Working paper

Transmitting Rights: Effective Cooperation, Inter-Gender Contact, and Student Achievement

Sultan Mehmood, Shaheen Naseer, and Daniel L. Chen

Abstract

We provide experimental evidence of teacher-to-student transmission of gender attitudes in Pakistan. We randomly show teachers a pro-women’s rights visual narrative. Treated teachers increase their and students’ support for women’s rights, unbiasedness in gender IATs, and willingness to petition parliament for greater gender equality. Students improve coordination and cooperation with the opposite gender. Effects are larger when teachers teach a gender-rights curriculum. Mathematics achievement increases for classrooms assigned to form mixed-gender study groups treated with an intense program (visual narrative and curriculum), while no significant effects appear in same-sex study groups. Gender attitudes are transmissible, and cooperation improves student outcomes

Keywords

teachers; attitudes; IATs; gender; inter-gender contact;

JEL codes

  • I24: Education and Inequality
  • I28: Government Policy
  • O12: Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
  • C93: Field Experiments

Reference

Sultan Mehmood, Shaheen Naseer, and Daniel L. Chen, Transmitting Rights: Effective Cooperation, Inter-Gender Contact, and Student Achievement, TSE Working Paper, 2024.

See also

Published in

TSE Working Paper, 2024