The fifth United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by the year 2030.
The College of Business and Law’s Centre for International Development (CID) is actively conducting research to understand factors that influence the gender gaps across various development outcomes.
In one research project, Associate Professor Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, and PhD student Mr Musharavati Ephraim Munyanyi examine how a personality trait known as the Locus of Control (LoC) can explain why men have higher levels of mental health than women.
LoC is the extent to which people feel that they have control over their life.
Individuals with an external LoC believe that events in their life result from factors outside their control, such as fate, luck and the actions of others.
Individuals with an internal LoC, on the other hand, believe that what happens in their lives stems from their own actions and behaviour and that they have control over their own destinies.
The researchers found that gender differences in LoC is an important factor contributing to the gender gap in mental health.
They report that women are more external on LoC and that women exhibit poorer mental health.
The researchers draw on findings from the psychology literature that during adolescence, LoC has not stabilized and, as such, can still be shaped by learning positive control beliefs.
“Thus, as a policy recommendation, we propose that to narrow the mental health gap, policymakers can invest in programs that teach strategies designed to build resilience, optimism and internal control to girls; thereby, nudging them to develop a more internal LoC”, reports Sefa.
In another research project, Professor Simon Feeny, Dr Ankita Mishra, Dr Trong-Anh Trinh, Dr Longfeng Ye and Dr Anna Zhu examine how rainfall shocks experienced in early life explain outcomes in formal employment in adulthood.
The researchers consider Vietnam, a country that is highly vulnerable to rainfall shocks.
They find that rainfall shocks experienced early in life have a long temporal reach by reducing the probability of formal sector employment for women but not for men.
Further, the gendered impact of rainfall shocks operates through differential effects on educational attainment and rainfall shocks experienced in the first and second year of life are most important.
Findings highlight the need to protect households from shocks, particularly given that climate change is leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of weather shocks, argues Anna.
The focus of assistance should be on households with daughters that are in the first two years of life since inadequate nutrition at this critical time could lead to wasting, stunting and cognitive impairment with long-term implications with respect to employment adds Longfeng.
Other researchers are strongly encouraged to contribute to the policy relevant literature on reducing gender gaps.
Sefa Churchill - School of Economics, Finance and Marketing
CID researchers Sefa and Simon are currently guest editors for a special issue on the “Economics of Gender Difference” of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (ABDC ranked A*/Scimago Q1).
Further details can be found here
