GOOD GOVERNANCE AND GENDER EQUALITY

good governance;poor governance;governance;women’s rights;gender inequality;Saudi Arabia;Middle East;Sub-Saharan Africa;North Africa;survey experiment;gender attitudes;public and political sphere;Government

Al-Khaldi, FatimahGinsberg, Benjamin ;

Johns Hopkins University

关键词: good governance;    poor governance;    governance;    women’s rights;    gender inequality;    Saudi Arabia;    Middle East;    Sub-Saharan Africa;    North Africa;    survey experiment;    gender attitudes;    public and political sphere;    Government;   

Others  :  https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/37274/AL-KHALDI-THESIS-2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: JOHNS HOPKINS DSpace Repository

【 摘 要 】

This Master’s thesis seeks to shed light on the general connection between good governance and gender equality. The first two chapters attempt to provide one possibility for understanding women’s rights conditions in Middle East, North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa through the theory of governance. The first two chapters address the following hypothesis: governments, with ;;good’ governance, are more likely to protect women’s rights than governments, with ;;poor’ governance. To study this hypothesis, the first paper addresses the research question, to what extent is poor governance linked to gender inequality in Saudi Arabia? Similarly, the second paper addresses the question: to what extent is poor governance linked to gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa? By reporting findings of Worldwide Governance Indicators and Global Gender Gap Index, the results revealed that generally Saudi Arabian poor governance was associated with having gender inequalities in the country. As for Sub-Saharan African region, the results showed that there was a positive, albeit weak, correlation between good governance and gender equality. These two papers with their investigation of linkage between gender discrimination and quality of MENA and African governments may contribute to the literature on MENA and African women, and assist policy-makers in making well-informed decisions with the aim of promoting women’s rights through advancing good governance and democracy in these regions. The third chapter examines the effect of question wording on perceptions of women in political and public sphere. This research argues that intuitive-phrased questions on gender roles will have a different distribution of response options than counterintuitive-phrased questions. Using a survey experiment, the results showed that there is a clear difference in the distribution of responses between intuitive and counterintuitive-phrased questions. Respondents asked counterintuitive-phrased questions were more likely to either agree or be neutral on statements supporting women over men while those who received intuitive-phrased questions were more likely to express their disagreement on statements supporting men over women. Gender and political ideologies differences were found in the data. The results of this study have both policy and theoretical implications on women’s underrepresentation in US politics.