"In 1970, as in previous decades, the U.S. Bureau of the Census's household enumeration began with a lead question as to who was the ¿head of household'. With the resurgence of feminism, this concept was challenged as an ambiguous concept which implied an authority structure imputed by the Bureau but not measured, and offensive to many people. This paper tells the story of successful feminist mobilization in the 1970s that led to the removal of this concept from the U.S. decennial censuses beginning with 1980."

Using the baseline wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), collected from 2011 to 2012, this study finds that among those age 60 and above, women are 7.6 percent more likely than men to have care needs and 29.3 percent more likely than men to have unmet needs; and that most of the gender gap in unmet needs is explained by the existence and health status of a spouse. Further analysis reveals a sharp gender division in patterns of family care in China. While men are more likely to receive care from their wives, women are primarily cared for by their children. Marital status and spouse health also affect provision of care, with infirm women who have healthy husbands less likely to receive care than infirm men with healthy wives. The findings have important implications for designing gender-sensitive policies in eldercare.

China has had a large gender gap in labor force participation, sectors of employment, and earnings. This study shows that disadvantages in the labor market for women are the primary drivers of the gender pension gap. Among people age 60 and older, women receive about half of the amount of men's social pensions. Using the 2013 wave of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and the CHARLS Life History Survey of 2014, this contribution has three main findings. First, about three-quarters of the deficit in women's pensions is explained by women's lower likelihood of receiving occupational pensions, and one-third is due to smaller benefits when they do receive them. Second, the gender deficit in receiving an occupational pension can be explained by education level and employment sector. Third, among pension recipients, nearly one-third of the gender benefit gap is explained by women's fewer years of employment and lower salaries.

Indian women's labor force participation is extremely low and they are much less likely than men to work in the non-farm sector. Earlier research explained women's labor supply by individual characteristics, social institutions, and cultural norms, but not enough attention has been paid to the labor market opportunity structure that constrains women's labor market activities. Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) in 2004-05 and 2011-12, we examine how village transportation infrastructure affects women's and men's agricultural and non-agricultural employment. Results from fixed-effect analysis show that access by paved or unpaved roads and frequent bus services increase the odds of non-agricultural employment among both males and females. The effect of road access on non-farm employment (relative to not-working) is stronger among women than among men. Improved transportation infrastructure has a stronger positive effect on women's non-farm employment in communities with more egalitarian gender norms.

India implemented one of the world's most stringent lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper examines whether the impacts of the lockdown on employment differed by gender in areas surrounding Delhi. An ongoing monthly employment survey between March 2019 and May 2020 allows for comparison in employment before and after the lockdown. Estimates based on random-effects logistic regression models show that for men, the predicted probability of employment declined from 0.88 to 0.57, while that for women fell from 0.34 to 0.22. Women's concentration in self-employment may be one of the reasons why women's employment was somewhat protected. However, when we look only at wage workers, we find that women experienced greater job losses than men with predicted employment probability for wage employment for men declining by 40 percent compared to 72 percent for women.

This study explores the influence of organizational practices on gender in/equality in a unique setting: the reformed Israeli kibbutz. The transition of the kibbutz from all members receiving an allowance to waged labor provides an opportunity to explore the impact of wage determination systems on gender pay inequality. The study uses a mixed-method approach: descriptive statistics of administrative data, in-depth interviews, and a focus group with kibbutz management. The findings demonstrate that a "market-based logic," embedded with gendered preconceptions of "women's work," can seep into an organization through a shift in the wage determination system, and increase gender inequality. The findings also highlight the lack of organizational awareness about the gendered consequences of this shift, or even their uncritical acceptance of the "value hierarchy" as ordained by the market. The study thus supports the theory positing gender as a hidden but integral aspect of reward systems in contemporary labor markets. The choice of a wage determination system is critical for gender inequality."Women's work" is valued higher by analytical job evaluation systems, which reduce gender biases.Market-based wage determinations introduce biases and increase organizational gender inequality.Management prefers market-based wage determinations due to competition and costs.The "free market" not only obscures gender hierarchies but also legitimizes them.