This paper examines social media posts of yuesao in China and of postpartum doulas in the United States. Postpartum doulas and yuesao specialize in supporting birthing people and their families through the period after birth. Using the concepts of profile work and gender performativity, it explores the differences between the online self-presentation of postpartum doulas in the U.S. and of yuesao in China and traces the roots of these differences to the historical contexts of these two nations. After providing a comparison of the histories of postpartum care workers, the paper conducts thematic analysis of social media posts on Instagram and RedNote made by postpartum doulas and yuesao respectively. Comparing social media posts that provide visual self-representations of yuesao and doulas at work provides a glimpse into how contemporary social media influences the reproduction or change of gender norms affecting postpartum care. This paper argues that while both postpartum doulas and yuesao use social media platforms to increase their visibility, the online profiles they curate manifest differently. In the United States, postpartum doulas present themselves as role models for new mothers. In China, yuesao present themselves as workers with standardized training.
In three studies, we explored how evaluations of women, based on their origin (French vs. North African), aligned with social expectations regarding their aspirations for gender equality. In Study 1 (N = 113), we examined perceptions of sexism among both French women without an immigrant background and North African women. We found that respondents perceived French women as less sexist than North African women. In Study 2 (N = 211), we asked participants to assign a portrait depicting a feminist versus a neutral woman either to a French or North African origin. Participants more frequently associated the feminist portrait with a French than with a North African woman. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 569), we crossed the variables origin (French or North African) and opinion (feminist or neutral) and found that participants evaluated feminist North African women more favorably than neutral North African women. Interestingly, they judged neutral French women less favorably compared to the three other portraits.
This paper investigates the effect of natural resource rents on economic development and examines whether women political empowerment is the missing link, drawing on a sample of 30 sub-Saharan Africa countries over the period 1984–2020. We contribute to the work treating institutional quality, and specifically women’s political empowerment, as a determinant of whether resource-rich economies experience a blessing or a curse. Methodologically, we employ a finite mixture model, a semi-parametric approach preferred here because it allows the data to reveal latent groups of countries rather than imposing a common relationship ex ante. We identify three distinct development regimes, labelled, in line with the resource-curse literature, as resource neutral, resource blessing and resource curse. The resource-neutral regime, accounting for 18
The shift from a split school day (SSD) to a continuous school day (CSD), in which all classes are concentrated in the morning, has accelerated across Spain in recent years and is frequently promoted as a measure to improve work-family balance. Whether this reform advances gender equality in the labour market or instead reinforces traditional gender roles, however, remains an open empirical question. Using a quasi-natural experimental design and panel data for the Valencian Region (Spain) covering the period 2016–2023, this study examines the effects of CSD adoption on female employment and unemployment rates using small-area fixed-effects regression models. The results provide no evidence that CSD affects women’s overall labour market participation after controlling for educational attainment. However, CSD adoption is associated with significantly lower female unemployment rates in areas where it is more widespread, ceteris paribus. This pattern suggests that, rather than fostering gender equality, CSD may facilitate women’s access to part-time jobs compatible with school hours, thereby reinforcing the traditional sexual division of labour. The findings provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between school timetable organisation and women’s labour market outcomes, contributing to current debates on gender equality, work-family balance policies, and the institutional determinants of female employment.
This study analyzes how gender related factors influence economic growth in emerging Muslim economies from the inclusive growth and human capital perspectives. The study employs an unbalanced panel of 18 countries spanning the 2000–2024 time period, and explores female education, female labour-force participation, fertility, and political representation of women alongside a set of macroeconomic and institutional variables. Fixed Effects and System GMM estimations are used to account for country specific heterogeneity, dynamic growth effects and potential endogeneity. The findings indicate that most gender-related variables are not statistically significant in the System GMM specification. However, fertility shows a consistently negative relationship with economic growth in the primary model specifications, in line with the demographic transition theory and the quantity-quality trade-off. Growth is positively correlated with trade in several specifications and the estimated effect of government effectiveness is different depending on the estimator. In general, the results indicate that the impact of gender-related variables on economic growth is prone to country-specific variation and model specification. This study not only adds to the gender-growth literature with context-specific evidence from emerging Muslim economies, but also underscores the importance of demographic and structural conditions in the performance of the economy. The findings also highlight the need for policies on female education, labour-market participation, fertility conditions, and women’s substantive involvement in policy-making.
