Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia

Five weeks prior to the 2011 general election in Liberia, women in randomly selected villages were allocated radios and organized into groups to listen regularly to radio programs on the electoral process broadcast by the United Nations Mission in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mvukiyehe, Eric
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25951
id okr-10986-25951
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-259512017-12-14T04:34:27Z Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia Mvukiyehe, Eric gender gap post-conflict reconstruction media mass-media women's political participation peace building political efficacy Five weeks prior to the 2011 general election in Liberia, women in randomly selected villages were allocated radios and organized into groups to listen regularly to radio programs on the electoral process broadcast by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The field experiment was designed to ascertain the direct effects of women's access to politically-relevant information through radio broadcasting on their political behaviors and attitudes in a post-war context. Results point to positive significant effects of access to United Nations Mission in Liberia Radio on female political participation both at a national and a local level. Communities that received the intervention also exhibited smaller gender gaps across the majority of outcome indicators. The results suggest that UNMIL Radio effects likely occurred through increased political efficacy of women voters in the lead up to the elections. The study concludes that women's exposure to politically-relevant information through mass-broadcasting, even if brief, can boost their political efficacy and participation in public life. 2017-01-30T18:00:45Z 2017-01-30T18:00:45Z 2017-01 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25951 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7942 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Liberia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic gender gap
post-conflict reconstruction
media
mass-media
women's political participation
peace building
political efficacy
spellingShingle gender gap
post-conflict reconstruction
media
mass-media
women's political participation
peace building
political efficacy
Mvukiyehe, Eric
Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
geographic_facet Africa
Liberia
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7942
description Five weeks prior to the 2011 general election in Liberia, women in randomly selected villages were allocated radios and organized into groups to listen regularly to radio programs on the electoral process broadcast by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The field experiment was designed to ascertain the direct effects of women's access to politically-relevant information through radio broadcasting on their political behaviors and attitudes in a post-war context. Results point to positive significant effects of access to United Nations Mission in Liberia Radio on female political participation both at a national and a local level. Communities that received the intervention also exhibited smaller gender gaps across the majority of outcome indicators. The results suggest that UNMIL Radio effects likely occurred through increased political efficacy of women voters in the lead up to the elections. The study concludes that women's exposure to politically-relevant information through mass-broadcasting, even if brief, can boost their political efficacy and participation in public life.
format Working Paper
author Mvukiyehe, Eric
author_facet Mvukiyehe, Eric
author_sort Mvukiyehe, Eric
title Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
title_short Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
title_full Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
title_fullStr Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
title_full_unstemmed Can Media Interventions Reduce Gender Gaps in Political Participation after Civil War? evidence from a field experiment in rural Liberia
title_sort can media interventions reduce gender gaps in political participation after civil war? evidence from a field experiment in rural liberia
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25951
_version_ 1764460567800578048