Roots of Gender Equality: the Persistent Effect of Beguinages on Attitudes Toward Women

Èric Roca Fernández and Annalisa Frigo
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Annalisa Frigo: UCL IRES - Institut de recherches économiques et sociales - UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain

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Abstract: This paper is concerned with the historical roots of gender equality. It proposes and empirically assesses a new determinant of gender equality: gender-specific outside options in the marriage market. In particular, enlarging women's options besides marriage-even if only temporarily-increases their bargaining power with respect to men, leading to a persistent improvement in gender equality. We illustrate this mechanism focusing on Belgium, and relate gender-equality levels in the 19th century to the presence of medieval, female-only communities called beguinages that allowed women to remain single amidst a society that traditionally advocated marriage. Combining geo-referenced data on beguinal communities with 19th-century census data, we document that the presence of beguinages contributed to decrease the gender gap in literacy. The reduction is sizeable, amounting to a 12.3% drop in gender educational inequality. Further evidence of the beguinal legacy is provided leveraging alternative indicators of female agency.

Keywords: Gender Gap; Religion; Institutions; Culture; Economic Persistence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://uca.hal.science/hal-03371524v1
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Published in Journal of Economic Growth, 2022, 27 (1), pp.91-148. ⟨10.1007/s10887-021-09198-7⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Roots of gender equality: the persistent effect of beguinages on attitudes toward women (2022)
Working Paper: Roots of Gender Equality: the Persistent Effect of Beguinages on Attitudes Toward Women (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03371524

DOI: 10.1007/s10887-021-09198-7

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