Actresses from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law)
Two economists have found large and rapidly changing attitudes regarding gender roles among rural Indian communities.
After cable TV was introduced to remote areas, the local women were less likely to believe that domestic violence was acceptable and reported increased autonomy, such as the freedom to go out without permission and to participate in household decision-making. They were also less likely to report a preference to give birth to a son rather than a daughter. The researchers detected a decrease in fertility after cable TV arrived, a trend often linked to female autonomy. But it didn’t stop there. The introduction of cable TV also correlated with increased school enrolments for girls – but not boys.
Sounds great. One thing I do find questionable, though, is later on when one of the researchers says ‘Women depicted on these shows are typically much more emancipated than rural women,’ which may be true (they own their own businesses, etc); but still problematically represent women.
This article from Slate goes into more detail about the study:
The authors followed women in 2,700 households in villages in four states (Bihar, Goa, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu) and the capital, Delhi, from 2001 to 2003. Access to television in remote Indian villages has changed substantially in the past few years. Of the 180 villages the authors studied, 65 already had cable in 2001, and by the end of 2003, 21 more had access. The authors focus on three measures: autonomy (whether the woman gets to make her own decisions about shopping, health, and whom she visits), attitudes toward beating (the number of circumstances in which women view beating as acceptable), and whether women prefer having male children. After a village got cable, women’s preference for male children fell by 12 percentage points. The average number of situations in which women said that wife beating is acceptable fell by about 10 percent. And the authors’ composite autonomy index jumped substantially, by an amount equivalent to the attitude difference associated with 5.5 years of additional education.
Jensen and Oster think that TV works its magic on women by providing them a new televised set of peers and in turn changing their attitudes. Supporting this conclusion is evidence that TV’s emancipatory effects were larger in places where women initially held more traditional attitudes. For example, in the places where women had formerly held high preferences for sons, the share preferring sons fell 20 percentage points with the arrival of cable, compared with a 12 percent decline overall.
Hmm, quick fix women’s empowerment? That ‘magic’ tv may influence attitudes, but what about behaviour?
