Gender gap in public good preferences in Africa: Do gender norms matter?

I present new evidence on how norms and traditions can affect women’s public good preferences in Africa. A substantial literature has examined the determinants of gender differences in political attitudes. Existing work has found a gender gap in public good preferences. However, there are few attempts to explain this gap. In this article, I aim to investigate whether the preferences of men and women differ in Africa, and if so, to explore the source of the observed gender differences. The choice of Africa is meaningful as very few works on gender preferences have been done in this region where the weight of tradition is strong regarding the role of men and women in the society. Using Afrobarometer data for 36 African countries, I investigate whether and how the preferences of men and women differ. The results show that norms about the role of women play a role in explaining differences in gender preferences. Women in Africa have systematically a preference for social field (education, health) and less preference for additional investment in infrastructure, regardless of their level of empowerment or the prevailing norm on gender role. However, in countries where gender norms are less favorable to women, women report higher preferences in agriculture, closing the gender gap with men