economic costs of gender inequalityrownoscplci.pl/uploads/filemanager/anneday2public.pdf · 1....

Economic costs of

gender inequality

Anne Boschini Associate Professor of Economics

Gender equality does not trickle down.

Policies and interventions are essential to overcome gender inequality

3

Efficiency

•  Unhappiness at the individual level of not doing what you are best at.

•  Miss out on talent in gender unequal societies means lower profitability in firms – Smith (2006)

•  Gender equality is associated with high GDP per capita

22-05-2013 / Anne Boschini

Gender equality

Source: McKinsey (2010)

22-05-2013 / Anne Boschini, Department of Economics

•  Different social expectations on men and women. Women responsible for household work and the care of children and men have still mainly the bread-winner role.

Social norms

Gender equality

37

On

Nor

ms

and

Age

ncy

explored stereotyped notions of a good wife and good husband. The depictions below of a good wife and good husband reflect the participants’ most idealized views of gender roles and norms. They do not necessarily reflect the composition of their households, the realities of their daily lives, or their aspirations for their lives (see box PI.1 above). They do, however, describe the normative frame-work that binds both women and men.

We find that the normative frameworks governing the roles within the household have remained largely un-changed. Consistently across both men’s and women’s focus groups, and across the urban and rural contexts, and across di!erent economic, political, and social cir-cumstances of the 20 countries, men and women hold similar views of the wife’s and husband’s roles. Strict gender norms may be relaxing some, but they still retain a tight grip over women’s and men’s idealized roles and behaviors as husbands and wives. Almost every partici-pant described a good husband as the highest house-hold authority and responsible for being a benevolent decision-maker and a good provider for the household. The focus group accounts of a good wife depicted her first and foremost as an obedient, caring, and respectful mate to the good husband. She is responsible for all the housework and the care of all members of the house-hold, and is held strictly accountable for her domestic responsibilities day in and day out.

The wife and husband roles are quite stable across the focus groups, but we also see signs of flexibility around these norms. In some places, the norms are relaxing, and some of the factors that are driving this relaxation seem to be associated with increased education levels, wom-en’s participation in the labor force, and urbanization. But we cannot a"rm that there is a direct relationship with these drivers. Men, however, appear to have more leniency within their prescribed norms. In the aggregate, urban communities are ahead of rural communities in norm relaxation and negotiation.

Figure 1.1 lists the four most-mentioned topics in the fo-cus group discussions of a good wife and good husband. The frequencies in the figure show the number of times a topic was brought up in the 194 adult focus group dis-cussions. The figure does not specifically assess favor-able or unfavorable perceptions associated with these attributes.29

As observed in figure 1.1, domestic responsibilities re-ceive, by quite a remarkable amount, the greatest em-phasis in discussions about the definition of a good wife. Opinions of this overriding role for women outnumber all other descriptions, whether we asked urban men and women or rural men and women. For a good husband, his economic role is mentioned the most, but in comparison with the domestic role of the good wife, this received less stress.

a. The good wife

The strong emphasis on women’s domestic work and care is all the more striking because focus groups were

27 The title of chapter 1 is adapted from Bicchieri (2006).28 In fact, the exploration of what makes a good or bad wife, husband, girl, or boy was conducted within the context of the current community, the previous generation, and the future (of the adolescents). Focus group facilitators launched discussions in all focus groups with this question: “For a woman to be seen as a good wife in your community, what is she like? What does she do? Why?” All adult groups were asked how things had changed compared with the previous generation. Adolescents were asked how they saw themselves in the future at age 25 and what they thought of their parent’s lives.29 It is important to note that the frequencies (or numbers) of mention are not statistically representative data. The samples were not randomly selected and the frequencies show only how often certain themes appeared in focus group conversations. We present the coded frequencies at di!erent junctures to help convey the pattern of findings that emerged from systematic work with the narrative data in the field reports.

Good Wife

Frequency of mentions

Good Husband

Note: Data from 194 adult focus groups (men and women).

FIGURE 1.1: CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD WIFE AND A GOOD HUSBAND

Domesticresponsabilities

Attitudes orbehaviors

Economic roles

Merital relations

408233

296245

242272

164160

Source: World Bank, “Norms and Agency”

Economic opportunities


Social norms

Policies

Economic development at the firm and

country level

Gender equality in Sweden

•  Labour market and family policies and legislation makes it easier for women to combine employment and child-rearing: –  Extensive parental leave –  Child care is available from that the children are one year old

and onwards. –  Increased flexibility in terms of working from home in many

workplaces –  Fathers are increasingly involved in the care of their children

•  However, several challenges remain: –  Unchanged gender pay gap since decades –  Pronounced glass ceiling for women –  Health concerns: mothers twice as sick as fathers


Gender wage gap in Sweden(unadjusted)

Data from SCB; Richardson & Edin (2002) noted this. 8

There is a glass-ceiling for women in Sweden, i.e. the gender wage gap is higher at the top of the income distribution

9

2000

2010

percent less earned by women compared to men at each step of the income distribution in 2000 and 2010

Source: Medlingsinstitutet (2012) 22-05-2013 / Anne Boschini, Department of Economics

Women work part-time to be able to combine family and work

Source: Statistics Sweden (2012)

10

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden52 53Women and men in Sweden Women and men in Sweden

Women&aged&20–64&by&activity&status&and&hours&normally&worked&1970–2011Percent

0

20

40

60

80

100

201120052000199519901985198019751970

Full3time35–8hours

Long8part3time20–348hours

Short8part3time1–198hours

Not8in8thelabour8force

Unemployed

Source:(Labour(Force(Surveys

The rate of gainful employment rose among women bet-ween 1970 and 1990. During all of the 1990s, gainful em-ployment dropped and then began to increase somewhat up until the middle of the 2000s. During the 1970s and 1980s the proportion working on a long part-time in-creased. At the same time, the proportion of those wor-king full-time increased during the 1980s. In the 1990s unemployment rose while the proportion of those wor-king full-time or on a long part-time basis dropped.In 2011, the economic activity rate for women aged 20–64 was 82.5 percent and the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent.

Men&aged&20–64&by&activity&status&and&hours&&normally&worked&1970–2011Percent

0

20

40

60

80

100

201120052000199519901985198019751970





Unemployed


The rate of men’s gainful employment remained at the same level between 1970 and 1990. Up until the middle of the 1990s it dropped and stayed at the same level until the middle of the 2000s and then increased somewhat up un-til 2011. At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the percentage of those working full-time fell slight-ly while the percentage of those working on a long part-time basis increased. At the beginning of the 1990s, the proportion of full-time workers fell sharply. At the same time, the percentage of both unemployed persons and those outside the labour force increased. In 2011, the eco-nomic activity rate for men aged 20–64 was 88.7 percent and the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent.

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden52 53Women and men in Sweden Women and men in Sweden

Women&aged&20–64&by&activity&status&and&hours&normally&worked&1970–2011Percent

0

20

40

60

80

100

201120052000199519901985198019751970





Unemployed


The rate of gainful employment rose among women bet-ween 1970 and 1990. During all of the 1990s, gainful em-ployment dropped and then began to increase somewhat up until the middle of the 2000s. During the 1970s and 1980s the proportion working on a long part-time in-creased. At the same time, the proportion of those wor-king full-time increased during the 1980s. In the 1990s unemployment rose while the proportion of those wor-king full-time or on a long part-time basis dropped.In 2011, the economic activity rate for women aged 20–64 was 82.5 percent and the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent.

Men&aged&20–64&by&activity&status&and&hours&&normally&worked&1970–2011Percent

0

20

40

60

80

100

201120052000199519901985198019751970





Unemployed


The rate of men’s gainful employment remained at the same level between 1970 and 1990. Up until the middle of the 1990s it dropped and stayed at the same level until the middle of the 2000s and then increased somewhat up un-til 2011. At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the percentage of those working full-time fell slight-ly while the percentage of those working on a long part-time basis increased. At the beginning of the 1990s, the proportion of full-time workers fell sharply. At the same time, the percentage of both unemployed persons and those outside the labour force increased. In 2011, the eco-nomic activity rate for men aged 20–64 was 88.7 percent and the unemployment rate was 6.7 percent.


0.1

.2.3

1945 1950 1955 1960 1945 1950 1955 1960

Men Women

professionals university non profall university

fract

ion

of c

ohor

t

cohort

Graphs by woman

Looking at 45 years old Swedes… a. Education

Professionals: engineering, medicine, law and business & administration Source: Boschini, Håkansson, Rosén and Sjögren (2011)


b. Fertility (among those having children)

12 22-05-2013 / Anne Boschini, Department of Economics

c. Annual earnings at 45 in Sweden

13 22-05-2013 / Anne Boschini, Department of Economics

Important insights:

1.  Gender equality does not trickle down, also due to the complex relation between social norms and economic opportunities

⇒  Need of targeted policies and interventions, as for example ⇒  Child care at least from when the child is 1 year old:

available for all and flexible in terms of time ⇒  Parental leave equally shared between men and

women ⇒  Temporary quotas to change social norms as in

Norway 2.  Involve men at all levels: in policy-making, in firms and

in the civil society.


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