Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/211212 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2018/171
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
Reducing gender inequality is a critically important development challenge, especially in countries with widespread and deep-rooted prejudices against women. In this study, we use a randomized control trial to examine whether facilitating Vietnamese men to reflect about gender equality can reduce their gender bias. We randomly selected two groups of husbands and requested one group to make comments on gender-related laws and another group to write stories about gender equality. We find that commenting on gender-related laws reduces men's bias against women slightly, while writing stories has a strong effect on reducing existing prejudice against women. Moreover, writing gender-related stories improves men's knowledge of gender-related laws. Nonetheless, there is only a small effect of this treatment on doing housework. Changing men's behaviour in practice requires stronger, more sustained interventions.
Subjects: 
gender inequality
male perception
experimental design
women empowerment
cognitive dissonance
JEL: 
J16
K38
D91
C93
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-613-5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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