An analysis of income differentials by marital status

Unmarried cohabitation has become a more frequently observed phenomenon over the last three decades, and not only in the United States. The objective of this work is to examine income differentials between married women and those who remain single or cohabitate. The empirical literature shows that, while the marriage premium is verified in different studies for men, the result for women is not conclusive. The main innovation of my study is the existence of controls for selection. In this study, we have two sources of selectivity: into the labor force and into a marital status category. The switching regressions and the Oaxaca decomposition results demonstrate the existence of a significant penalty for marriage. Correcting for both types of selection, the difference in wages varies between 49% and 53%, when married women are compared with cohabiting ones, and favors non-married women. This result points to the existence of a marriage penalty.<br>O casamento não oficializado, coabitação, tem se tornado cada vez mais freqüente nas últimas décadas. O objetivo deste trabalho é examinar a relação entre os salários das mulheres casadas e das solteiras ou coabitantes. A literatura a este respeito mostra que, enquanto o prêmio financeiro para o casamento é verificado em diversos estudos e países quando o objeto de estudo são os homens, o resultado para mulheres não é conclusivo. A principal inovação do presente estudo é a existência de controles para seleção, tanto na escolha em participar da força de trabalho como de alterar seu estado civil. Regressões "switching" e decomposição de Oaxaca mostram a existência de uma penalização financeira para mulheres casadas. Corrigindo para ambos os tipos de seleção, a diferença nos salários das mulheres casadas com relação às coabitantes varia entre 49% e 53%, favorecendo as coabitantes. Este resultado aponta para a existência de uma penalidade ao casamento

Power, Prejudice and Transitional Constitution-Making in Kenya: The Gender of Law and Religious Politics in Reproductive Choice

Kenya has borne memories and scars of colonial hegemonies, repressive and kleptocratic post-independence regimes, and bitter ethnic politicization of inequality, poverty, land issues and exclusion resulting in intermittent strife and volatile politics. Concomitantly, efforts to constitutionally reform and uphold rights and freedoms, especially for more vulnerable groups such as women, have been undertaken unsuccessfully. The 2007 post-election violence created the ultimate conditions for undertaking transitional justice, including reviving a constitutional process that was inclusive, enhanced equality and was effective for achieving sustainable peace, stability and justice in Kenya. Such conditions also allowed Kenya’s strong and very vocal human and women’s rights movements to negotiate aspects critical to their causes and play an important role in the successful 2010 constitutional referendum