Perceptions of relative deprivation and women’s empowerment

dc.creatorKosec, Katrina
dc.creatorMo, Cecilia Hyunjung
dc.creatorSchmidt, Emily
dc.creatorSong, Jie
dc.date2021-02-01
dc.date2024-05-22T12:11:21Z
dc.date2024-05-22T12:11:21Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:21:18Z
dc.descriptionHow do perceptions of one’s relative economic status affect gender attitudes, including support for women’s economic participation and involvement in decision-making in their community and household? We conducted a 2018 survey experiment with female and male adults in approximately 1000 households in Papua New Guinea. Employing an established survey treatment to subtly alter respondents’ perception of their relative economic wellbeing, we find that increased feelings of relative deprivation make both men and women significantly more likely to support girls’ schooling and women’s paid employment, suggesting that relative economic insecurity can actually prompt support for women’s economic participation. However, increased feelings of relative deprivation may trigger greater intra-household tension. While increased perceptions of relative deprivation cause women to want more household decision-making authority, men’s attitudes toward women’s proper roles in decision-making are unchanged. In other words, increased support for women’s economic participation among men appears to stem mainly from a desire to raise household income, and not to alter the general role of women in society. The results underscore the multifaceted nature of gender attitudes, and how support for women’s economic participation may rise without simultaneous increases in women’s agency in decision-making.
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/142941
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/101951
dc.languageen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133520
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133537
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134293
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134760
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2020.101964
dc.relationhttps://theconversation.com/feeling-relatively-poor-increases-support-for-women-in-the-workplace-but-men-still-dont-want-them-making-household-decisions-151540
dc.relationhttps://wedge.umd.edu/using-priming-experiments-understand-gender-attitudes-lessons-papua-new-guinea-and-nepal
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136350
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceKosec, Katrina; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung; Schmidt, Emily; and Song, Jie. 2021. Perceptions of relative deprivation and women’s empowerment. World Development 138(February 2021): 105218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105218
dc.subjectgender
dc.subjectwomen's empowerment
dc.subjectgender attitudes
dc.subjectempowerment
dc.subjectexperimentation
dc.subjectdecision making
dc.subjectworkforce
dc.subjectlabor fource participation
dc.subjectequality
dc.subjectwomen
dc.titlePerceptions of relative deprivation and women’s empowerment
dc.typeJournal Article

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