MAI SEKI

ABSTRACT Gender inequalities persist across various domains where traditional social norms are deeply ingrained. This study examines gendered perceptions of career decision‐making autonomy in the Philippines through self‐determination, social role, and gender congruity theories. Using an experimental vignette survey of 1174 university students, the study explores how respondents perceive autonomy in navigating parental career advice through hypothetical scenarios. Autonomy in this context is framed as the ability to recognize and pursue one's desired career path despite the parental nudge. Findings revealed that respondents generally tend to perceive hypothetical daughter character to have greater autonomy in career choices than the son. Although global efforts focus on women's empowerment, our results highlight the potential need to address boys' autonomy in career choices. In the Philippines, a country known for gender equality advocacy, fostering empowerment across genders is essential to ensure fair economic opportunities for all.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated school closures exacerbated the global learning crisis, especially for children in developing countries. Teaching at the right level is gaining greater importance in the policy arena to recover the learning loss. However, the focus on the noncognitive abilities of students influencing their ability to bridge learning gaps is still very limited. We investigate the long-term effects of the "self-learning at the right level" program, which is found to be effective in the short run in improving the cognitive and non-cognitive abilities of disadvantaged students in Bangladesh. We revisit these students almost 6 years after the intervention to find that its effects on non-cognitive abilities remain perceptible, whereas those on cognitive abilities might have been attenuated. This study is among the few to examine the long-term effects of experimental educational interventions and shows that such interventions can effectively sustain students’ non-cognitive abilities amid academic disruptions.

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>While previous studies have examined the link between maternal employment status and child development, the results remain inconclusive, and the underlying mechanisms are not yet well understood. A potential explanation for the mixed findings is the omission of mothers’ return home time from work, a factor that has yet to be tested in the literature. To address this gap, this study examines the relationship between mothers’ time of returning home and their children’s locus of control using a nationwide child–parent survey in Japan. The results of the entropy balancing method demonstrate that the daughters of mothers who return after 7 p.m. are more likely to believe that they lack control over their life outcomes, whereas this effect is not observed for mothers who return home by 7 p.m. This relationship is mediated by the deterioration of family relationships. Consistent with prior research, the negative association is more pronounced in households with higher socioeconomic status, while it is mitigated when fathers return home early or when children cohabit with their grandparents, highlighting the importance of caregiving by all family members. Given the increasing number of married women in full-time and managerial positions and the diffusion of teleworking, these findings are relevant for policymakers.</jats:p>