This exploratory research is a case study of a public university in Thailand. The research examines whether gender inequality exists in the pay raise process at Khon Kaen University over a two-fiscal year period (FY2002 and 2003). It also considers what factors might account for differences between male and female faculty in pay raises at this university, looking at factors such as productivity and family responsibilities. The research develops and tests measures of the Southeast Asian concepts of kinship, patronage, turn-taking and seniority systems. Three data sources are used, university personnel records, self-administered surveys and the annual evaluation report. Results show that raises tend to be equitable and faculty are equally productive, regardless of gender, discipline, academic rank, or position cluster. When significant differences are identified in this study, female faculty frequently reported that they received higher pay raises than their male colleagues. The well-established rules and regulations regarding pay raises (minimum requirements for productivity and pay raise steps) at this university prohibit any kind of systematic bias in pay raises. One of the other goals of this research was to test the Southeast Asian concepts of kinship, patronage, turn taking and seniority, and the extent to which each may be a factor in performance and pay raises. The research indicates these four may play a role, but their actual influence is not entirely clear and will require additional study. To address some of these issues, future research would explore the same public university with a longer time frame and then compare the result at KKU with other universities in Thailand and other universities in Southeast Asia. Interviewing both male and female faculty members in terms of their actual workloads, productivity, assigned tasks, and their perceptions of the impact of age and administrative position is recommended. Interviewing only female faculty members in different disciplines (female-dominated, male-dominated and balanced disciplines) concerning their experiences of inequality and how they deal with family responsibilities that affect productivity is also important for future research. / Ph. D.

The lives of Palestinian refugee women are complex and layered, embedded in the constraints and dictates of a patriarchal class system within a conservative culture that has been shaped by resistance to the Israeli military occupation since 1948. Over six decades of Israeli military occupation, ongoing national resistance, poverty and a maledominated society are a few of the forces that continue to shape the lives of refugee women today. The Israeli occupation has obstructed the development of a viable Palestinian economy and legal institutions that could serve as a framework for attaining women’s rights. In addition, Palestinian women, especially refugee women have limited employment and education opportunities due to the military violence which serves to strengthen patriarchal norms that discourage women seeking either higher education or work outside the home. Military occupation and traditional patriarchal society are therefore two inter connected processes central to the formation of gender identities and roles for women living in refugee camps. Palestinian refugee women are also part of a unique experience of being refugees on their own land. A central question arises as to whether, in the absence of an independent Palestinian state, refugee women can be agents of transformation in their personal, familial and community relations. I t is necessary to explore the potential for resistance and empowerment at the local level as defined and expressed by women and men in Jabaliya camp in an effort to assist in responding to this question. The everyday experiences of women explored in this study from the standpoint of women and men in Jabaliya refugee camp and their interpretations and perceptions of those experiences, are the basis for identifying everyday acts of resistance and potential avenues of empowerment among women in the camp. Everyday resistance and the process of empowerment are evident in the lives of women. The data show both subtle and open acts of defiance to oppressive ideas and social structures as well as a clear development of a critical understanding of women’s roles and status in the camp.

<p>This thesis is an analysis of how international policies on HIV prevention can be understood through a postcolonial perspective and how these prevention strategies are reflected nationally and locally in Babati, Tanzania. To gain knowledge of these aims I have focused on UNAIDS and the US’ government policies to get an idea of where the international discourse about HIV prevention stands. My empirical data in Babati is collected by semi-structural interviews with people who work with HIV prevention. I have used Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s understanding of Third World women, together with Jenny Kitzinger theory about women in HIV discourses and Karen M Booth’s view of how international policies are trying to empower women to reduce their risk of HIV infection. To assist my analysis I have focused on three notions, which are recurring in the HIV prevention discourse, these are: empowerment of women, condom use and sexual behaviour. These notions help to establish the HIV discourse and later I have compared the results with my theoretical framework and empirical findings. My final conclusion is that international policies on HIV prevention can be seen as imperialistic as they are promoting a certain change in sexual behaviour, such as reduction of partners and abstinence until marriage.</p>

This research examines the impact of work-family reconciliation policies on gender inequality in the labour market, and on the division of paid work and care in the household. Policies designed to help families meet their work and care responsibilities have undergone considerable reform over the last fifteen years. The research aims to understand how this has affected the way that earning and caring are divided between mothers and fathers, and the implications of this for mothers’ labour market outcomes. The research compares two cohorts; the National Child Development Study (NCDS) tracks individuals born in 1958, and the British Cohort Study (BCS) those born in 1970. These cohorts experienced the key childbearing years of their early thirties on either side of a fairly sharp discontinuity in work-family reconciliation policy. The research aims to link this difference in policy environments to differences the way that couples in each cohort divide paid work and care, and in the labour market behaviour of mothers and the penalties they face when they are in employment. Logistic regression models are employed to quantify the magnitude and significance of the impact of cohort membership on the work and care outcomes of interest, controlling for other variables that affect these outcomes. Some case-level analysis of the data is also carried out; individuals representing typical family arrangements are highlighted, to demonstrate the relevance of the theoretical model and assist with hypothesis generation. Case stories illustrate the interplay of individual circumstances with policy and other external factors, in a way that is difficult to achieve using statistical methods. A key finding is that the younger cohort is less likely to report equal sharing of childcare than the older cohort, even after controlling for other factors that might influence the division of labour. This is also in spite of the finding that mothers in the younger cohort are more likely to be in work. This suggests progress to some extent, in that mothers perhaps find it easier to be in employment. However at the same time it represents a regressive step at the household level, as they not only continue to shoulder the majority of the care work, but are even more inclined to do so. Analysis of pay and status gaps also yields interesting results. The findings suggest that the penalty to motherhood in terms of labour market status accrues by virtue of the interrupted human capital accumulation that results from periods out of the labour market or working part time. However, the motherhood penalty in pay persists even after controlling for other wage determinants, suggesting that these gaps are a direct result of motherhood itself and not of the labour market behaviour changes that occur as a result. The research contributes theoretically and substantively to the wider literature on this topic. It brings together human capital perspectives with theories of gender, power and resources, and of the impact of policy on family life, and uses Amartya Sen’s capability approach to reconcile and move forward these ideas. It also contributes to the practical understanding of the impact of policy on the way that families reconcile work and care, and in particular the implications of policy for gender equality. Finally, its methodological contribution is in the use of a narrative approach to large-scale quantitative data, alongside more conventional statistical techniques, in order to further exploit the detailed, longitudinal data available.

Studies of terrorism have explored a number of factors thought to drive the phenomenon. Authors often tie socioeconomic development to reducing terrorism. Among structural explanations of terrorism, however, authors generally neglect the effect of gender inequality, though studies show that gender inequality increases the risk of international and civil conflict. Therefore I explore the impact of gender inequality in important socioeconomic issues on terrorism for 143 countries from 1998-2009. I argue that socioeconomic gender inequality reflects poor state capacity, resulting in grievances that contribute to domestic non-suicide and suicide terrorism. I study gender inequality in the areas of education, labor participation, and life expectancy. Results indicate that education and life expectancy inequality increase the risk of terrorism, while labor inequality is unrelated. While the time frame and data used in this study limit generalizability, results indicate that states should provide socioeconomic gender parity to reduce the risk of domestic terrorism.

Cette thèse de doctorat contribue à la littérature sur l'économie des ménages, sur la mesure de la pauvreté et sur l'avortement sélectif. Lorsque les normes sociales et les préférences favorisent les hommes par rapport aux femmes, les inégalités entre les sexes peuvent se retrouver dans différentes dimensions. Dans le premier chapitre j'étudie la norme de patrilocalité et je me demande comment la structure du ménage affecte les prises de décision de la belle-fille et son autonomie. En utilisant des données de panel au niveau des ménages en Inde, j'estime un modèle de différences en différences qui compare entre 2005 et 2012 les groupes qui subissent un décès du beau-père ou de la belle-mère et ceux qui n’ont pas de décès. Je trouve que le statut de la belle-fille s'améliore après le décès du fait de la redistribution du pouvoir entre les membres du ménage. Cependant, les résultats ne sont pas compatibles avec le fait que le canal conventionnel de la belle-mère soit la seule autorité sur la belle-fille. Le deuxième chapitre étudie la mesure de l'avortement sélectif des femmes et demande s'il y a des avortements répétés entre deux naissances consécutives. Cette question ne pouvant être résolue en utilisant des méthodes existantes, l'article propose de nouveaux tests et une méthodologie pour estimer les fractions de la population subissant des avortements sélectifs. En appliquant cette méthodologie à des données indiennes, nous trouvons que les avortements sont pratiqués de manière répétée. Le troisième chapitre propose une nouvelle approche de la mesure de la pauvreté absolue. Cela se fait de deux manières, d'abord en suggérant une manière d’individualiser les prix de référence, et deuxièmement en définissant des lignes de pauvreté propres à chaque groupe/région. En comparant notre approche les uns aux autres, pour l'Inde, nous constatons que les différentes approches conduisent à différentes conclusions sur la pauvreté. Ne pas prendre en compte les préférences des individus surestime la part des personnes rurales (jeunes et âgées) dans la population pauvre. / This PhD dissertation contributes to the literature on household economics and the measurement of poverty & sex-selective abortion. When social norms and preferences favour males over females, outcomes can reflect gender inequalities across various dimensions. I study the norm of patrilocality in the first chapter and ask how the household structure of four adult members affects the daughter-in-law's decision-making-say and autonomy outcomes. Using household level panel data from India, I estimate a difference-in-difference model comparing groups between 2005 and 2012 that experience a death of the father-in-law or mother-in-law and those that do not. I find that the status of the daughter-in-law improves after death as power is redistributed among the members. However, the findings are not consistent with the conventional channel of the mother-in-law being the sole and strongest authority over the daughter-in-law. The second chapter studies the measurement of female sex-selective abortion and asks if there are repeated abortions between two consecutive births. As this question cannot be answered using existing methods, the paper proposes novel tests and methodology to estimate the fractions of the populations undergoing sex-selective abortions. Applying our methods to Indian data we find first quantitative evidence of repeated abortions. The third chapter proposes a new approach of absolute income poverty measurement that takes preference into account when agents differ in preferences and face different prices. This is done in two ways, first by suggesting a way to use individualised reference prices, and second by defining group/region specific poverty lines.Comparing our approach with conventional ones, for India, we find that the different approaches lead to different poverty conclusions. Not taking preferences into account overestimates the share of Old-Rural and Young-Rural in the poor population.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar o papel do gênero no aprendizado escolar no Brasil, enfatizando desigualdades e o efeito de pares. Essas questões foram analisadas em cinco capítulos, incluindo a introdução e as considerações finais. Inicia-se com uma breve descrição sobre a desigualdade de gênero em termos de aprendizado de matemática e português no Brasil considerando, principalmente, os alunos de 5º e 9º ano. Observa-se que os meninos tendem a se sair melhor em matemática que as meninas, uma relação que se inverte para português e, ainda, que estas desigualdades aumentam nos anos escolares mais avançados. O segundo capítulo visa investigar os fatores associados a estas diferenças, explorando características dos alunos, professores e escolas através de dois métodos diferentes de decomposição, uma que explora a diferença de média dos resultados e outra que analisa toda a distribuição de notas. Os resultados indicam que apesar de meninos e meninas possuírem características de contexto socioeconômico e familiares parecidas, o principal fator contribuinte para as diferenças de aprendizado está no retorno destas características em termos de nota para cada um dos dois gêneros, o que, portanto, reduz o papel do professor e da escola na diminuição destas desigualdades. O terceiro capítulo trata do efeito de pares no aprendizado do 5º ano das escolas públicas brasileiras. Ele investiga, de maneira causal, a relação entre a proporção de meninas na escola e o aprendizado. Identifica-se uma relação positiva entre notas e a proporção de meninas em português e, principalmente, em matemática, uma disciplina cujas meninas tendem a se sair piores do que os meninos. Isto, portanto, chama atenção para o tópico do quarto capítulo, que busca elucidar mecanismos por trás desta influência. Verifica-se, portanto, que o efeito positivo das meninas ocorre via comportamento, o que se reflete em menor violência, maior expectativa dos professores sobre o futuro escolar dos alunos e facilita o andamento da classe. Diante disso, em termos de políticas públicas, o trabalho chama atenção para o gênero como fator importante na alocação de alunos e professores dentro da escola. Assim, levar os resultados aqui apresentados em consideração na formulação e execução de políticas pode resultar em medidas efetivas e de baixo custo voltadas para o aumento do aprendizado escolar. / The aim of this research is to analyze the role of gender on scholastic achievement in Brazil, emphasizing inequalities and peer effects. These issues are analyzed in five chapters, including the introduction and the concluding remarks. We start by briefly describing gender inequality in terms of math and literacy achievements in Brazil, focusing, mainly, on 5th and 9th grade students. We observe that boys tend to outperform girls in math, a relation that reverses in literacy and, furthermore, that these inequalities increase in more advanced schooling years. The second chapter aims to investigate the factors associated with these differences, exploring students’, teachers’ and schools characteristics in two different types of decomposition methods, one that explores differences in mean achievement and another that assesses the entire test score distribution. The results indicate that despite boys and girls having similar family and socioeconomic characteristics, the main contributor towards the learning differences is the return of these characteristics in terms of test scores for each of the two genders, which, therefore, reduces the role of teachers’ and schools in diminishing these inequalities. The third chapter deals with peer effects in 5th grade Brazilian public schools. It investigates the casual relationship between the proportion of girls at school and learning. We identify a positive relation between test scores and the proportion of girls in literacy and, mainly, in math, a subject that girls tend to be outscored by boys. This, in fact, draws attention to the fourth chapter, which seeks to elucidate the mechanisms behind this influence. We verify that the benefits of having a greater proportion of girls are mainly through improvements in student behavior, which reflects in less violence, greater teacher expectations over the student’s academic future, and facilitates classroom progress. In terms of public policies, this research draws attention to gender as an important factor in the allocation of students and teachers within schools. Therefore, the consideration of our findings in the formulation and execution of policies can result in effective and low cost measures aimed at increasing scholastic achievement.

This study looks at female musicians performing in subcultural rock genres commonly considered non-gender-conforming, such as punk rock, heavy metal, noise, and experimental. Twenty-four interviews were conducted with female musicians who reflected on their experiences as musicians. Themes emerged on women’s patterns of entry into music, barriers they negotiated while playing, and forces that may push them out of the music scene. Once women gained a musician identity, their gender functioned as a master status. They negotiated sexism when people questioned their abilities, assumed men played better, expected them to fail, held them to conventional gender roles, and sexually objectified them. Normative expectations of women as primary caregivers for children, internalization of criticism, and high personal expectations are considered as factors that contribute to women’s exit from musical careers. This research closes with suggestions for how more women and girls can be socialized into rock music.

This study investigated educational stratification in Nigeria to determine how socioeconomic status, gender, and regional differences influence achievement in education using the nationally representative 2010 Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS). These cross-sectional data are among the first quality household survey data available for assessing aspects of education in Nigeria. In the last four decades, Nigeria has experienced dramatic expansion of its educational system. Following the introduction of educational policies and programs, growth in enrolment at the primary and secondary levels has largely been sustained. For instance, enrolment of pupils in primary education increased from 3,515,827 in 1970 to 14,383,487 in 1985 and to 20,080,986 in 2010. However, this impressive gain was followed by dwindling quality in the educational system, which has reported differing educational outcomes for different groups. Prior research in Nigeria has not examined how socioeconomic status influences achievement in education using large scale representative data. In this study, I primarily focused on assessing socioeconomic status to determine how it predicts achievement in reading and numeracy in Nigerian school children, ages 5 to 16 years. Nigeria is also known to have wide gender and regional gaps in education. Thus, I assessed gender and region variables to determine how much they contribute to the variance in educational achievement. I analyzed NEDS 2010 data and reported the findings of the descriptive and multivariate regression statistics. Descriptive statistics show the frequencies and distribution of the variables in the study. The multivariate regression analyses were employed to determine the relationship of socioeconomic status, gender, and region (the main predictor variables) with achievement in reading and numeracy (outcome variables). Given the use of survey data, both the descriptive and regression statistics were based on weighted statistics. This study found a significant wealth gap in reading and numeracy achievements among Nigerian children. I also found that family wealth, parental education, and region explain differences in academic achievement. Family wealth was found to be the most important variable influencing achievement in reading and numeracy, followed by mother's education and then region. Overall, the findings in this study suggest no significant differences in reading and numeracy achievement for boys and girls. Although gender was not found to be consistently associated with academic achievement in this study, it should not be assumed to mean that gender equality in education exists in Nigeria. It is widely reported elsewhere that gender-biased educational opportunity plays a major role in influencing educational attainment and achievement. More research, preferably using a longitudinal study design, is needed to identify the trends and patterns of gender roles in Nigerian educational attainment and achievement. The findings in this study provide the foundation for making further investigations on the association of social, economic, and cultural factors with academic achievement and to assess inequality in education in Nigeria.

The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the effect of sibling structure on women's and men's socialization and achievement outcomes in three areas: housework performance, education, and occupation. Data from China and the United States are used for analyses. The findings indicate that the effect of sibling structure largely depends on the cultural and structural contexts in each society. More specifically, although women and men on average have the same sibling structure, the meaning of sibling configuration is different for women and men because of macro-level factors, such as cultural expectations, gender stereotypes, historical legacy, and political propaganda, and micro-level factors, such as parental preferences, parent-child communication and sibling competition. To examine the effect of sibling structure on each outcome, I conduct three empirical studies. In the first study, using data from the 2006 wave of the China Health and Nutrition Survey, I investigate the effect of sibling structure on children's housework performance. The results show that sibship size, sex composition, and birth order are important predictors of children's housework performance in China. On average, children's probability of doing housework increases as number of siblings increases and singletons are least likely to do housework. In two-child families, for girls, a brother increases the likelihood of doing housework, whereas a sister has no impact. For boys, the presence of a younger brother increases the likelihood of performing housework, whereas a sister and an older brother have no impact. In the second study, I focus on the effect of sibling structure on educational attainment and the role of siblings' education in this relationship. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) are used for analyses. I find that the effects of sibship size and sibling sex composition on educational attainment are mediated through siblings' educational achievements. These effects are divergent for men and women. For women, sibship size and sex composition do not impact their educational attainment after accounting for siblings' educations. For men, only the number of brothers (but not sisters) has a negative effect on their educational attainment after controlling for siblings' educational achievements. In the third study, I investigate the influence of birth order on the prestige and sex type of adolescents' occupational aspirations using the first wave of the NLSY79. The results indicate that for both females and males, firstborn and lastborn adolescents on average expect higher prestige occupations compared to middleborns, and lastborns are more likely to have nontraditional occupational aspirations than firstborns and middleborns. Taken together, the results suggest that the gender gap in important child and adult behavioral outcomes is smaller among individuals with fewer siblings, fewer brothers, and among lastborn young adults.