179
Promoting women’s agency
F I G U R E 4.15
Perceptions on leadership skills are still very prevalent, and less educated cohorts are more biased Percentage who agree with the statement, “men make better political leaders” women share among women with high education level, %
share among men with high education level, %
men 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 share among women with low education level, %
share among men with low education level, % Sub-Saharan Africa East Asia and Pacific Europe and Central Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean Middle East and North Africa
OECD countries South Asia
Source: WDR 2012 team estimates based on World Value Survey 2005–08. Note: The 45° line in each figure above shows parity in the values on the vertical and horizontal axis.
FIGURE 4.16
Women are much less likely to belong to a political party than men
30 member of a political party, %
average about half those of men (figure 4.16). Strong social norms on women’s roles can also lead women to prefer men in leadership positions and discriminate against other women because they overestimate men’s skills and have low perceptions of their own skills. In Spain, women tend to overestimate the qualifications of male candidates during the selection process for the judiciary. Being interviewed by a panel with a majority of women reduces female candidates’ chance of success by 17 percent (compared with their chance when interviewed only by men) and increases men’s likelihood of being selected by 34 percent.110 Time constraints, largely stemming from social norms on the role of women as the main providers of child care and household work, also prevent women from accessing many formal institutions. Finally, women’s lack of political participation in office can be partly attributed to a lack of professional networks. In more advanced economies, women are less likely to be employed in jobs that generate the political networks and social capital for entry into the political sphere, while in developing countries women’s role in the home prevents the building of strong and broad networks. Time constraints and social norms relating to perceptions of women as leaders are the key fac-
25 26
20 15
17
10 11
5 5
5
0
2
7
10
11 10
7
5
2
Middle East Latin OECD East Asia and North America countries and Africa and the Pacific Caribbean
7
Europe Sub-Saharan South and Africa Asia Central Asia
countries women
men
Source: WDR 2012 team estimates based on World Values Surveys, 1994–99 and 2005–07 waves.
tors in women’s low participation in politics in middle- and low-income countries in Asia.111 These constraints often result in women concentrating in activities that are more “women friendly” and accommodating of time constraints—such as children’s schools or re-