Thursday, September 27, 2007

Who’s the boss? Cable TV, Gender in India

Continuing on the theme of economics and gender issues. Emily Oster, an economist at Univ Chicago, has a recent paper showing that when cable TV is introduced in rural India, that women’s lives improve. Particularly they make more decisions in the household, there are less instances of domestic violence, and the households show less gender bias towards their children. The findings suggest that by watching cable TV, these women see the possibility of gender equality. (Link to brief description of her work with links.)

Perhaps a policy solution in the U.S. and India is to show more reruns of the 1980s sitcom Who’s the Boss, where macho Italian Tony Danza does the housework for advertise executive Angela.

Or maybe they are getting the Life Time Original Movies Channel (so hilariously described by my friend Sarah on her blog).

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