(Dis)Connections and Silence: Experiences of Family and Part-time Work in Japan

The present study used the 2001 Lesotho Demographic Survey to investigate differences in poverty between male and female headed households in Lesotho. Constructed quality of housing and amenities, economic characteristics of household members aged 10 years and above as well as children’s participation in education were used as proxies for household well-being. The data consist of more than sixteen thousand households with more than 28 thousand children aged 5-18 years. Both descriptive and multivariate regression analysis were used in the study. Generally males head the majority of households in Lesotho and are concentrated in male headed households. Male heads were currently married while female heads were previously married. Male headed households were economically better off than female headed households. Similar variables were found to be influencing constructed household wealth in both male and female headed households. Orphaned children’s participation in education was at par with the other children if they resided in female headed households while child birth experience disadvantages female children. Introduction of free primary education has not eliminated differences in participation rates between male and female children while female children’s participation in education is enhanced if they reside in male headed households.

Labor is an essential input in the production process. The pattern and intensity of its use has generated a lot of attention from the viewpoint of increasing productivity and employment. This study examined the pattern of labor use and labor productivity among agricultural households in Nigeria. The Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) wave 2 (2012/2013) was used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, partial labor productivity measure, and two-stage least squares regression. The average age of male household head and female household head was 50.74±14.83 years and 59.65±12.69 years respectively. They are mostly married with an average household size of 7 and 4 members for male-headed and female-headed households respectively. The number of labor use during planting and harvesting activities revealed that female-headed household use more family labor than male-headed households while male-headed households use more hired labor during planting and harvesting activities than their female counterpart. Labor use is positively influenced by crop output, age of household head, household size, farm size, herbicide use, and credit access. The use of machinery, wage rate, and farm size negatively influenced labor use. Labor productivity was low, as majority was below the mean cut off point. Labor productivity was 0.45 and 0.41 in male-headed and female-headed households respectively. Factors that affect labor productivity were quantity of fertilizer used, seeds, and type of cropping system employed. Since labor productivity can be enhanced by the use of fertilizers and improved seeds, government should therefore make these inputs available to agricultural households. Also, since agricultural households’ productivity is a critical issue in the pursuit of sustainable agricultural production in Nigeria, efforts should be made to achieve optimum labor use, increase labor productivity and employment in agriculture.

This study analyzed the food security status of male and female headed farming households in Imo State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study compared the quantity of food produced and the factors influencing the food security status of the respondents. Primary data used for the study were collected from sixty-four (64) respondents in the study area. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, z test and logistic regression model. Results showed that the female headed households produced more food than male headed households; however, male headed households were significantly more food secured (Zcal = 2.878). Key variables that positively influenced the food security status of male headed households were age (p<0.01), farm size (p<0.05), household size (p<0.05), educational level (p<0.1), farming income and total depreciation of capital assets including farm implements (p<0.05). Farming experience (p<0.05), age (p<0.01) farm size (p<0.05), extension contacts (p<0.01), and membership of farmers cooperatives (p<0.10) were the key variables that positively influenced the food security status of female headed households. The study recommended the review of existing land policies so as to give farmers easier access to land for food production. Also, agricultural extension services should be revived and made more proactive and effectively service oriented.

Rural men and women have different access to productive resources which may hinder women’s productivity and reduce their contributions to agriculture. This research was conducted to analyze difference in agricultural productivity between male and female headed households in Yubdo district of West Wollega Zone, Oromia National Regional State. The study used cross-sectional data that is collected from a total of 150 sampled respondents. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and econometric model. Results of the study showed that male headed households own more of productive resources such as land, livestock, labour and other agricultural inputs as compared to female headed households. Additionally, Cobb-Douglas production function was used to estimate the productivity difference in agriculture between male and female headed households. The result indicated that farm land, inorganic fertilizer, labour, number of oxen and number of extension contact were statistically significant in influencing the productivity of male headed households while farm land, inorganic fertilizer, labour, herbicide and improved were significant variables affecting the productivity of female headed households. The comparison of the marginal value product with the factor cost showed that both male and female headed households could increase productivity using more labour and farm land. The agricultural productivity difference between male and female headed households was about 70.84% in the study area. On the other hand, if female headed households had equal access to the inputs as male headed households, gross value of the output would be higher by 17.6% for female headed households. This may suggest that female headed households would have been more productive than male headed households if they had equal access to inputs as male headed households. Thus accessing female headed households to inputs that increase the productivity of land, labour utilization, usage of herbicide; and introducing technologies that reduce the time and energy of women is essential to improve the agricultural productivity of women and the society as a whole. Keywords: Cobb-Douglas, Decomposition Model, Ethiopia, Yubdo DOI : 10.7176/JESD/10-19-06 Publication date :October 31 st 2019

Despite wide belief that income distributions were unequal among the female and male headed households in southern parts of Ethiopia in general and Soddo-Zuria Woreda in particular, very few studies have been conducted on gender analysis of income distribution on rural area to empirically demonstrate both at regional and national levels. Therefore, this study intended to compute gender roles in crop production, level of income distribution among male headed and female headed households and identify major determinants of income among male headed and female headed households. This study uses data and information collected from of 154 households, of which 94 male headed and 60 female headed. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the households. The study employs Gini coefficient to estimate income distribution; and multiple linear and Quaintiles regression to identify determinants of income level among female-headed households and male-headed households. The key finding of the study is that gender was Significant at 1% probability level and had a positive influence on income. The result of this study reveal that income was more evenly distributed among the male headed households than the female-headed counterparts and participation of female headed households in crop production was less than male headed households. The results also show that annual income of male headed households was higher by 25.4 % than the income of female headed households. By using t-statistics annual income of the total sample households was significantly affected by age of household, farm size, access to credit, technology, extension visit and access to off farm income activities. All significant variables are positively influenced on total income of total sampled households except age and access to credit. Only access credit, technology and off farm income significantly influenced the income of male-headed households. Extension visit, technology and off farm income significantly and positively influenced income of the female-headed households. The findings of this study entail that policy makers should develop the extension system that increases number of extension visits to female headed farmers. Efforts should be made to empower and initiate female headed households through various programs that improve their technology uptake and build their confidence to involve in other business activities and intensify their income. It is also suggested that the issue of rural financial service receive greater attention by government and service providing financial institutions. Keywords : Female-headed households, male-headed households, income distribution, Soddo-Zuria DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-31-04 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Gender and livelihood assets: Assessing climate change resilience in Phalombe district – Malawi

About 700,000 pregnant youths die each year in developing countries. To determine whether the persistent adolescent pregnancy in Nigeria between 2013 and 2018 was influenced by proximal factors, particularly household head age, we carried out a cross-sectional study on adolescent girls that participated in the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Age of first birth, residence type, age, and gender of household heads was collected using a 2018 standardized NDHS. Multiple logistic regression was performed to test for associations. We analyzed 8,448 adolescents who had experienced pregnancy during the study period. The results demonstrated that girls with male household heads aged 45 and older have lower odds of adolescent pregnancy (OR = 0.619; 95% CI = 0.447, 0.856; p = 0.004 compared to those with female household heads in the same age group. Girls with male household heads in three younger age groups have higher odds of adolescent pregnancy than those with female household heads in the corresponding age group (15–24: OR = 1.719, 95% CI = 1.042, 2.835, p = 0.034; 25–34: OR = 4.790, 95% CI = 1.986, 11.551, p < 0.001; 35–44: OR = 2.080, 95% CI = 1.302, 3.323, p = 0.002). Girls with household heads aged in the 15–24 and 25–34 groups had higher odds of adolescent pregnancy compared to those with household heads aged 45 and older. Higher odds of adolescent pregnancy in Nigeria were found among girls with household heads aged in the 15–24 and 25–34 groups compared to those with household heads aged 45 and older. Although girls with younger male household heads are at an increased risk nationally, those living in the rural areas with younger household heads are at an even higher risk for adolescent pregnancy. Therefore, levels of socioecological model must be considered in planning for effective interventions.

ABSTRACTThis study examined the impact of head of household characteristics on school attendance among Zambian children. The study used nationally representative cross-sectional survey data with a sample of 24,165 school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 14. Findings showed that approximately 23% of the children were not in school, 14% were orphans, and 42% of children in the sample were from poor households. Heads of household in the sample showed low levels of education attainment; about 45% had a primary level education. Male heads of household had significantly higher levels of education compared to females (p < .001). Logistic regression model results showed that children living with a female head of household were more likely to attend school compared to those living with a male head of household (OR = 1.339, p < .001). In addition, findings showed greater likelihood for children’s school attendance the more educated the head of household was (p < .001). Increase in the age of the head of household, and the further removed the child was in biological relatedness to the head of household were associated with lesser odds of school attendance. Children that were older, female, non-orphan and from wealthier households had greater odds of school attendance. Findings highlight important head of household socioeconomic factors that policy and research should take into consideration when looking at children’s school attendance in Zambia.

Gender roles and relationships: Implications for water management

The study was undertaken to examine the determinants of gender difference in soybean production among male and female headed soybean producer households at Bambasi District, Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia. Multi stage, sampling procedure was used to select sample respondents. In the district, ten kebeles were selected purposively according to the intensity of soybean production. Out of ten kebeles, five kebeles were selected by simple random sampling technique. Based on the list of the beneficiaries, households were selected using probabilities proportional to sample size procedure. A total of 136 households of soybean producer farmers (78 Male headed household (MHH) and 58 Female headed household (FHH)) were selected; and data was collected using semi structured questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion. Descriptive statistics, Ordinary Least Square Regression were used for the analysis of the data. The analysis of the data showed that 34.62% male headed and 67.24% female headed households were illiterate. The average land owned by MHH and FHH was 2.28 ha and 1.83 ha respectively, and the total of 58.97% MHH and 32.76% FHH had got credit service. As far as input utilization the majority of the respondents (56.41, 75.64% MHH and 72.41, 82.76% FHH) did not used fertilizer and pesticides, respectively. OLS estimation revealed that education of household head, household labour force, cultivated land size, tropical livestock unit, access to credit, frequency of extension contact, fertilizer application, hired labour, membership in social organization significantly affected the production of soybean in both men and female headed households; while pesticide application significantly affected MHH only. The study revealed men headed households have got higher production of soybean by utilizing the accessible input than FHH. Hence, similarly FHH should be encouraged and supported to access inputs for improving soybean productivity, and to increase the level of food security in the area. Keywords: Determinants , Gender difference, Soybean production DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/55-01 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

BackgroundAssistance during delivery by a skilled attendant is recommended as a means to reduce child and maternal mortality. Globally, higher levels of maternal education have been associated with better health behaviours at delivery. However, given that heads of households tend to be the decision makers regarding accessing healthcare, some educated mothers may find themselves prevented from accessing healthcare at the point of delivery.MethodsWe examined the association between head of household education level and health seeking behaviours at delivery across a sample of 392 households. Chi-squared analysis and odds ratios were calculated to measure the strength of the relationship between no, some primary, or some secondary or higher education attained by the head of household and the presence or absence of a skilled birth attendant at that child’s birth, and whether the birth took place at a health facility.ResultsHeads of household (n = 392) were predominantly male (93.4% [(90.9%, 95.8%), a = 0.05]). We found a significant difference in skilled birth attendance between heads of households with some primary education and heads of household with some secondary education or higher (χ2 (1) = 6.231, p <0.05) whereby those with secondary or higher education were significantly more likely to seek a skilled birth attendant (OR = 1.5,[1.1,2.1]). The difference in health centre delivery between heads of household with a primary education and heads of household with a secondary or higher education was also significant (χ2 (1) = 7.519, p <0.05). Those with secondary or higher education were significantly more likely to deliver in a health facility (OR = 1.6,[1.2,2.1]).ConclusionsThe results of our analysis, which identified the vast majority of heads of households as men, suggests that education, or rather limited or a lack of education for the head of household, may be a barrier to women’s use of health care in Uganda and therefore reinforces the need to increase educational access among male heads of households. Improving the rates of health centre deliveries and utilization of services provided by skilled health workers might lie, in part, in increasing overall education levels of heads of households, specifically the education of male heads of households.

The distortion model becomes a problem in development planning, including in the development goals of reducing discrimination and concerns. These two things are closely related to gender expectations on work participation. The purpose of this study was to estimate the gender pay gap at the work participation rate of household heads in Magelang during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analytical tools used are Probit regression and the decomposition of the Blinder-Oaxaca model. The model decomposes wage differentials by gender. The study uses the 2020 SAKERNAS data. The results show that work participation for male household heads is determined by the marginal effect of work experience, age and area of residence, not education level and number of family dependents, while female household heads are only determined because of the number factor. family responsibilities. Furthermore, the potential work experience of male household heads has a significant negative effect. Research findings from the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition calculation show that the difference in wages between groups of household heads during the Covid 19 pandemic proved statistically significant. The role of the government is expected to be more active in disseminating policies related to gender in the labor market and exercising control over business actors in implementing labor regulations.

The research is financed by Ministry of Education of Ethiopia in general and Wollega University particularly Abstract This study focused on decomposion of gender differential on agricultural productivity. The agricultural productivity difference between male and female headed households was about 57.18% in the study area. On the other hand, if female headed households had equal access to the inputs as male headed households, gross value of the output would be higher by 18.82% for female headed households. This may suggest that female headed households would have been more productive than male headed households if they had equal access to inputs as male headed households. Thus accessing female headed households to inputs that increase the productivity of land, labour utilization, usage of herbicide; and introducing technologies that reduce the time and energy of women is essential to improve the agricultural productivity of women and the society as a whole. Keywords: Aira, Decomposition Model, Gender, West Wollega DOI : 10.7176/JAAS/60-01 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Using a nationally representative data set, this study examines the impact of migrant remittances on expenditure pattern and intra-household decision making process of rural households in Sri Lanka. The impact was estimated using fractional logit models within the Engel curve framework. Estimating the fractional logit models, we find evidence that there are strong differences in the impact on expenditure patterns of male and female household heads with the receipt of internal remittances whereas effect of international remittances on changing the expenditure pattern and the intra-household resource allocation is negligible. More specifically male household heads allocate less on education and more on ad hoc purchases, entertainment and transport expenditure, while female household heads allocate more on food expenditure with the receipt of internal remittances. Moreover, remitters’ contribution for the ad hoc purchases, entertainment and transport expenditure increases with their presence as a migrant to the household head. Overall, the study concludes that remittances are not directed towards the productive investments or human capital formation with the receipt of remittances in male headed or female headed households of rural sector of Sri Lanka.

Do partners influence each other’s travel patterns? A new approach to study the role of social norms