In Slate yesterday, Joel Waldfogel authored an interesting piece on a new study that looks at women’s empowerment and cable TV in rural India. In “TV Is Good for You, IF YOU ARE A WOMAN IN RURAL INDIA, AT LEAST,” Waldfogel writes:
“The words female empowerment and television in the same sentence may bring to mind Star Jones extolling tummy tucks on The View. But for millions of women in developing countries, the benefits of TV may be substantive rather than frothy.”
The study’s authors, “Jensen and Oster, “…think that TV works its magic on women by providing them a new televised set of peers and in turn changing their attitudes. Supporting this conclusion is evidence that TV’s emancipatory effects were larger in places where women initially held more traditional attitudes.”