Gender analysis of the changes in indirect taxes introduced by the coalition government, 2010-2011

On behalf of the WBG, Jerome De Henau and Cristina Santos have produced an examination of the UK government's main changes in indirect taxes from a gender perspective. This considers changes in excise duties on alcohol, tobacco, fuel and in VAT, and analyses the combined effect of these changes, together with changes in insurance premium tax, air passenger duty and gambling duty

Examining public policy from a gendered intra-household perspective: changes in family-related policies in the UK, Australia and Germany since the mid-nineties

Public policy can affect many different gender inequalities. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of policy on gender inequalities within households. This paper analyses a range of family-related policy changes over the last fifteen years in Australia, Germany and the UK to compare their potential effects on intra-household gender inequalities. These include changes in parental leave policies, working time regulation, childcare support and financial support to families. Many of these changes are found to have contradictory effects on within household inequalities, mainly because those that improve women’s incomes in their current gender roles may also undermine incentives to challenge traditional gender roles. All three countries have implemented substantial reforms over the period considered. However, with labour market activation policies tending to favour an inherently unequal one-and-a-half earner household, the effects on inequalities within households did not meet increasingly egalitarian gender role attitudes

Costing a feminist plan for a caring economy: The case of free universal childcare in the UK

This paper makes the case for providing universal and free childcare services in the UK to contribute to building a care economy as a better alternative to austerity and spending cuts, one that would foster gender equality and quality employment. It estimates the total cost of such services using different assumptions on staff pay and coverage and the related direct employment effects. It discusses the different multipliers that could be derived from such 'investment' and the related tax revenue for the government. It argues that the net public funding of such an extensive and high quality childcare provision for all children aged 6 months to 5 years (prior to primary school entry) can be achieved by reversing some of the tax give-aways implemented since 2010 and which have mainly benefited men. The discussion explores the ways in which universal childcare provision, combined with a reformed parental leave and family benefit system could promote gender equality in both employment and unpaid care

Investigating the desperate housewives: Using gender-role attitudes to explain women's employment decision in twenty-three European countries

This paper analyses the impact of a set of gender-role attitudes on the labour market situation of women with and without young children. These attitudes are used as a proxy for stated preferences. Our study covers 23 European countries, using an original up-to-date micro data-set, the European Social Survey (round 2004), completed with regional and national information on the institutional and socio-economic context. In particular, we investigate whether the effect of the presence of young children and the effect of attitudes towards female employment and maternal roles are substitutes, complementary or multiplicative, using interaction variables. We use a multinomial logit regression model to account for three different employment statuses as dependent variable, full-time, part-time and not in employment. Results show substantial cross-country differences in the influence of attitudes on work, which differs by level of education, but not according to the presence of young children. However, the negative effect of young children on the full-time employment of mothers is stronger than the positive effect of egalitarian attitudes in countries with lower subsidised childcare provision. These results refine the discussion on the effect of work/life balance policies in Europe

Investing in the Care Economy. A gender analysis of employment stimulus in seven OECD countries

Our findings show that governments seeking to expand employment would do well to increase public investment in the economy and that there are strong arguments for more of this investment being in the caring infrastructure than is currently the case. Investment in the care industry, in addition to creating a higher number of jobs, would also address the care deficit and reduce gender inequality. Such a policy would contribute towards creating a more inclusive model of development as well as lifting economies out of recession

Recovery for whom? The Juncker's plan must not be a missed opportunity for gender equality in Europe

The 315 billion Investment Plan for Europe proposed by European Commission President Juncker represents a good point of departure from the usual and exclusive focus on fiscal containment and public debt reduction. However, its almost exclusive focus on physical infrastructure spending and investment in male-dominated industries will further undermine progress towards gender equality, in terms of pay and conditions as well as employment opportunities for women

Globin-based redox signaling

In recent years, moderate levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) have become recognized as signaling cues that participate at all levels of cellular organization. Globins, with their redox-active heme iron and ubiquitous presence, seem ideally suited to participate in ROS metabolism. Here we comment on our recent findings that show the participation of a globin, GLB-12, in a redox signaling pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that GLB-12 produces superoxide, a type of ROS, after which this is converted to what appears to be a hydrogen peroxide gradient over the plasma membrane by the activity of intracellular and extracellular superoxide dismutases. In the first part, we discuss in more detail the different regulatory mechanisms that increase the effectiveness of this redox signal. In the second part, we comment on how specific structural and biochemical properties allow this globin to perform redox reactions. Interestingly, these properties are also observed in 2 other C. elegans globins that appear to be involved in redox biology. We therefore hypothesize that globins involved in redox signaling display similar structural and biochemical characteristics and propose that a subgroup of globins can be added to the group of proteins that play a vital role in redox signaling

Struggle over th pie? The gendered distribution of power and subjective financial well-being within UK households

This paper investigates the ways in which the distribution of power and well-being within couple households is gendered in the sense of having gendered determinants, from inside the household, rather than just gendered outcomes. We model such households, as Sen (1990) suggests, as sites of cooperative conflict, where decision-making has a component reflecting shared views and a component representing a bargain over conflicting views. Using household panel data from the British Household Panel Survey (1996-2003), in which individual answers can be matched across couples, the method takes answers to a question about financial satisfaction to be indicators of (i) the level of current and potential resources of the household, and (ii) intra-household bargaining over the entitlement each individual has to these resources. Individual financial satisfaction can then be decomposed into two elements; the first, the average of a couple's satisfaction scores, represents their shared view; the second is the difference between their answers. Stripping out the effects of unobserved heterogeneity through the use of fixed effects panel methods and carefully chosen controls, the effect of explanatory factors on this difference can then be identified as the result of a perceived difference in entitlements to household income that is the result of unequal power between male and female partners. Our results suggest the co-existence of shared and conflicting views, with a significant gendered pattern. Some policy implications are also discussed