Nirvikar Jassal

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in Global Politics, MSc in Political Science and Political Economy, MSc in Public Administration and Government (LSE and Peking University), MSc in Public Policy and Administration and MSc in Regulation. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Priority will be given to students on the programmes listed above. 

Familiarity with basic research design and statistics is necessary.

While political science scholarship on gender may often focus on disparities between men and women in terms of political participation, the way inequalities in other domains such as (a) health, (b) education, (c) criminal justice, and (d) the bureaucracy intersect with politics may sometimes be overlooked. This course provides a survey of empirical social science research on gender over the past 20-years primarily from development economics and political science from a range of countries, including those in the Global South. Some of the topics that the course will cover include: how does the representation of women in political institutions affect development? Why do women remain underrepresented in state bureaucracies? Are there any state policies that can serve to reduce gender-based violence or improve women’s access to property rights? Broadly, the class explores research related to why and where disparities persist between men and women, as well as what kind of interventions – adopted by governments, NGOs, and other agencies – mitigate these gaps, as well as make public institutions more equitable and inclusive.

20 hours of seminars in the LT.

There will be a reading week in Week 6 of the Lent Term.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay at the end of the term on an original research question related to politics, gender and development.

• Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, and Esther Duflo. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72 (5): 1409–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2004.00539.x.
• Iversen, Torben, and Frances Rosenbluth. 2006. “The Political Economy of Gender: Explaining Cross-National Variation in the Gender Division of Labor and the Gender Voting Gap.” American Journal of Political Science 50 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00166.x.
• Alesina, Alberto, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn. 2013. “On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough *.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 128 (2): 469–530. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt005.
• Mendelberg, Tali, Christopher F. Karpowitz, and Nicholas Goedert. 2014. “Does Descriptive Representation Facilitate Women’s Distinctive Voice? How Gender Composition and Decision Rules Affect Deliberation.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (2): 291–306.
• Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A. 2006. “Still Supermadres? Gender and the Policy Priorities of Latin American Legislators.” American Journal of Political Science 50 (3): 570–85.
• Carrell, Scott E., Marianne E. Page, and James E. West. 2010. “Sex and Science: How Professor Gender Perpetuates the Gender Gap.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 125 (3): 1101–44.

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the ST.

The summative assessment comprises one final take-home essay on an original research question. 

Students will be able to answer their original research question using any social science methodology discussed in class, qualitative research, or any other technique discussed with the convener.