V IOLENCE A GAINST W OMEN, G ENDER R EPRESENTATION, AND G ENDER E MPOWERMENT Ferdaouis Bagga...
Transcript of V IOLENCE A GAINST W OMEN, G ENDER R EPRESENTATION, AND G ENDER E MPOWERMENT Ferdaouis Bagga...
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, GENDER REPRESENTATION, AND
GENDER EMPOWERMENT
Ferdaouis Bagga
American University
School of International Service
RESEARCH QUESTION
Basic premise: women help other women
Original RQ: Will there be less violence against women in a
state which has more female representation in its parliament/lower house?
Adjusted RQ: Will there be more substantive legislative action
on violence against women when the state has higher female empowerment?
An Australian researcher who says that women work harder in parliament.
HYPOTHESES Ha= Countries with higher levels of female empowerment
will feature more legislation on violence against women. Ho= There is no relationship between level of female
empowerment and legislation on violence against women.
BACKGROUND SOURCES Violence Against Women: An International Perspective, by
Johnson, H., Ollus, N, and Nevala, S. The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control,
affiliated with the United Nations (HEUNI) IVAWS – commenced 2003, by 2005 11 countries
Escobar-Lemmon, M. & Taylor-Robinson, M. M. (2005). “Women Ministers in Latin American Government: When, Where, and Why?”
Iyer, L., Mani, A., Mishra, P., & Topalova, P. (2011). “The Power of Political Voice: Women’s Political Representation and Crime in India”
Tremblay, M. (1998). “Do Female MPs Substantively Represent Women? A Study of Legislative Behaviour in Canada’s 35th Parliament”
Yoon, M. Y. (2004). “Explaining Women’s Legislative Representation in Sub-Saharan Africa”
DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES
1. Gender empowerment measure: “gem2005” From Human Development Report of 2007/2008 Assigns countries a value indicating how empowered
women are based on political, economic, and societal factors
Dependent
• Unit of Analysis = Country • LOM = Interval-Ratio
DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES
1. Legislation on violence against women: “LegislationVAW” From OECD 2009 0=yes, 1=no
2. Percentage of women in parliament: “Women2008” From Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
3. Gender-related development index: “GDIValue2005” From UNDP Assesses life expectancy, adult literacy rate, gross
enrolment ratios, estimated income
Independent
IF DEPENDENT VARIABLE WAS “WOMEN2008”…
103 103 46 103 0.9569 0.0005 0.0003GDIValue2005 0.0054 -0.3371* 0.5102* 1.0000 50 50 50 0.0000 0.0036 gem2005 0.6557* -0.4046* 1.0000 116 117 0.1587Legislatio~W -0.1317 1.0000 116 Women2008 1.0000 Wom~2008 Legisl~W gem2005 GDI~2005
DATA… DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Variable Observations (N) Mean Standard
Deviation Min Max
gem2005 50 .50326 .1314866 .129 .761
LegislationVAW 117 .5793162 .242052 .08 1
Women2008 116 16.10172 9.332803 0 48.8
GDIValue2005 103 .6408835 .1610817 .32 .927
01
23
Den
sity
0 .2 .4 .6 .8Gender empowerment measure (GEM) value 2005 (UNDP 2007)
Source: Driving Democracy Crossnational Data, UNDP 2007
Gender Empowerment Measure
01
23
Den
sity
0 .2 .4 .6 .8 1LegislationVAW
Source: OECD, 2009 data
Legislation on Violence Against Women
GRAPH MATRIX
Genderempowerment
measure(GEM) value2005 (UNDP
2007)
LegislationVAW
Percentage ofwomen in the
Lower House ofParliament,2008 (IPU)
Gender-relateddevelopmentindex (GDI)value 2005
(UNDP 2007)
.2 .4 .6 .8
0
.5
1
0 .5 1
0
50
0 50
.4
.6
.8
1
Source: UNDP, IPU, OECD
Gender Empowerment vs. Legislation on VAW, Women in Parliament, and Gender Development
DATA… SAMPLE
LegislationVAW Women2008Afghanistan 1 27.7
Albania 0.75 7.1
Algeria 0.75 7.7
Angola 0.5 15
Argentina 0.25 40
Armenia 0.75 9.2
Azerbaijan 0.75 11.4
Bahrain 0.75 2.5
Bangladesh 0.08 15
Belarus 0.5 29.1
Benin 0.75 10.8
Bhutan 0.67 2.7
LINEAR REGRESSION ANALYSIS
-.3
-.2
-.1
0.1
.2R
esid
ual
s
.3 .4 .5 .6Fitted values
Residuals - Mortality Rate vs. GDP per Capita
Independent Variables
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Legislation on violence against women (LegislationVAW)
Coef: -.2404038 Sig: 0.005
Coef: -.2048335 Sig: 0.002
Coef: -.1431523 Sig: 0.024
Percentage of women in lower house of parliament (Women2008)
Coef: .0085186 Sig: 0.000
Coef: .008253 Sig: 0.000
Gender development index (GDI2005)
Coef: .4438792Sig: 0.000
Observations: 50 50 46
R-squared 0.12149 0.5477 0.7244
Using dependent variable gender empowerment measure (gem2005)
CONCLUSIONS & POLICY SUGGESTIONS There is a statistically significant relationship between the gender
empowerment variable and legislation on violence against women in all three models. Sample size is a problem, with less than half the world’s countries
represented by this data. The coefficient for legislation on violence against women appears
negative, but this is because the range of values is between 0 and 1, with 0 being the ideal “yes, there is legislation on violence against women.” Thus, when gender empowerment rises, the value of “LegislationVAW” decreases, getting closer to a solid yes, and countries more frequently have legislation on violence against women.
Model three is the strongest with an R2 of 0.7244, meaning that when percentage of women in parliament and level of gender development are also taken into account, there is a strong positive relationship.
When more women are empowered, especially politically, there will be more substantive legislative action to combat violence against women.