Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Impacts Of Contraception On Women’S Decision-Making Agency In Indonesia, Michaela J. Fogarty

Undergraduate Economic Review

Increasing access to contraception has the potential to empower women and improve the economic standing of families across the globe. Many researchers have explored the impacts of contraception on families and the determinants of women’s level of empowerment, but little scholarship exists on their direct relationship. This paper explores the impacts of contraceptive use on women’s empowerment, measured by a sum of women’s household decision-making agency. Panel data from three rounds of the Indonesian Family Life Survey is used to run multiple regressions with household fixed effects. Results suggest that women who use contraception have input on two additional types …

Essays On Health Disparities And Income-Related Health Inequality In Sub-Saharan Africa, Marshall Makate

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation comprises of five empirical essays. Essay one assesses the impact of prenatal care quality and its components on child mortality using nationwide data from the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS), 1999-11. Results indicate that increasing prenatal care quality by one unit improves neonatal, infant and under-five survival by about 42.33, 30.86, and 28.65%, respectively and all statically significant at the 1% level.

Female Disadvantage In The Egyptian Labor Market: A Youth Perspective, Maia Sieverding

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In this brief, three aspects of female youth’s disadvantage in the labor market are analyzed: low labor force participation, high unemployment, and concentration in the public sector. These issues are closely interrelated and can be addressed through a set of policies that promote family-friendly employment conditions and the formalization of the private sector. The establishment of job search services for female youth is also critical to addressing the gender gap in unemployment.

Female Disadvantage In The Egyptian Labor Market: A Youth Perspective [Arabic], Maia Sieverding

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In this brief, three aspects of female youth’s disadvantage in the labor market are analyzed: low labor force participation, high unemployment, and concentration in the public sector. These issues are closely interrelated and can be addressed through a set of policies that promote family-friendly employment conditions and the formalization of the private sector. The establishment of job search services for female youth is also critical to addressing the gender gap in unemployment.

Women's Economic Resources And Bargaining In Marriage: Does Egyptian Women's Status Depend On Earnings Or Marriage Payments?, Rania Salem

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This working paper reports on a study using Egyptian survey data to determine whether the effect of women's work on their status is mediated by the material transactions that accompany marriage. This perspective posits that marriage payments made to the bride, as well as assets she herself brings to the marriage, enhance her bargaining position. Analysis of the 2006 Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey panel data is used to explore the associations between women’s labor market activity, earnings, absolute and proportional marriage payments, and a measure of women’s status within marriage, namely their decisionmaking power. Consistent with the existing literature, …

Le Travail Des Femmes Dans Le Secteur Agricole: Entre Précarité Et Empowerment—Cas De Trois Régions En Egypte, Au Maroc Et En Tunisie, Zhour Bouzidi, Saker El Nour, Wided Moumen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Despite a remarkable decline in the agricultural labor force in general, the number of women employed in the agricultural sector is growing substantially, particularly as a result of the intensification of agricultural activity. This Population Council working paper focuses on the working conditions of women in the agricultural sector based on the analysis of three case studies in three countries: the West of Delta in Egypt, the coastal zone of Gharb in Morocco, and the Nadhour region in Tunisia. The report analyzes to what extent agricultural work could be a means of precariousness or empowerment for women workers. Results show …

La Dynamique De La Discrimination Salariale Et De L'Équité Gendorielle Sur Le Marché Du Travail Au Maroc, Sami Zouari

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This Population Council working paper investigates the dynamics of the wage gap between men and women in Morocco. Estimates have shown that women earn up to 35 percent less than men in the periods observed. Differences in characteristics between the two sexes, mainly due to the difference in human capital endowments, are explained by only a small proportion of the gap. A negative proportion reported, though, is a kind of breakthrough for women, since it means that in terms of human capital skills, women are better qualified than their male counterparts. These negative differences confirm that women, especially those working …

Women's Job Search Behavior In The Egyptian Labor Market, Somaya Abdel Mowla

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study evaluates the difference between male and female job search behavior in the Egyptian labor market and the changes in this behavior between 1998 and 2006, in order to examine the effect of transition toward a market-oriented economy on job search activity. The paper also investigates the determinants of women’s job search behavior. The results reveal three alarming facts that raise worries about women’s labor force participation and their future labor market outcomes: women were less active job searchers than men, the gender gap in job search has widened, and this gap is even wider when excluding registration in …

Mandatory Waiting Periods For Abortions And Female Mental Health, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

Proponents of laws requiring a waiting period before a woman can receive an abortion argue that these cooling off periods protect against rash decisions on the part of women in the event of unplanned pregnancies. Opponents claim, at best, waiting periods have no effect on decision-making and, at worst, they subject women to additional mental anguish and stress. In this article, I examine these competing claims using adult female suicide rates at the state level as a proxy for mental health. Panel data analyses suggest that the adoption of mandatory waiting periods reduce suicide rates by about 10 percent, and …

Econometric Analyses Of U.S. Abortion Policy: A Critical Review, Jonathan Klick

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rights Of Inequality: Rawlsian Justice, Equal Opportunity, And The Status Of The Family, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Is the family subject to principles of justice? In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls includes the (monogamous) family along with the market and the government as among the "basic institutions of society" to which principles of justice apply. Justice, he famously insists, is primary in politics as truth is in science: the only excuse for tolerating injustice is that no lesser injustice is possible. The point of the present paper is that Rawls doesn't actually mean this. When it comes to the family, and in particular its impact on fair equal opportunity (the first part of the the Difference …

Women Street Vendors: The Road To Recognition, Monique Cohen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS explores the experience of women working and organizing as urban street vendors at a time when both the volume of demand and the number of vendors are expected to grow. As municipalities seek to change laws that affect how street vendors ply their trade, it is clear that vendors must have a seat at the table. Local-level organizational efforts need to be consolidated at the national level to cement vendors’ hard-earned gains as rights in national laws and policy. A 1995 meeting in Bellagio conceived an international alliance of street vendors—StreetNet—which aims to promote the exchange …

Alcoholism: A Barrier To Empowerment For Women, Marion Brink

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women's increasing economic power has encouraged the promotion of their drinking as fashionable. However, women are more vulnerable to the impact of alcohol, and the stigma attached to alcoholism is greater for them than it is for men. As a consequence, a woman — and those around her — will deny her alcoholism until she has lost much more than her male counterparts. When, or if, she seeks help for this devastating disease, she finds a lack of woman-specific programs and facilities. This article notes the barriers to recovery for women and offers some suggestions for breaking them down. Two …

La Construcción Colectiva Para Las Mujeres (The Women's Construction Collective): Edificando Para El Futuro, Ruth Mcleod

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS se enfoca en un programa creado para integrar a la mujer de ingresos bajos a la industría de la construcción en Jamaica. En dos años, hubo 34 mujeres que recibieron cursos básicos del programa y de capacitación más avanzados. Más del 90 por ciento de estas mujeres fueron empleadas; la mayoría son carpinteras y albaniles. La historia de cómo se identificó este campo como fuente potencial de ingresos para la mujer, y cómo se desarrolló el proyecto respondiendo a las circunstancias siempre cambiantes, presenta muchas lecciones útiles. Este proyecto será de especial interés para aquellos que …

The Muek-Lek Women's Dairy Project In Thailand, Aruna Rao

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS describes a project that was started in 1985 to encourage the growth of a new agricultural sector, dairy farming, in Thailand. While the major aim of the project was to increase incomes of rural families in the Muek-Lek Land Reform Area in Saraburi Province, Central Thailand, it also sought to integrate women into dairying activities, and offer these women, whether married or single, access to credit. The Muek-Lek Dairy Project is unique in that it channeled government resources and secured commercial bank financing to make women the key participants in a relatively new and growing agricultural …

The Port Sudan Small Scale Enterprise Program, Eve Hall

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Euro-Action ACORD (EAA) is a consortium of 20 European and Canadian aid agencies working in refugee farming settlements in Central and Southern Sudan, and with various rural development projects in other parts of Africa, which responded to a request from the Sudanese Commissioner of Refugees to work in Port Sudan. This was the first time the agency considered working with poor urban people, and staff were determined to understand the economic and social forces which governed life in the slums. The program noted a number of findings that will help determine its future: reaching out to women where they live …

The Women's Construction Collective: Building For The Future, Ruth Mcleod

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS focuses on a project developed to integrate low-income women into Jamaica's construction industry. In two years, 34 women passed through the project's basic training and skills upgrading courses. More than 90 percent of these women became employed, the majority as masons and carpenters. The story of how this field was identified as a potential source of income for women, and how the project developed and evolved in response to changing circumstances, presents many useful lessons. These should be of particular interest to those seeking to identify employment areas where women's participation is feasible and in helping …

Les Coopératives Des Vendeuses De Marché: Accorder Crédit Aux Femmes, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En 1972, la Fondation Nicaraguayenne de Développement (Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—FUNDE), I'un des deux programmes patronnés par l'Institut Nicaraguayen de Développement, prit connaissance du fait que les vendeuses de marché avaient besoin de d'argent liquide pour poursuivre leurs activités. Ce numéro de SEEDS décrit les efforts de FUNDE pour répondre à ce besoin par la création et la mise en place de cooperatives d'épargne et de crédit. Ce rapport insiste autant sur les aspects humains que ceux financiers et techniques du projet. Le succès obtenu s'explique par la manière dont les coopératives se sont formées, respectant les systèmes de valeurs, …

Developing Non-Craft Employment For Women In Bangladesh, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Too often when development planners or practitioners plan income-generating schemes for women they consider only handicrafts. While in some situations craft production may provide a secure source of income for women, in many cases it results in poor returns and proves more complicated an undertaking than expected. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is one agency that has developed a successful program of non-craft employment opportunities for women. Some 10,000 poor women have been engaged by BRAC in viable economic schemes: 9,000 in non-craft production. This issue of SEEDS reviews BRAC's experience in developing non-craft employment opportunities and participatory associations …

Creación De Empleos Distintos De Las Artesanías Para Las Mujeres De Bangladesh, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Con demasiada frecuencia los planificadores profesionales del desarrollo que diseñan proyectos destinados a producir ingresos para las mujeres, lo único que consideran son las artesanías. Si bien es cierto que en determinadas circunstancias éstas pueden proporcionarles una renta segura, en muchos otros casos las artesanías dan poco rendimiento y resultan ser una empresa mas complicada de lo que se esperaba. El Comité de Adelanto Rural de Bangladesh (BRAC—sigla de su nombre en inglés, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), es una organización que ha logrado desarrollar con éxito un programa de oportunidades de empleo femenino, distinto de las artesanías. De las 10.000 …

The Working Women's Forum: Organizing For Credit And Change, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDs tells the story of how the Working Women's Forum came into being in Madras, India and how it has brought together more than 13,000 poor, urban women around the issue of credit. It also describes how the Forum has not only provided its members with access to funds, but has expanded to include support services such as child care, education, health, and family planning and how the sense of strength and purpose that has grown up among the members is helping them to tackle the political and social problems that affect their lives.

Le Forum Pour Les Femmes Actives: Lutte Pour Le Crédit Et Le Changement, Marty Chen

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS retrace les différentes étapes qui ont mené à la création du Forum pour les Femmes à Madras, Inde et comment plus de 13,000 femmes pauvres ont pu, grâce à cette organisation, avoir accès au crédit. II décrit également comment le Forum a diversifié ses activités pour fournir à ses membres d'autres services, notamment dans le domaine de l'éducation, la santé, et la planification familiale et montre comment le fait de se sentir solidaires et reconnues permet à ses membres de mieux faire face aux problèmes politiques et sociaux qui affectent leur vie.

This issue of SEEDS …

Les Femmes Et L'Artisanat: Mythe Et Réalité, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce rapport examine les travaux manuels et l'artisanat comme un moyen d'assurer un revenu aux femmes. Parfois ces métiers représentent pour elles une source importante d'argent et leur permettent également de rester en lien avec leur propre heritage culture. Dans la plupart des cas cependant, la production artisanale relègue les femmes dans un domaine où le travail est intense et exploiteur, n'offrant qu'un salaire dérisoire pour de longues heures de labeur. Les travaux manuels et l'artisanat peuvent être un moyen pour les femmes d'accroître leurs revenus dans certains environnements, mais seulement sous les conditions présentées dans le rapport, car ces …

Hanover Street: Un Experimento De Capacitacion Femenina En Soladadura Y Carpinteria, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

El Proyecto de Hanover Street, conocido oficialmente como United Women's Woodworking and Welding Project (Proyecto de Carpintería y Soldadura de la Unión Femenina), es un experimento destinado a capacitar a un grupo de mujeres en oficios que usualmente desempeñan los hombres. Se inició en 1976 y fue el primer proyecto de esta clase de la Oficina de la Mujer Jamaiquina, una dependencia creada por el Gobierno de Jamaica durante el Año Internacional de la Mujer, para garantizar la total participación femenina en el desarrollo del país. A pesar de encontrarse aún en una etapa de desarrollo, el proyecto ha demostrado …

La Coopérative De Markala: Une Nouvelle Approche Des Rôles Economiques Traditionnaux, Susan Daughman, Mariam N'Diaye Thiam

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce numéro de SEEDS présente la cooperative de Markala, née de la détermination d'un groupe de femmes pauvres de la campagne Malienne à trouver un travail rémunerateur. Quand les vingt membres originaux s'associèrent en 1975, leur but était de gagner un salaire et d'apprendre des techniques reconnues et negociable sur le marché de l'emploi. En 1981, elles gèrent avec succès une cooperative qui produit et vend des pièces d'étoffe teintes et du savon de lessive. L'expérience des femmes de Markala a déjà aidé à la création d'autres coopératives dans la campagne Malienne. Cela démontre également que le fait de créer …

Mujeres Y Artesanías: Mito Y Realidad, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Este número de SEEDS analiza las artesanías como medio de crear ingresos para las mujeres. En algunos casos constituyen fuente sólida de ganancia; también pueden servirles de nexo con su propia herencia cultural. En la mayoría de los casos, sin embargo, las artesanías hacen que las mujeres se dediquen a un tipo de ocupación que requiere una labor muy intensa, con la que se las puede explotar y que resulta en entradas mínimas por largas horas de trabajo. Las artesanías pueden servir de medio de incrementar los ingresos femeninos en ciertos lugares, pero sólo en las condiciones que se describen …

Cooperativas De Vendedoras De Los Mercados: Dan Préstamos A Las Mujeres, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En 1972, la Fundación Nicaraguense de Desarrollo (FUNDE)—uno de los dos programas patrocinados por el Instituto Nicaraguense de Desarrollo—se dió cuenta de la necesidad que tenían las vendedoras de los mercados de obtener dinero prestado. Esta edición de SEEDS describe de la experiencia de FUNDE en el establecimiento de cooperatives de ahorro y préstamos destinadas a satisfacer esta necesidad. Este resumen hace hincapié tanto en los aspectos humanos del proyecto, como en los financieros y técnicos: El proyecto ha dado buenos resultados porque las cooperativas se han formado con base en la cultura de estas señoras, y utilizan toda la …

Women And Handicrafts: Myth And Reality, Jasleen Dhamija

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of SEEDS reviews handicrafts as a means of providing income to women. In some instances, crafts are a solid source of income and can also provide women with a link to their own cultural heritage. In most instances, however, crafts production concentrates women in an area that is labor intensive and exploitative, providing a meager income for long hours of work. Handicrafts can be a means of increasing income for women in some settings, but only under the conditions outlined in this report, since crafts are specialized activities which have limited markets and offer limited potential as a …

Hanover Street: An Experiment To Train Women In Welding And Carpentry, Peggy Antrobus, Barbara Rogers

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Hanover Street Project, formally known as the United Women’s Woodworking and Welding Project, is an experiment in training women for jobs usually held only by men. Begun in 1976, this was the first such program of the Jamaica Women's Bureau, established by the government during International Women's Year to ensure that women participate fully in Jamaica’s development. The project demonstrated that low-income women can learn non-traditional skills and can work together to improve their lives. Through trial and error, the project is providing the Women's Bureau with a wealth of information about teaching technical skills, working with other government …

Village Women Organize: The Mraru Bus Service, Jill Kneerim

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Mraru Women's Group in rural Kenya, like many community women's organizations around the world, is an example of a deeply rooted tradition of association and self-help among women. In 1971 the group began to gather its resources to solve a common problem—transportation. They raised money, bought a bus, and began a public transport service that made money; they now face other difficult questions such as reinvesting profits, serving members' broader needs, and maintaining a strong economic base. The Mraru Women's Group has shown unusual creativity and persistence in identifying common needs and organizing to meet them. They have also …