Centre for Development Economics
Department of Economics
Delhi School of Economics
ANNOUNCE A SEMINAR
Gender, Culture, and Norms of Equality
by
Kalyani Chaudhuri
(Ashoka University)
Joint work with
Lata Gangadharan (Monash University),
Tarun Jain (IIMA)
and
Pushkar Maitra (Monash University).
(Friday, January 30, 2026, at 3:15 PM IST )
Venue: Lecture Theatre
Abstract:-
Are women sanctioned differently than men for violating social norms, and does such punishment vary across cultures with differing levels of gender equity and autonomy? We leverage the norm of equitable distribution of resources to study these questions using experiments conducted in two Indian cultures at opposite ends of gender equity: matrilineal societies in Meghalaya and patrilineal societies in Haryana. In Meghalaya, we find that equality is the modal distribution, and violations from equality are punished, with men being punished more frequently than women. In contrast, equal distributions are rare in Haryana, and violations are rarely punished, among both genders. Our findings are potentially explained by differences in the strength of norms across societies: equality norms are strong in Meghalaya, but weak for both genders in Haryana.