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Begin New Search Topic Gender Issues Publishing Institution East-West Center Publication Year within 25 Years

1. United States‐Japan Cooperation on Democracy and Equity Should Tackle Gender and Racial Justice

Author:
Kristin Wilson and Jackie F. Steele
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The U.S.-Japan alliance is viewed as a cornerstone of stability, the rule of law, and promotion of democracy in the Indo-Pacific. The new U.S. administration presents an important opportunity to strengthen and refocus relationships and initiatives in the region as they aim to tackle the challenges of an assertive China. In the context of globalization and transnational social justice movements, there is no longer such a clear delineation between the politics of domestic issues, such as political underrepresentation and minority rights, and those affecting foreign policy. Under the new administration, the United States and Japan have ample opportunity to reinvigorate democratic advancement, especially on gender and racial justice. To this end, civil society and social movement groups play a key role in demonstrating why only democracy can ensure the sustainability of representative institutions, cohesive societies, and inclusive economies driven by innovation and opportunity. Historically, these groups have been essential to promoting democratization within the alliance and in the Indo-Pacific region. On issues of gender justice, transnational feminist and human rights networks brought global attention to the comfort women issue starting in the 1980s. Linkages between groups in the United States, Korea, and Japan have strengthed calls for justice for the comfort women and highlighted the delegitimacy of previous backroom deals on the issue—such as the 1965 treaty with then South Korean dictator, Park Chung-hee, and the private negotiations between PM Abe and President Park in 2015. These movements for social justice underscored the growing role played by transnational civil society in international affairs and they raised the bar on the level of transparency and meaningful inclusion necessary to resolve such deep-rooted conflicts.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Race, Bilateral Relations, Democracy, and Alliance
Political Geography:
Japan, Asia, North America, and United States of America

2. Counting Women’s Work: Measuring the gendered economy in the market and at home

Author:
Sidney B. Westley
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Through the ages, women have specialized in the unpaid work of raising children, maintaining households, and caring for others, while men have been more likely to earn wages in the market (Watkins et al. 1987). As fertility rates have declined, however, women have joined the labor force outside the home in growing numbers. Understanding how women’s economic roles are changing and how and why they may change in the future is crucial for understanding the economic effects of changes in population age structure. It is also vital for improving gender equality, ensuring the wellbeing of children and other family members, and maintaining a healthy rate of economic growth.
Topic:
Gender Issues and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Gender in Transition: The Case of North Korea

Author:
Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
Publication Date:
11-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
This paper uses a survey of 300 North Korean refugees to examine the experience of women in North Korea's fitful economic transition. Like other socialist states, North Korea has maintained a de jure commitment to women's rights. However, we find that women have been disproportionately shed from state-affiliated employment and thrust into a market environment characterized by weak institutions and corruption. As a result, the state and its affiliated institutions are increasingly populated by males, and the market, particularly in its retail aspects, is dominated by women. Among the most recent cohort of refugees to leave North Korea, more than one-third of male respondents indicate that criminality and corruption is the best way to make money, and 95 percent of female traders report paying bribes to avoid the penal system. In short, the increasingly male-dominated state preys on the increasingly female-dominated market. These results paint a picture of a vulnerable group that has been disadvantaged in North Korea's transition. Energies are directed toward survival, mass civil disobedience is reactive, and as a group, this population appears to lack the tools or social capital to act collectively to improve their status.
Topic:
Corruption, Gender Issues, Markets, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
Israel and North Korea

4. Multivariate Life Table Methodology for Estimating the Effect of Child Mortality on the Total Fertility Rate and Its Components

Author:
Hassan Eini-Zinab
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
This paper develops, validates, and applies new multivariate methodology to assess the effect of child mortality on both period and cohort measures of fertility. The methodology, which can be applied to period data as well as cohort data, is based on discrete-time survival models of parity progression that enable construction of a multivariate life table of fertility covering all parity transitions. The five dimensions of this life table are woman's age, parity, duration in parity, and two dimensions representing lagged child mortality (number of dead children at the beginning and end of the previous year when the woman was one year younger). Additional socioeconomic predictor variables are also included in the underlying survival models. The life table is multivariate in the sense that it can be specified for values or categories of one socioeconomic predictor variable while holding other socioeconomic predictors constant. The life table yields a number of measures of both the quantum and the tempo of fertility and child mortality. It also yields a replacement rate, which measures the extent to which child deaths are replaced by additional births. Because the life table is multivariate, all measures calculated from it are also multivariate. By way of illustration, the methodology is applied to three Indian National Family Health Surveys conducted in 1992–93 (NFHS -1 ), 1998–99 (NFHS -2 ), and 2005–06 (NFHS -3 ). Major findings are that dead children are incompletely replaced, and that the replacement rate rises as the total fertility rate falls over the three surveys, reflecting women's increasing ability to achieve their wanted number of surviving children.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, Health, and Social Stratification