Discriminatory Attitudes towards the Female Mobility

The empirical study of discrimination against women within India has increased substantially in recent decades, with notable contributions from Amartya Sen (1987, 1990), Jean Drèze and Geeta Kingdon (2001), Murthi et al (1995), Shankar Subramanian and Angus Deaton (1991), and Jagdish Bhagwati (1973), among others. Anand and Sen (1995) noted the many forms of gender disparities, providing a conceptual overview of various categories of inequality, including household inequality. Deaton (1997) noted the numerous challenges associated with the empirical study of intra-household phenomena, including discrimination against females. In this article, I present empirical evidence of discriminatory attitudes towards the freedom of movement of females from a survey experiment administered in Bihar, Punjab, Kerala, and Delhi (N=5,315). My findings indicate the main effect—an indication of discrimination against females in the context of mobility—to be significant, and the magnitude of the main effect to vary significantly by

region, though the treatment condition is still significant in each. Moreover, I find evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity associated with both gender and level of education of subject, but not religion.