Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
What role do institutional constraints and social norms play in determining persistent gender gapsin economic and political participation and have institutional reforms been successful in reducing these gaps? This paper argues that, at the roots of...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/506661497953688370/World-development-report-2017-Governance-and-womens-economic-and-political-participation-power-inequalities-formal-constraints-and-norms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27267 |
| Summary: | What role do institutional constraints
and social norms play in determining persistent gender
gapsin economic and political participation and have
institutional reforms been successful in reducing these
gaps? This paper argues that, at the roots of current gender
inequalities, there are traditional patriarchal social
structures in which power is unequally distributed, with men
traditionally holding authority over women. The power
imbalance is manifested in governance arrangements, of which
the author consider discriminatory formal laws and adverse
gender norms that perpetuate gender inequality. The author
reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of reforms
addressing gender inequality and applied via formal law
changes. Aware of endogeneity issues as reforms may be
adopted in countries where attitudes toward women had
already been improving, we focus on micro-empirical studies
that tackle this challenge. The evidence suggests that some
reforms have been successful reducing inequalities. Power
and norms can shift and sometimes temporary interventions
can deliver long-term results. There are, however, enormous
challenges posed by power inequalities and inherent social
norms that are slow-moving. Formal laws can remain
ineffective or cause a backlash because: i) the law is
poorly implemented and/or people are not aware of it; ii)
informal systems and social norms/sanctions are stronger;
iii) powerful groups (in our case, men) may oppose these
changes. Finally, reforms that improve women’s economic
opportunities can create the conditions to increase
political participation and vice-versa, thereby generating a
self-reinforcing cycle of inclusion. |
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