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Cart before the Horse?
Unpacking the Pathways between Social Norms, Opportunities and Women’s Work
Speaker
Mainstream analyses of low female labour force participation in MENA and South Asia emphasise restrictive social norms, focusing policies on changing behaviours rather than economic incentives.
This lecture by Prof. Ashwini Deshpande argues that economic opportunities, not norms, drive change. Citing historical evidence, including Claudia Goldin’s U.S. research, it shows how employment growth reshapes norms over time. It advocates prioritising labour market demand-side factors over costly norm-changing efforts, highlighting the gradual and varied evolution of gender norms globally.
The talk will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
This lecture is a part of Azim Premji University’s Public Lecture Series.
Presented by:
Speaker
Ashwini Deshpande
Ashwini Deshpande is a Professor and Head of Economics at Ashoka University and Academic Director of Centre for Economic Data and Analysis (CEDA). Her research focuses on discrimination and affirmative action, particularly caste and gender in India. She has published extensively, including Grammar of Caste and Affirmative Action in India. A Fellow of the International Economic Association, she has received the EXIM Bank Award (1994) now called (the IERA Award), VKRV Rao Award (2007), and SKOCH Award for Gender Economics (2022). She has also edited the Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action.
