Local Industrial Shocks and Endogenous Gender Norms

Citation:

Author: Anja Tolonen

Abstract:

Does industrial development change gender norms? This is the first paper to explore the causal local effects of a continent-wide exogenous expansion of an industry on the formation of gender norms. The paper uses the recent rapid increase in industrial gold mining—plausibly exogenous to local characteristics—in Africa as a quasi-experiment. The identification strategy relies on temporal and spatial variation in a difference-in-difference analysis. Using a large sample of women living within 100 km of a gold mine, I show that the establishment of an industrial-scale mine bringing local economic growth changes gender norms: justification of domestic violence decreases by 19%, women have better access to healthcare are 31% more likely to work in the service sector. I exclude that the effects are driven by increased schooling attainment but women access more information through media. The findings are robust to different assumptions about trends, distance, and migration, and withstand a novel spatial randomization test. The results support the idea that entrenched norms regarding gender can change rapidly in the presence of economic development (Abstract from original).

Keywords: gender norms, local industrial development, gold mining, Africa

Annotation:

Topics: Development, Domestic Violence, Extractive Industries, Gender, Gender Roles, Health Regions: Africa

Year: 2016