Onderzoekers van de Université catholique de Louvain maken gebruik van de LOKSTAT-databank

Annalisa Frigo en Eric Roca onderzochten het effect van de aanwezigheid van begijnen in bepaalde Belgische gemeenten op hedendaagse genderverhoudingen. Lees hun bevindingen in de paper of ga zelf aan de slag met de gegevens uit de LOKSTAT-databank.

Artikel:

Frigo, Annalisa, en Eric Roca. “Roots of gender equality: the persistent effect of beguinages on attitudes toward women”. Labour Seminar Paper, Milan Bocconi University, 2018.

Abstract: 

“This paper is concerned with the historical determinants of gender equality. In the specific context of Belgium, it relates higher levels of gender equality during the 19th century to the presence of medieval, female-only, Belgian communities called beguinages. Combining a novel, hand-collected data-set on beguinage location with 19th-century Belgian census data, we document that in municipalities where beguine communities settled the literacy gap reduced. Schooling was not compulsory and literacy differentials reflect parental tenets on gender equality. Using changes in the political organisation through which some villages became more attractive to beguines, we establish that the variation in gender literacy is indeed related to the presence of beguinages. Our results are in line with the extensive empirical evidence documenting the persistence of gender norms and culture. Finally, we propose a novel class of mechanisms, based on improvements in girls’ bargaining power, to rationalise our findings”