Dartmouth Events

Does Language Limit Women’s Equality?

Pamela Jakiela, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development

Tuesday, October 1, 2019
4:30pm – 6:00pm
Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories:

Pamela Jakiela, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development

“Does Language Limit Women’s Equality?”
 
The languages we speak shape our thoughts in subtle, subconscious ways. There are demonstrated links between language and gender roles, and differences in language structure influence our economic behavior. Dr. Jakiela will describe a new data set characterizing the grammatical gender structure of over 4,000 languages.  Using this data set, she shows that women whose native language partitions nouns into masculine and feminine are less educated and less likely to participate in the labor force – a pattern that is apparent both across and within countries.
 
Pamela Jakiela is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, where she studies gender issues, behavioral development economics, survey design and measurement, and impact evaluation. Her work has been published in leading academic journals including Science and the Review of Economic Studies, and has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times and NPR.  Her current work includes research on women’s labor force participation and occupational choice, the gender dynamics of investments in early childhood, and the impacts of cash grants on subsistence entrepreneurs.
 
Dr. Jakiela’s talk will be followed by comments from Dr. Laura McPherson (Linguistics) and public discussion.
 
Tuesday, October 1
4:30-6pm 
 
041 Haldeman Center
Dartmouth College, free and open to all.

Sponsored by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and made possible by the E. M. Skowrup 1937 Fund. 

 
For more information, contact:
Sharon Tribou-St. Martin

Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.