly, offers recommendations on how M-PESA can effectively become a mode of financial inclusion and women's empowerment in Kenya.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022110607
Author(s):  
Ignacio Lago ◽  
Santiago Lago-Peñas ◽  
Carlos Lago-Peñas

The conditions under which women's national football teams do better or worse in international tournaments remains an open question. Using data from 116 countries worldwide, we have examined three arguments accounting for the gender gap in international football success, focusing on positive externalities from economic development and women's empowerment, and the active policies promoting women's football. Our findings show that the international performance of women's national football teams compared to men's national football teams increases with women's empowerment and in countries committed to the promotion of women's football, while economic development is not relevant. The general question we address is whether gender gaps disappear because of economic and social development, or if active policies promoting women are required to achieve gender equality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patience A. Afulani ◽  
Molly Altman ◽  
Joseph Musana ◽  
May Sudhinaraset

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Burroway

Sociologists have long recognized women's empowerment as a key factor in improving development and health in developing countries. Using new data, this study goes beyond the traditionally used indicators of empowerment by highlighting the potential role of women's rights to land, property, and loans in explaining cross-national variation in child health. Results show that land and property rights are associated with lower rates of infant and child mortality across 75 developing countries, net of women's literacy and a variety of controls. Notably, the robustness of the land and property variables is comparable to that of GDP or access to clean water/sanitation. This provides some suggestive evidence that perhaps these aspects of women's empowerment may be just as important as some of the more conventional correlates of child health. However, access to bank loans is not significantly associated with lower infant and child mortality. This is consistent with a growing body of research that questions the efficacy of microfinance and loan programs for poverty reduction, health, and other development outcomes.


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