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...

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Main Authors:	Milazzo, Annamaria, Goldstein, Markus
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	GOVERNANCE GENDER GAP SOCIAL NORMS INSTITUTIONAL REFORM INEQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS
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

id	okr-10986-27267
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-272672021-06-14T10:11:19Z Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms Milazzo, Annamaria Goldstein, Markus GOVERNANCE GENDER GAP SOCIAL NORMS INSTITUTIONAL REFORM INEQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND SOCIAL 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 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. 2017-06-20T15:29:31Z 2017-06-20T15:29:31Z 2017-06-13 Working Paper 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 English en_US World Development Report 2017 Background Paper; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	GOVERNANCE GENDER GAP SOCIAL NORMS INSTITUTIONAL REFORM INEQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS
spellingShingle	GOVERNANCE GENDER GAP SOCIAL NORMS INSTITUTIONAL REFORM INEQUALITY SOCIAL INCLUSION AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND SOCIAL NORMS Milazzo, Annamaria Goldstein, Markus Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
relation	World Development Report 2017 Background Paper;
description	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.
format	Working Paper
author	Milazzo, Annamaria Goldstein, Markus
author_facet	Milazzo, Annamaria Goldstein, Markus
author_sort	Milazzo, Annamaria
title	Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
title_short	Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
title_full	Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
title_fullStr	Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
title_full_unstemmed	Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms
title_sort	governance and women's economic and political participation : power inequalities, formal constraints and norms
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	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
_version_	1764464095793250304

Governance and Women's Economic and Political Participation : Power Inequalities, Formal Constraints and Norms

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