Economics of Diversity - Policies

Journal 12 : Jacobsen Chapter 16

        In the broadest view, any economic or social policy that affect the sexes differently relates to gender issues. Policies aimed at creating a balance between men and women attempt to redress an existing perceived imbalance in female and male opportunities and/or outcomes. They include: (1) anti-discrimination legistlation such as equal pay laws, (2) affirmative action programs, (3) comparable worth policies, and (4) programs that expand the amount of capital available to women, such as small-business loan programs targeted at women. In general, they try to counteract an existing perceived bias towards men without creating a net shift towards women.

        Policies aimed at shifting the balance in favor on women or men attempt to create an imbalance in women and men’s opportunities and/or outcomes. They include: (1) unequal pay laws and (2) job and schooling restrictions, including marriage bars and quotas in education programs and hiring. Although explicit national policies of this type in developed countries have been overturned by now, there are plenty of historical cases of them. Indeed, such policies still exist in some undeveloped countries, and implicit non-governmental policies of this kind in all countries. An example is affirmative action, which can be construed as a quota system aimed at shifting the balance in favor of women.

        Policies aimed at family issues that affect men and women differently have explicit goal of affecting the constraints on family decisions, including who will work an how much, whether to form or dissolve a family, and how many children to have. They include: (1) family leave, both paid and unpaid, (2) no-fault divorce reform, (3) subsidized or employer-provided child care, (4) regulation of fertility through controlling access to abortion and contraception, (5) welfare programs, and (6) child allowances. These policies often have ambiguous effects on the relative well-being of women and men, along with ambiguous effects on such factors as female labor force participation.

        Policies with no direct gender or family-related goal that affect women and men differently explicit goal of these policies is not construed in terms of gender or family effects. They include: (1) minimum wage laws, (2) macroeconomics employment policies, (3) earnings and income taxes, (4) job training programs, (5) workplace safety regulations, and (6) development aid policies. While these policies are not generally evaluated with an eye to differential effect by sex, they nonetheless can have a strong redistributional effect in one direction or the other.

        One general precept for sound policy formation is to create polices that open up possibilities for both sexes rather than serve to consolidate existing patterns. As Nancy Barrett has pointed out, “ Many popular remedies to improve women’s economic status paradoxically reinforcement gender-based economic roles: the welfare system reinforces the expectation of female dependency; comparable worth pay admits gender distinctions; equal pay keeps women out of high-status jobs; wages for women as homemakers, thereby reducing stress in traditional families and accommodating gender-role distinctions.”