Master of Science / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent R. Amanor-Boadu / Women represent approximately 50 percent of the active labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though women are involved in a variety of agricultural activities, they have limited access to resources and have restricted decision-making power compared to their male counterparts (FAO, 2011). These limitations and restrictions are likely to have a significant effect on women’s performance levels compared to men. The present research measures the gender-based performance differences, identifies factors that influence the financial performance levels, and factors contributing to generate disparities between male and female smallholders performance in northern Ghana. Data used in this study are from the Agriculture Production Survey (APS) focusing on the 2013-2014 cropping season. The study uses the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to measure and decompose the gender performance gap in two parts: endowment effect and structural effect. Gross margin is used to measure farmer’s financial performance. The endowment effect is attributed to differences in the explanatory variables, and the structural effect is associated with differences in returns of the explanatory variables. Results from the study indicate there is a gender gap between male and female smallholder farmers with male farmers outperforming females by 46 percent. Land area had the largest significant impact on the explained part of the gender gap, followed by tractor service. The endowment effect portion of the decomposition models is accounted for 35 percent of the gender gap, and the remaining 65 percent is associated with the structural effect. The larger structural effect part suggests that developing programs to establish equality among male and female smallholder producers in terms of access to resources will not close the gender gap. Additionally, factors contributing positively overall to gross margin of smallholder farmers were land area, and tractor services and crops produced. Based on the results of this research, policymakers and agribusiness stakeholders may look to reduce the gender gap existing between smallholder farmers in northern Ghana by empowering women by providing them access to land area and tractor services. Further research into factors affecting the gender gap in financial performance in agricultural activities is warranted.

Essa tese de doutorado tem como objetivo estudar o diferencial de gênero no tempo de commuting dos indivíduos e entender sua relação com a Hipótese da Responsabilidade Doméstica (HRH, em inglês). Em um primeiro momento busca-se identificar as diferenças no comportamento de viagens a trabalho de homens e mulheres e associá-las à HRH, ao passo que a segunda parte vai mais a fundo na questão da divisão de tarefas e analisa o papel das normas sociais como motor do diferencial de gênero no tempo de commuting. Lançando mão de informações provenientes da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) de 2011 a 2015 para indivíduos casados, a primeira parte constrói uma métrica para o grau de responsabilização do cônjuge com os afazeres domésticos e investiga a sua importância na determinação do tempo de commuting. Os principais resultados indicam que gênero só se apresenta como característica relevante para explicar a duração do deslocamento ao trabalho nos cenários em que a parcela desempenhada de afazeres domésticos não é levada em consideração. Testes de robustez mostram que o efeito da HRH sobrevive mesmo quando incluídos nas regressões aspectos do mercado de trabalho que tradicionalmente são apontados como explicações para homens e mulheres apresentarem diferentes durações do commuting. Reconhecendo que a divisão de afazeres domésticos é influenciada pelos papéis de gênero que cada cônjuge assume dentro de um casamento, a segunda parte utiliza dados do Censo Brasileiro de 2010 para incluir na análise casais do mesmo sexo e entender como as normas sociais podem ser responsáveis pelas diferentes durações no trajeto casa-trabalho de homens e mulheres. Os resultados revelam que casais do mesmo sexo apresentam maior probabilidade de terem o mesmo tempo de commuting e que mulheres que se relacionam com outras mulheres conseguem ter maior mobilidade no espaço urbano, trazendo evidências de que o afrouxamento das normas sociais, materializado na não-designação tradicional de papéis sociais de gênero em um casamento, tem efeitos positivos sobre a igualdade do commuting. A pesquisa aqui desenvolvida expande a fronteira do conhecimento em várias frentes, a começar por trazer a discussão para fora do eixo dos países desenvolvidos. Mais importante ainda, discute o desenrolar da HRH no que diz respeito à capacidade de se locomover no espaço em busca de melhores oportunidades de emprego. Finalmente, a pesquisa ainda traz insights sobre a diferença entre gênero e papéis de gênero como condicionantes do comportamento de viagem dos indivíduos, permitindo que políticas públicas sejam desenhadas visando mitigar os efeitos adversos da HRH para as mulheres. / This dissertation deals with the gender differential in the commuting time of individuals and aims to understand its relationship with the Household Responsibility Hypothesis (HRH). First, it seeks to identify the differences in the behavior of travel to work for men and women and to associate them with HRH. The second part explores the issue of the division of household chores and analyzes the role of social norms as the motor of the gender differential in commuting time. Using information from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) from 2011 to 2015 for married individuals, the first part constructs a metric for the degree of accountability of the spouse to household chores and investigates their importance in determining commuting time. The main results indicate that gender is a relevant characteristic only to explain travel time to work in the scenarios in which the portion of household chores performed is not taken into account. Moreover, robustness tests show that the HRH effect persists even when aspects of the labor market that are traditionally pointed out as explanations for men and women presenting different durations of commuting are included in the regressions. Acknowledging that household chores are influenced by the gender roles each spouse takes in a marriage, the second part uses data from the 2010 Brazilian Census to include same-sex couples in the analysis to understand how social norms can account for different commuting times for men and women. The results show that same-sex couples are more likely to have the same commuting time and that women who relate to other women are able to have greater mobility in the urban space, bringing evidence that the loosening of social norms, materialized by the non-designation of traditional gender roles in a marriage, has positive effects on commuting equality. The research developed here pushes the boundary of knowledge on several fronts, starting with exploring the issue out of the usual circuit of developed countries. More importantly, it discusses the development of HRH with regard to the ability to move around in space in search of better employment opportunities. Finally, the research brings insights into the difference between gender and gender roles as constraints on individuals\' travel behavior, enabling the design of public policies to mitigate the adverse effects of HRH for women.

Cette thèse étudie l’impact des normes de genre et des institutions sur les choix éducatifs, les décisions d’offre de travail et les préférences politiques. Dans le premier chapitre, nous nous intéressons à l’influence du genre des enfants sur les opinions de leurs pères en matière de droits des femmes. Nous montrons que la présence d’au moins une fille parmi les enfants est associée à des attitudes plus marquées contre l’avortement pour les pères de droite et inversement, plus favorables à l’avortement pour les pères de gauche. Nous développons un modèle théorique dans lequel les pères, qui ont des préférences paternalistes, ont tendance à adopter des positions politiques plus extrêmes lorsqu’ils ont une fille plutôt qu’un garçon. La partie empirique de l’analyse repose sur l’utilisation de deux nouvelles sources de données : une base biographique des députés français, et une enquête post-électorale au niveau européen. Nos résultats suggèrent que les filles polarisent les attitudes de leur père en matière de droit à l’avortement. Ces résultats réconcilient en partie les conclusions contradictoires des travaux récents sur l’influence des filles sur les opinions politiques de leurs pères. Le deuxième chapitre est issu d’un travail commun avec E. Duchini. Nous étudions les décisions d’offre de travail des femmes dans un contexte institutionnel qui limitait jusqu’à récemment leur capacité à bénéficier d’un emploi du temps régulier. Historiquement en France, les enfants en âge d’aller à l’école maternelle et primaire n’avaient pas classe le mercredi. Nous utilisons la réforme dites des rythmes scolaires comme « expérience naturelle ». Avant 2013, les femmes dont le plus jeune enfant était en âge d’aller à l’école élémentaire étaient deux fois plus nombreuses que les hommes à ne pas travailler le mercredi. Afin de mesurer la réaction de l’offre de travail des mères à la réforme, nous utilisons la variation de son application dans le temps et en fonction de l’âge du plus jeune enfant. Nos résultats montrent que la réforme a permis à un plus grand nombre de femmes de travailler le mercredi, entraînant, en moins de deux ans, une réduction d’un tiers de leur différentiel de participation ce jour de la semaine par rapport aux femmes du groupe de contrôle. Cet effet est essentiellement attribuable aux mères pour qui une présence régulière au travail est particulièrement profitable, comme celles qui travaillent à des postes d’encadrement. Le troisième chapitre présente les résultats d’une expérimentation avec assignation aléatoire conduite de septembre 2015 à février 2016 avec T. Breda, J. Grenet et M. Monnet. Cette expérimentation montre que l’intervention courte d’un modèle positif d’identification féminin (role model) peut influencer les attitudes des apprenants, et contribuer ensuite à modifier leur choix d’orientation. Dans un premier temps, nous présentons des éléments descriptifs sur les attitudes différenciées des filles et des garçons vis-à-vis des sciences, et sur l’importance des stéréotypes vis-à-vis des femmes dans les sciences chez les lycéens. A l’aide d’une assignation aléatoire des élèves dans un groupe traité et dans un groupe contrôle, nous étudions l’impact causal des modèles positifs d’identification sur les aspirations, les attitudes et les choix éducatifs. Ces modèles féminins extérieurs font baisser de manière significative la prévalence des visions stéréotypées associées aux métiers dans les sciences, tant chez les élèves filles que garçons. Le traitement n’a pas d’effet significatif sur le choix d’orientation des élèves de seconde, mais la proportion de filles qui s’orientent et sont admises en classe préparatoire scientifique après le lycée augmente de 3 points de pourcentage. Cet effet correspond à une augmentation de 30% par rapport à la moyenne du groupe de contrôle. Ces changements sont principalement attribuables aux élèves ayant les meilleurs résultats scolaires en mathématiques. / This dissertation examines the role of gender norms and institutions on human capital formation, labor supply, and political preferences. In the first chapter, I use both theoretical and empirical analysis to study the impact of offspring’s gender on their parental political beliefs toward gender issues. I examine the hypothesis that men’s political attitudes toward abortion do respond to the presence of a daughter, but differently according to their general political beliefs. This polarization effect of daughters means that the presence of a daughter is associated with more anti-abortion (respectively pro-abortion) views for right-wing (respectively left-wing) fathers. This argument is investigated in a simple economic model and its implications are studied empirically using two original datasets. The model predicts that fathers with paternalistic preferences adopt more extreme political positions when they have a daughter than when they have a son. The empirical investigation provides evidence of a polarization effect of daughters on fathers’ views on abortion. The magnitude of the effect corresponds to around 30% of the impact of right-wing political affiliation on abortion support. In the second chapter, together with E. Duchini, we investigate women’s employment decisions when institutions limit their chances of having a regular working schedule. We use a recent reform as a natural experiment to show that women do value flexibility when their children demand it. Before 2013, women whose youngest child was of primary school age were twice as likely as men not to work on Wednesdays. To measure mothers’ response, we exploit variations in the implementation of this policy over time and across the age of the youngest child. Our results show that, although mothers take advantage of the reform to close 1/3 of their initial gap in the probability of working on Wednesday with respect to the control group. This response seems to be driven by mothers who are more rewarded for a regular presence at work, such as those working in managerial positions. The third chapter reports the results of a large-scale randomized experiment showing that a light-touch, in-class intervention of external female role models, can influence students’ attitudes and contribute to a significant change in their choice of field of study. While the impact of peers and "horizontal exposure" on aspirations gained greater attention in the recent literature, surprisingly little is known about the impact of exposure to role models on students’ attitudes and schooling decisions. Together with T. Breda, J. Grenet and M. Monnet, we implemented and monitored a large-scale experiment in randomly selected high-school classes in France from September 2015 to February 2016. We first document gender differences in attitudes toward science, as well as the prevalence of stereotypical opinions with respect to women in science among high school students. Using random assignment of students to a one-hour intervention, we investigate the causal impact of role models on aspirations, attitudes, and educational investment. External female role models significantly reduce the prevalence of stereotypes associated to jobs in science, both for female and male students. Using exhaustive administrative data, we do not find significant effect of the treatment on the choices of year 10-students, but we show that the proportion of female students enrolled in selective science programs after high school graduation increases by 3 percentage points, which corresponds to a 30 percent-increase with respect to the baseline mean. These effects are essentially driven by high-achieving students.

This interdisciplinary study examines the issue of education in presidential election campaigns from 1968 through 2012. Historians of education have argued that the public's embrace of The National Commission on Excellence in Education report A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (ANAR), in 1983 forced education onto the national agenda because political elites had to respond to voters' concerns about educational quality. Yet, historians of education have largely overlooked presidential election campaigns in their analysis of how education became a prominent political issue. In contrast, political scientists have focused a great deal on presidential election campaigns in seeking to understand the interaction between political elites and voters but have given little attention to the issue of education. This study integrates these two lines of inquiry to provide a better understanding of how education became a top-tier political issue and to better reveal the interactions between political elites and voters in that process. This study makes use of source materials that have received little scholarly examination. Internal campaign strategy documents reveal how political elites understood public opinion about education and how they sought to make use of that understanding to win elections. These underutilized sources reveal that historians have overemphasized the role of ANAR in the rise of education on the national political agenda. Long before education appeared in public opinion data as a top voter concern, strategists from both major political parties already wanted to push education onto the national political agenda. Yet, candidates were largely constrained from using education during the 1970s because they wanted to avoid engaging the controversial issue of de facto school desegregation. White voters were inconsistent on the issue: they claimed to support desegregation but took actions indicating they actually opposed desegregation. This made it difficult to craft an effective education message. When forced to discuss school desegregation, candidates of both parties employed a "quality education for all students" frame that deracialized the school desegregation debate and made education a safe issue to prime by the end of the decade. Beginning in the 1980s, Republicans used education for two electoral ends. First, they sought to use the recent transformation of the National Education Association (NEA) into a labor union and its endorsement of Democratic candidates to convince voters that the Democratic Party was beholden to radical special interest groups. Republican candidates also increased their priming of education in an attempt to close the gender gap arguing that women voters had a particular concern for the issue of education. Between 1990 and 2012, both parties wanted to use education to appeal to white voters. Republican candidates had long been committed to using education to soften their image. Now they began framing education as a civil rights issue in order to reassure white voters of their racial sensitivity. Meanwhile, Democratic candidates began framing education as an economic issue to reassure middle class white voters anxious about their children's future in the emerging global economy. A primary element in these electoral strategies was the idea that education was a "special" political issue. The "special" status rested on political elites' perceptions of voters' strong personal commitment to education and their nonpartisan attitudes toward specific policy positions. The lack of partisan correlation presented challenges for both parties but also unique opportunities to address campaign concerns related to a candidate's image, targeted voting blocs, and possible attacks on their opponents. The rise of the issue of education on the national agenda was often less about voters' concerns with educational quality and more about campaign strategy.

One of the main purposes of this dissertation was to examine gender- and socioeconomic status (SES)-related mathematics achievement gaps among Turkish middle-school students compared to achievement gaps in European Union (EU) countries. A further purpose of the present study was to investigate qualified mathematics teachers’ distribution in relation to student SES among Turkish middle schools. Finally, relationships between mathematics teacher quality indicators and students’ mathematics achievement within Turkish middle-school classrooms were explored. In this dissertation, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007 data were used. Sample countries were Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovenia. Achievement gaps by gender and SES were examined using Cohen’s d effect sizes and 95 percent confidence intervals. Relationships between mathematics teacher quality and students’ mathematics achievement were investigated using hierarchical linear modeling. Results showed none or only negligible gender differences but substantial SES-related gaps in Turkish students’ achievement in mathematics, overall, or in various content and cognitive domains. Correlations between students’ SES levels and their achievement were the largest in Turkey compared to the sample EU countries. Among the sample EU countries, only Hungary had as large or even somewhat larger disparities as Turkey between low- and high-SES students’ mathematics achievement. The current study also identified SES-related inequities in access to qualified mathematics teachers in Turkey. Low-SES students were more likely to be taught by mathematics teachers who had less than 3 years of experience or who did not hold a degree in mathematics or mathematics education. On the other hand, years of experience and a degree in mathematics or mathematics education were found to be substantially related to Turkish eighth-grade students’ mathematics achievement. Low-SES students’ mathematics teachers were also more likely to report lack of confidence in their preparation to teach various mathematics contents. To narrow achievement gaps, Turkish policy-makers can explore and benefit from policies of the countries identified in the present study as more equitable in terms of student achievement than Turkey. The current study also shows Turkish policy-makers importance of the equitable distribution of qualified mathematics teachers in closing the mathematics achievement gap in middle schools.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze the transformation of the Turkish welfare regime in the framework of the social security reforms and the effect of the individual pension system on both this transformation and women&rsquo / s welfare considering the gender gap in retirement. While there is a growing literature on Turkey&rsquo / s social security reform, there are only few studies on the gender dimension of social security and the gender effects of the reform. This study aims to contribute to this literature by examining the gender gap in recently introduced individual pension system (2003) in Turkey from a sociological perspective. The literature review focuses mainly on Esping-Andersen&rsquo / s welfare regime typology and its critics to categorize the current welfare regime of Turkey. The Southern European welfare regimes are examined particularly to construct a theoretical framework for the Turkish welfare regime and its transformation. Furthermore, the literature on gender inequality and social security is examined to discuss the gender gap in private pension systems. This thesis based upon some statistical and actuarial analyses to explore the gender gap. By using &lsquo / actual data&rsquo / the effects of some sociodemographic and socio-economic factors on the participation and the contribution rate to the individual pension system are examined. Besides, gender gap in benefits that arise from the defined contribution schemes in a serious of projection using a stochastic actuarial model is analyzed. The study is supported by the interviews made with three experts and decision makers about these issues.

This Study examined issues related to persistence in higher education among African American students, using the prominent model proposed by Vincent Tinto. The intentions were to examine the growing gender gap among African American students. The study examines factors from the Tinto model such as high school GPA, College GPA, college social integration and academic integration to try and explain the effects of gender among African American students. This research also attempts to elaborate the Tinto model by considering high school extracurricular activities as a pre-entry attribute that has an effect on persistence in higher education. Use of the Tinto model, even in an elaborated state, did not explain the effects of gender among African American students. This research suggests that other factors not included in the model have some effect on student persistence; one such factor could be gender socialization which can lead to different patterns in educational achievement.

Background: All over the world men and women show different health patterns, and therecan be many and various reasons for these differences. This thesis therefore evaluates theimpact of gender equality on health. To do this, we must be able to measure gender equality.In this thesis, we develop two new measurements of gender equality and evaluate the relationshipbetween gender equality and health. Methods: Two cross-sectional studies, one register-based and one survey study, are used tocompare different measurements of gender equality and different measurements of health,and the relationship between them. Differences between men and women in relation to healthoutcome are also discussed in the thesis. The register study, comprising 1 097 202 individuals,is based on public registers and includes information on workplace, income, sickness absence,full-time/part-time work, level of education, parental leave and temporary parental leave.A gender equality measurement, the Organizational Gender Gap Index or OGGI, was constructedand 123 companies in two sectors were ranked using the index. Employees in 21 of the mostand least gender-equal companies were invited to participate in a survey. A second genderequality index was constructed based on respondents’ own reports regarding gender equalityin their partner relationship. The variables measured were income, full-time/part-time work,educational level, and responsibilities for and sharing of household duties and parental leave.Both indices were evaluated using the single question: How gender equal is your workplace/your relationship with your partner? The four measurements were dichotomized and testedfor a relationship to health. Health was measured by three different measurements: registerbasedsickness absence, self-reported sickness absence in the past year, and self-rated health. Results: The thesis has produced two new measurements of gender equality, described above.On gender equality in the partner relationship, we found a difference between men and women.Men perceive higher gender equality than they report, while women report more gender equalitythan they perceive. When it comes to gender equality at work, we found that employees perceivetheir company to be more gender equal than the OGGI index shows. This thesis confirms thefindings that men have better health than women regardless of measurement. However, inthis study we also found that increased gender equality decreases these differences. If employeesperceive their company to be gender equal, they have higher odds of rating their health asgood, and this is especially so for women. Conclusion: This thesis supports the hypothesis that differences in health between men andwomen can be related to a lack of gender equality. When men and women have differentpossibilities and power to shape society and their own lives, their health will be affected throughembodiment of both biological and sociological determinants in accordance with the eco-socialtheory. Increased gender equality will decrease the differences in health between men andwomen through convergence. The theory of convergence explains why men and women areaffected differently by greater gender equality. Greater gender equality will also decrease thesocial injustice between men and women and improve justice in accordance with the theoryof justice to gender.The differences found between the indices and the single question on perceived genderequality make clear the need for “hard facts” as an complement to people’s own views on gender equality.

Differences of opinion in political subjects is an unanswered phenomenon and does not seem to fade away as the world turns more gender equal. This study aims to deepen the understanding of what is known in the scholarly literature as a gender gap. The correlation between more gender equal views and peaceful attitudes in foreign policy’s, earlier found in four Middle Eastern society’s is tested on the population of Sweden. Public opinion surveys from the SOM-institute are analysed with frequency- and contingency tables. The results show a gender gap in Sweden and that the relationship between more peaceful attitudes in foreign policy’s and a more gender equal perspective is also observed in Sweden. That relationship provides no satisfying explanatory force to the gender gap. The phenomenon remains unsolved, but this study extended the understanding and provided a few suggestions on how further studies could embrace the question and fill the knowledge gap.

"Throughout history, there have been various gaps: racial, gender, income, education, skills gaps...society today is not any different"(Andrews, 2017). Despite advances to close these gaps, a large gap still remains in communications leadership: the gender gap. Approximately 75 percent of practitioners are female and female practitioners only make up 20 percent of senior-level positions (Oakes & Hardwick, 2017). Existing research suggests there are several reasons why a gap exists: an unconscious bias that favors male leaders (Devillard, Hunt, & Yee, 2018), only 60 percent of women have the confidence they can advance into leadership positions (KPMG, 2018), lack of mentorship (Place & Vardeman-Winter, 2018), lack of exposure to female leaders (Arvate, Galilea, & Todescat, In Press), and the balance of personal and work responsibilities (Krivkovich, et al., 2017). This study employed 32 qualitative in-depth interviews with senior level communications leaders to understand the journey that women and men go through to become communications leaders, perceptions of communications leaders, factors contributing to the gender gap, and ultimately what can be done to close the gender gap. Participants of this study are among some of today's most senior-level communications leaders, with the average participant having 29 years of work experience in the field of communications. Multiple themes were identified for when and why individuals begin aspiring for communications leadership but it usually begins sometime during high school, college, or in the first few jobs after college once they have be experienced some form of leadership for the first time. There are certain factors such as unequal expectations for women and men and organization culture that can make a woman's path more difficult than a man's path. The majority of participants agreed that women and men are viewed differently in the workplace and that there are key differences such as sensitivity to and involvement of others that differentiate women from a men. There were seven primary themes identified as factors that contributing to the gender gap: relationships, unique challenges to women, issues in the communications field, a long history of male dominance, the pay gap is fueling the gender gap, lack of awareness of the gender gap, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Additionally, this study introduces multiple ways to help mitigate factors that are contributing to the gender gap. There were three primary thematic areas identified on ways to mitigate the gender gap: organizational mitigating factors, cultural mitigating factors, and personal mitigating factors. In summary, there are a number of reasons why a woman's journey into communications leadership is more difficult than a man's journey; however, there are many actionable things that communications leaders believe can be done to make it easier for future leaders.