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Showing posts from February, 2010

Exploring dimensions of gender inequality

The concern for gender differences and gender inequality has earned a long standing interest in the society. From studies of wage gaps and other forms of discrimination in the labour markets, access to services and acquisition of human capital, to problems of bargaining and intra household allocation, and increasingly focusing on the fundamental issue of the relative empowerment and agency of women, social scientists have been quantifying the degree of inequality in wellbeing between men and women. The World Bank has also shown interest in these disparities (e.g. World Bank, 2000; 2005) and the UNDP has an entire program on women empowerment. This academic and policy oriented concern for the presence of such inequality stems from a normative view that sees most gender differences as unfair and detrimental to individuals and societies (e.g. see Nussbaum and Glover, 1995; Sen, 2001). These normative judgments have a long tradition in Economics and Philosophy (e.g. Mill, The subjection of