Researchers at the King Center on Global Development are examining how gender-based violence and low labor participation affect women, aiming to inform policy interventions. A recent study in the United States found that mothers take on most of the mental load required for household management, which can impact their interest in national politics. Sigrid Weber, affiliated with the Stanford King Center and Immigration Policy Lab, is leading a survey in Zambia that suggests women there also shoulder more mental and physical household responsibilities than men.
Weber’s research goes beyond measuring workload, seeking to understand whether certain tasks give women more power or influence at home or in their communities. “We want to learn if empowering tasks give women access to resources or community with other women and, if so, what does their political and economic participation look like” compared to women whose responsibilities keep them mostly in their homes, Weber explains. She adds that reasons for preferring certain tasks may vary: “if you’re tired and food insecure, you might just want to sweep your floor and be done with it.”
The King Center prioritizes using gender and equity insights to improve policies affecting health care, education, economic opportunities, and political representation for historically marginalized groups. Political science professors Lisa Blaydes and Beatriz Magaloni co-lead the Gender-Based Violence in the Developing World initiative at the center. Their work examines not only individual risk factors but also how social, political, and judicial institutions shape responses to gender-based violence.
Blaydes notes a gap in research regarding how political institutions influence intimate partner violence. “We haven’t really spent a lot of time thinking about the way political institutions and political culture influence intimate partner violence,” she says.
A paper by Blaydes and colleagues James D. Fearon and Mae MacDonald presents a model showing how factors such as women’s economic opportunities, domestic abuse laws, and social norms affect domestic abuse rates. The paper calls for greater engagement from political scientists: “We really wanted to have a statement piece for how political science should engage with these topics,” Blaydes says. “Political science has a unique opportunity to contribute to this literature because most of the actionable remedies” – laws that criminalize domestic violence and social safety net programs that support survivors, for instance – “run through political science channels.”
Magaloni focuses on experimental approaches in Latin America. Her ongoing randomized controlled trial in Mexico tests whether cognitive behavioral therapy combined with leadership training can change attitudes about gender-based violence among students. She also studies whether gang conflicts increase such violence locally.
“To be a woman in Mexico is to inhabit a field of threat,” Magaloni says. “State and academic narratives link violence to cartels and the war on drugs, yet gendered violence remains cast as collateral. We dispute that. Violence against women is not fallout – it is foundational.”
Quinn Mitsuko Parker from Stanford’s Oceans Department is studying intimate partner violence within small-scale fisheries in Madagascar through interviews with stakeholders and female workers. The research aims to determine whether these jobs expose women to more or less violence.
“We don’t just want to know if gender-based violence happens and to whom,” Mitsuko Parker says. “We want to know how women are perceiving it and how they are experiencing it, which will help inform what they see as relevant interventions.”
Small-scale fisheries play an important role globally by providing food security and employment—especially in rural coastal regions—so understanding their impact on women’s well-being has broader implications.
Blaydes emphasizes: “People don’t always think of gender-based violence as a topic related to economic development,” she says. “But it’s part of human thriving, to not be subjected to violence.”
King Center scholars are also researching women’s roles in public life. In April, Suhani Jalota organized the Future of Work for Women Summit at Stanford’s Hoover Institution with over 150 participants from various sectors discussing ways to address low female labor force participation in developing countries like those in South Asia.
Jalota points out potential benefits for companies: firms where over 30% of executives are women tend to outperform others financially; they also experience lower turnover rates (https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-matter-ten-years-of-insights-on-gender-diversity). “This is not just about women,” Jalota says. “It’s about aligning incentives across different stakeholders to identify what solutions work in everyone’s interest.”
Jalota founded Myna Mahila while an undergraduate student; her dissertation at Stanford focused on comparing office versus remote job uptake among Indian women previously outside the workforce.
Women remain underrepresented politically as well as economically. Soledad Artiz Prillaman directs the Inclusive Democracy and Development Lab (ID2), supported by the King Center since 2021; its research includes large surveys assessing gender dynamics within local governments in India—where half of seats are reserved for women but proxy voting by male relatives persists.
Daniel Abraham Praburaj helped design these surveys involving over 6,000 respondents so far—including elected officials’ families—to explore if electing more women leads directly to increased power or influence for them.
“In fact,” Praburaj notes,” both men and women share power with their families… When men hold office their wives’ help is ‘complementary’… When women are elected officials they don’t hold final decision-making power.” Eighty percent surveyed said family help was expected for elected officials regardless of gender.
Ongoing qualitative interviews aim at identifying interventions supporting genuine empowerment despite entrenched patriarchal norms.
Reports from Jalota’s summit highlight strategies adopted by major companies like IBM, Walmart,and Tech Mahindra—such as flexible work arrangements or government-subsidized childcare—to increase female workforce participation (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/how-to-close-the-gender-gap-at-work/).
Magaloni continues testing methods aimed at reducing high rates of abuse reported by Mexican girls aged 15+ (https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/in-focus/2020/11/in-focus-violence-against-women-in-mexico). Weber’s Zambian study will help design better interventions based on understanding household labor divisions’ effects on women’s civic involvement.
In Jordanian households where water management falls mainly upon women—and targeted messaging can reduce consumption—Giulia Buccione’s findings show culturally informed outreach can change behavior without imposing external values (https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/03/07/jordan-women-water-management).
“We have to think about households as the basic political unit where negotiations take place,” Buccione says.” Learning about who takes charge of these things is important.”
Katherine Casey summarizes: “A throughline…is that [these studies] not only identify obstacles but use data…to tailor/test policies…to better harness women’s skills.” She adds,“These are great examples of how research can shape policy design…”
Beatriz Magaloni holds the Graham H.Stuart Professorship; James Fearon is Theodore & Frances Geballe Professor; Katherine Casey serves as RoAnn Costin Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
This article was adapted from material published by Stanford King Center on Global Development.
