Gendered mobility patterns in Senegal

Gender equality and women's empowerment are consequential for economic development. While much attention has been paid to the importance of equal-gender access to education (Abu-Ghaida and Klasen, 2004) and healthcare (Bloom et al., 2014; Stenberg et al., 2014), and to improving women's bargaining power within their household (Duflo, 2012), the determinants and impacts of gender differences in access to migration remain to be investigated extensively, particularly for sub-Saharan Africa. Though there may not be much difference between genders in the probability of migrating, women may be more constrained than men if they do not move for the same reasons or under the same conditions. Dating to the early 1990s (Chant et al., 1992), the pioneering works on female migration suggested that, in most developing countries of that time, it was largely associated with family events and had few connections with labour market participation, unlike male migration. Is this still the case? The question appears particularly relevant because unequal access to and variations in motives for migration may have adverse effects on women's educational investment and empowerment.This paper studies the gender-specific patterns and determinants of internal migration and distance travelled in Senegal. It contributes to the literature in several ways. First, avoiding the limitations and constraints of using administrative units to define migration (Bell et al., 2015), we use individual panel data from a nationally representative survey with GPS coordinates to track individuals within the country's boundaries…