Practical lessons from gender audit of an education sector plan in Lao PDR

In 2013, the Laos Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) commissioned a mid-term review of the Education Sector Development Plan 2011–2015 (ESDP, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Ministry of Education and Sports 2010). Plan International, a United Nations Girls Education Initiative partner, worked with MoES to lead a gender audit for the mid-term review. The gender audit strengthened the mid-term review and contributed to the design of the new ESDP. A MoES gender and inclusion working group was established, providing an institutional structure to support focused policy dialogue and address recommendations. This note recommends the inclusion of gender audits within mid-term reviews and final evaluations of sectoral plans to ensure that investments adequately address gender equality.     

Teenagers’ Experiences of Pregnancy and the Parents’ and Partners’ Reactions: A Malaysian Perspective

This study focuses on the experiences of unwed teenage mothers in Malaysia in respect to the reactions of their parents and the fathers of their babies and how the reactions from significant others influence these unwed teenage mothers. The investigation was based on content analysis of interviews with 17 unwed teenage mothers, aged 12 to 18 years, during their probation or placement in shelter houses. The results show that most unwed teenage mothers became pregnant as a result of rape or statutory rape, and thus were at risk of developing mental health problems. Three themes were developed: secrecy, repression, and rejection. Four additional themes—feeling detached, trapped, unworthy, and ambiguous—were developed to describe the teenagers’ experiences of pregnancy.     

“A Mom First and a Candidate Second”: Gender Differences in Candidates' Self-Presentation of Family

Parenthood carries different consequences for men and women in politics. While the conventional wisdom is that motherhood is a liability for women candidates and fatherhood an asset for men, recent elections have called this idea into question. Specifically, Sarah Palin's candidacy and her cadre of “Mama Grizzlies” suggest that there may be times when motherhood can be an asset. We analyze how men and women present their families to voters by examining the campaign websites of congressional contenders in 2008 and 2010. The results indicate that despite the proliferation of mother candidates, women still tend to de-emphasize their children compared to their male colleagues, who are more likely to showcase their families, most notably in pictures. Moreover, we find that other factors like parental status, age of children, party, chamber, incumbency, and opponent gender also affect differences in candidates' propensity to use their families in campaigns.     

Networks and campaigns but not movements: collective action in the disciplining Chinese State

Popular protest, civil society organizing, and non-governmental organizations have become notable features in China’s socio-political development. A mounting body of research has documented both opening opportunity structures and remaining restrictions when it comes to collective action within the authoritarian state. However, given the wide range of definitions and interpretations that are at play in the literature, it can be difficult to distinguish between different forms of collective action and determine which actions represent actual movements. This article argues that a refocus towards the basic components that constitute movement action can provide more clarity and help explain the limitations, as well as the opportunities, that surround collective action within authoritarian states. To illustrate, the article studies the organizational growth, networking, and collective action that have occurred in connection with AIDS in China. It finds that political restrictions and other coordination challenges prevent the mobilization of actual social movements.     

Institutions,distributional concerns,and public sector reform

Abstract. As in otherWestern countries, a wave of reform has swept the Danish public sector. The record of these reforms is mixed and paradoxical; an ambiguous delegation of executive authority and radical privatization have been successfully implemented, while other measures, especially contracting out and user democracy or the introduction of greater choice, turn out to have failed. The paper argues that this experience offers two general lessons. First, shortterm costs and benefits are decisive to those who enact and implement public sector reform. Second, institutional factors specific to each type of reorganization have a major impact on the political distribution of costs and benefits.     

Do high taxes lock-in capital gains? Evidence from a dual income tax system

The purpose of this paper is to study whether investors’ willingness to realize capital gains falls when the marginal tax rate on capital gains is raised. We use a rich register-based panel data set covering almost 8% of the Swedish population. The results indicate that a 10% increase in capital gains tax rate reduces the number of realizations of capital gains with 8.7% and the realized amount, given the decision to realize, with 1.9%. In addition, we find that wealthy individuals seem to respond more to changes in capital gains tax rates than less-wealthy.