Inter-American Development Bank
facebook
twitter
youtube
linkedin
instagram
Abierto al públicoBeyond BordersCaribbean Development TrendsCiudades SosteniblesEnergía para el FuturoEnfoque EducaciónFactor TrabajoGente SaludableGestión fiscalGobernarteIdeas MatterIdeas que CuentanIdeaçãoImpactoKreatopolisLa Maleta AbiertaMoviliblogMás Allá de las FronterasNegocios SosteniblesPrimeros PasosPuntos sobre la iSeguridad CiudadanaSostenibilidadVolvamos a la fuente ¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?Home
Citizen Security and Justice Creative Industries Development Effectiveness Early Childhood Development Education Energy Envirnment. Climate Change and Safeguards Fiscal policy and management Gender and Diversity Health Labor and pensions Open Knowledge Public management Science, Technology and Innovation  Trade and Regional Integration Urban Development and Housing Water and Sanitation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

¿Y si hablamos de igualdad?

  • HOME
  • CATEGORIES
    • Diversity
    • Gender
  • Authors
  • English
    • Español

Soap operas: A guilty pleasure good for gender equality too!

March 10, 2014 Por Andrew Morrison Leave a Comment


Para leer en español, hacer clik aquí

Post-Andy2

The images of women in the soap operas may not be all that flattering for a feminist: jealous, insecure, and beautiful on the outside if not always on the inside. So what if I told you that soap operas offer policy makers one of their best options for reducing gender inequality? Would you believe that this somewhat staid economist has taken leave of his senses?

Let me begin with a true story, and it is not about a personal addiction to Ugly Betty. This is the story of Suzanne Duryea, a colleague at the IDB and one of the economists that I most respect for her work on social issues in Latin America. This is the story of how her research documents a link between Rede Globo entering a new market in Brazil and subsequent declines in fertility rates, to a larger degree than a one-year increase in the education of the head of household.

And it seems to be that what drives the decline is the soap opera programming, which shows women characters with very low fertility. Of the programming analyzed, a stunning 72% of main female characters had no children and 21% had only one, a stark contrast to the average number of children in Brazilian households at the time.

But is this just Brazil? Or are U.S. audiences’ fertility behaviors also affected by a TV show? Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine, two other economists from the University of Maryland and Wellesley College decided to look at the effect of a reality show that portrays the tough lives faced by teenage mothers in the U.S. The unpoetic name of the show is 16 and Pregnant.

The authors find that the reality –in its three spawn!-, led to “a 5.7% reduction in teen births that would have been conceived between June 2009, when the show began, and the end of 2010. This can explain around one-third of the total decline in teen births over that period”.

So, what to make of all of this? One lesson is it seems that some very serious economists are finding ways to justify spending a lot of time watching (and analyzing!) soap operas and reality shows. But I think there are three much more important lessons to be learned.

First, that entertainment programming really can and does change behaviors. But it doesn’t do so by preaching at the audience and telling them “don’t get pregnant”, but rather by showing them how glamorous their lives would be without children (Rede Globo) or how miserable their lives would be with them (16 and Pregnant). This is what edutainment is and what it can do.

Second, that there is no reason why edutainment programming should be limited to addressing issues of adolescent pregnancy. It can address a host of thorny gender issues in the region, ranging from violence against women to the sticky constraints that keep women out of the labor force or in low-paying jobs. Edutainment programming has the potential to revolutionize work on social problems in general and in gender equality in particular.

The third lesson? Nerdy economists do like soap operas.


Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: igualdad de género

Andrew Morrison

Andrew Morrison, is a special consultant on Gender Violence and former Chief of the Gender and Diversity Division of the Inter-American Development Bank. Before joining the IDB, he held the position of Chief Economist of the World Bank's Gender and Development Group and also served as Regional Coordinator on Gender for Latin America and the Caribbean within the same institution. He has been Associate Professor of Economics at Tulane University and the University of New Mexico. He has published books and articles on issues of gender equality, international migration, labor markets and violence prevention. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Subscribe

Search

Tweets

Tweets by BID_Igualdad

Related posts

  • Invitation accepted: I am part of #Heforshe
  • Gender stereotypes play the lead role
  • Beyond burning witches
  • On the road to gender equality, fathers matter
  • Is the personal also professional?

Tags

Afrodescendants afrodescendientes Agricultura Bolivia Brechas de género Brechas digitales Coronavirus COVID-19 Data discriminación diversity Energy Gender Gender Equality Gender mainstreaming Healthcare igualdad de género inclusiveness Indigeneous economic development Indigenious development Indigenous economic development Indigenous entrepeneurship Indigenous identity Indigenous People Indigenous peoples Indigineous entrepeneurship Intimate Partner Violence Leadership Masculinities Mujer rural oportunidades económicas Paraguay post-pandemic pueblos indígenas technology Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación Trafficking Trafficking in persons Unpaid labor Violence against women violencia against women violencia contra la mujer Water Women leadership World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Footer

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo
facebook
twitter
youtube
youtube
youtube

Google Analytics

Blog posts written by Bank employees:

Copyright © Inter-American Development Bank ("IDB"). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. (CC-IGO 3.0 BY-NC-ND) license and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC- IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.


For blogs written by external parties:

For questions concerning copyright for authors that are not IADB employees please complete the contact form for this blog.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDB, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Attribution: in addition to giving attribution to the respective author and copyright owner, as appropriate, we would appreciate if you could include a link that remits back the IDB Blogs website.



Privacy Policy

Derechos de autor © 2021 · Magazine Pro en Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo

Aviso Legal

Las opiniones expresadas en estos blogs son las de los autores y no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, sus directivas, la Asamblea de Gobernadores o sus países miembros.

facebook
twitter
youtube