gender bias

Can political affirmative action reduce gender bias?

Lori Beaman   Raghab Chattopadhyay   Esther Duflo   Rohini Pande   Petia Topalova
8 January 2009

Reservation policies, by giving voters the ability to observe the effectiveness of women leaders, might pave the way for improving women’s access to political office and reducing statistical discrimination. This column summarises India’s experience with quotas for women in public office.


While women have the legal right to equal participation in politics in almost every country around the world, they remain vastly underrepresented in local and national politics. As of July 2006, women accounted for only 17% of parliamentarians worldwide, and a woman headed the government in only seven countries (UNICEF, 2007). These numbers vary dramatically by region.


This article may be reproduced with appropriate attribution. See Copyright (below).


 


Lori Beaman
Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University


Raghab Chattopadhyay
Professor of Public Policy and Management, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta


Esther Duflo
Professor of Economics at MIT and a CEPR Programme Director


Rohini Pande
Mohammed Kamal Professor of Public Policy, Kennedy School, Harvard University


Petia Topalova
Economist, International Monetary Fund


Comments

Sex selection and the resulting ratio bias

V. Bhaskar
24 June 2008

The author of CEPR DP6876 considers a society where parents prefer boys, but also value grandchildren. He finds that parental choice results in a socially inefficient situation – it is estimated, for example, that 40-50 million Chinese men could be without brides.


Gender bias, in the form of a parental preference for having boys rather than girls, is a phenomenon exhibited in many parts of the world and is reflected in male-biased gender ratios.


Topics: Development
 


V. Bhaskar
Professor of Economics at the University College London and CEPR Research Fellow



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