What struck me most about the women's agency readings is just how significant these variables were. I suppose I had a tendency to understate the importance of "social norms" because of how fluid and vague it is as a concept to measure, but it turns out to be the most, if not important, one. This is true for fertility rates, child mortality and gender-biased mortality, health, education, and nutrition.
For example, Sen writes on p. 190 of the DER that "the only ones that had a statistically significant effect on fertility are female literacy and female labor force participation [italics in original]" and on p. 189 that reducing gender-biased mortality "seems to work mainly through variables that are directly related to women's agency."
This makes Sen's case that development economists ought to engage more directly with women's agency, rather than "beating around the bush" with programs to address welfare, very strong. It also fits in with the development strategy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen bank (p. 192), which made "a special effort to provide credit to women borrowers."
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