Gender and Microeconomics

This syllabus was originally taught at the Cairo University
Instructor: Hanan Nazier  and Racha Ramadan 

Objectives:

This course is intended to present some of the main ideas underlying the micro aspects of gender economics. The courses will tackle issues as fertility, marriage, women labor force participation, wage gap, gender inequality, violence against women and women empowerment within her household and within the society where she lives. Economic outcomes differ substantially by gender. The course will apply economic theory to explain choices faced and selected by women concerning marriage, fertility and labor market outcomes. After providing an overview of the gender differences in various aspects of welfare and economic life, the course will then use Economic theory and empirical evidence to examine the causes and consequences of gender differences in earnings, labor force participation, occupational choice, and the division of labor within the household alongside government policies targeting those decisions. Empirical research will be presented that describes the changing demographic profile of families, poverty and the labor force. Students in this course will gain experience evaluating how economic theory and practice fits into the larger social sciences goal of describing human behavior by focusing on women and the family.

Course Outline:

I Woman and the Family

1. Introduction
2. Marriage and Fertility
3. Women Empowerment
4. Violence against women

II Gender and the Labor market

1. Key Patterns and Trends in Gender Differences in the labor market
2. Labor Force Participation
3. Gender segregation in the workplace
4. Gender wage gap: Trends and explanations

Download syllabus here

This syllabus is part of the Syllabi collection on International Association for Feminist Economics. This course is suitable for graduate students.