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Leading by Example: What is the effect on educational outcomes of exposing girls, in addition to parents, to female role models?

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  • Eline Bos

Abstract

Beaman et al. (2011) show that female leadership influences the aspirations of girls and educational attainment, comparing villages that randomly reserved leadership positions for women in India. They suggest that female leaders mainly had this effect through providing a role model of a woman in a leadership position, thereby raising girls’ aspirations for themselves and parents’ aspirations for their daughters. In this paper I look at the effect of exposing girls to a female role model, in addition to parents. Within the same village council, I compare the effect of exposing both children and parents to a female role model to the effect of exposing only parents, because their children were too young to be actively exposed to a female role model. I find a significant effect of exposing girls in addition to parents on educational attainment for girls, comparing outcomes for children in the age range of 4-18 years. This suggests that policies to improve girls’ education should crucially include a focus on both parents and girls.

Suggested Citation

  • Eline Bos, 2016. "Leading by Example: What is the effect on educational outcomes of exposing girls, in addition to parents, to female role models?," CSAE Working Paper Series 2016-37, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2016-37
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Karthik Muralidharan & Nishith Prakash, 2017. "Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 321-350, July.
    4. Dercon, Stefan & Singh, Abhijeet, 2013. "From Nutrition to Aspirations and Self-Efficacy: Gender Bias over Time among Children in Four Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 31-50.
    5. Raghabendra Chattopadhyay & Esther Duflo, 2004. "Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1409-1443, September.
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    7. Sarah Baird & Craig McIntosh & Berk Özler, 2011. "Cash or Condition? Evidence from a Cash Transfer Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1709-1753.
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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