Essays investigating gender and development in rural Ethiopia

Abstract

Gender and development is a primary goal in international development policy, and the status of women and girls is so important to the development agenda that the United Nations explicitly stated gender equality as its third Millennium Development Goal (UNDP 2010). Despite its importance, assessing the advancement of women's status has been challenging due to the limited availability of valid and reliable indicators, as well as research establishing causal linkages between development projects and outcomes for women and girls. My research addresses each of these topics using a primary dataset from three villages in rural Ethiopia to advance the gender and development literature.