Mind the (gender) gap: Institutions, inequality, and individual freedom

Individual freedom consists of two components: negative freedom, which is the set of actions that an individual is not restricted from performing; and positive freedom, which is the set of actions that an individual can perform. In the case of freedom of speech, the strength of democratic institutions affects average levels of freedom of speech across countries, but variation in individual capacities creates means that freedom varies among individuals even when state institutions are held constant. This dissertation makes two methodological contributions. First, it creates a substantively meaningful measure of individual freedom of speech by using survey vignettes to rescale respondents' self-assessment to an intersubjective scale. Second, it employs a multi-level logistic regression to estimate the effect of individual- and country-level covariates on freedom of speech.;Using survey data from individuals in 36 countries, I estimate the difference between the mean for men and the mean for women in each country. In 30 of 36 countries, the average women perceives systematically less freedom of speech than her average male compatriot. The size of the gender gap varies considerably across countries. The gender gap is smallest in very rich and very poor countries, and largest in middle-income, developing countries. I explain this pattern by focusing on female labor force participation and female wages. In very poor countries, both men and women work out of necessity. With industrialization and urbanization, female workforce participation decreases and female wages decrease relative to male wages. With the maturation of the service sector, women reenter the workforce as their expected wages increase. Decreasing female economic dependence and increasing the female share of household resources has the effect of shrinking the gender gap in freedom.