Structural Transformation, Extractive Industries and Gender Equality

Abstract

What is the impact of the highest value export industry in low and middle income countries---the extractive industries (oil, gas and mining)---on gender equality? Resource dependent countries have greater gender inequality, lower education levels and more patriarchal norms after taking GDP per capita into account. A review of the empirical literature shows that extractive industries have highly gender-specific effects, where the economic impacts such as job creation interacts with gender norms, e.g. gender segregation in labor markets, to determine labor and marriage markets, fertility and violence. Health---including sexual, reproductive and infant health---is determined by environmental factors, such as pollution, counteracted by economic opportunities. Program evaluation research ought to explore how to strengthen the beneficial effects while mitigating the undesirable.