Jody Heymann
Biographic Data
| ID | 226930 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jody Heymann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jody |
| FAMILY NAME | Heymann |
| SIGNATURE | HEYMANN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0008-4198 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 140 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 484 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 139 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Tuition-free lower secondary education and women's healthcare decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa
Autonomy in healthcare decision-making is not only critical for women's health, but also more broadly to gender equality, women's economic outcomes, and children's health. Moreover, the right to control over own's health is a fundamental human right recognized by international and regional frameworks. While education is widely recognized as a key pathway to enhancing women's autonomy, there is limited evidence on whether large-scale policy interv…
The Impact of Extending Paid Maternity and Paternity Leave on Female Employment
Assessing the Relationship Between the Implementation of Compulsory Education Laws and Girls’ School Attendance in Twenty-Seven Countries
Achieving education for all and gender parity in education is central to Sustainable Development Goal 4. However, there are still an estimated 78 million primary-school-age children and 64 million lower-secondary-school-age children. Half of these out-of-school children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Disproportionately, girls are out of school, particularly rural and low-income girls. Building longitudinal policy data from 51 African countries and u…
National Action to Reduce Barriers to and Bias against Women’s Leadership
How equitably does paid parental leave reach different types of families? An analysis of legal frameworks in 193 countries
Mapping Progress in Workplace Protections
Introduction Despite global commitments to advance economic inclusion for all, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI +) workers around the world continue to face workplace discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Developing a detailed global understanding of national laws addressing SOGIESC-based employment discrimination is a critical step …
The combined effect of free and compulsory lower secondary education on educational attainment in Sub-Saharan Africa
Greater educational attainment has vast economic, health, and intergenerational benefits, yet less than half children in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school. In contrast to primary education, there is limited research on the impact of national policies at the secondary level on educational attainment. A significant number of low-income countries continue to charge tuition for secondary education and a majority do not make secondary…
Realizing the right to education for all
The impact of introducing free & compulsory pre-primary education policy on mothers’ labor outcomes
Progress towards gender equality in paid parental leave
Gender inequality in infant caregiving contributes to gender inequality in paid work, especially since workers often become parents during pivotal career stages. Whether women and men have equal access to paid leave for infant care can meaningfully shape patterns of caregiving in ways that have long-term economic impacts. We used a longitudinal database of paid leave policies in 193 countries to examine how the availability of paid leave for infa…
Reducing child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa
Child marriage remains prevalent: 1 in 5 women aged 20–24 report marriage before 18. • Health risks include early pregnancy and exposure to intimate partner violence. • Both child marriage laws and access to education have been proposed as solutions. • Two-way fixed effects models were used to evaluate these policy impacts in Africa. • Results suggest both policies are needed to effectively reduce child marriage. The public health burden associat…
Enhancing gender‐responsive social protection among informal and traditionally uncovered workers in sub‐Saharan Africa
A wide and established body of research evidence has consistently shown how the effective provision of social protection benefits and the promotion of gender equality are among the key tools for addressing shocks, vulnerability and poverty. It is largely to this end that these ideals implicitly feature throughout the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and explicitly in two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first is SDG 1 o…
The intergenerational effect of tuition-free lower-secondary education on children’s nutritional outcomes in Africa
One in five child deaths under age 5 are a result of severe wasting. Malnutrition at early ages is linked to lifelong consequences, such as reduced cognitive skills, reduced earnings in adulthood and chronic health conditions. Countries worldwide have committed to addressing child undernutrition, and ending hunger is foundational to the Millennium Development Goals. In this paper, we study the intergenerational effect of providing free tuition in…
Race, ethnicity, and discrimination at work
Purpose While only one aspect of fulfilling equal rights, effectively addressing workplace discrimination is integral to creating economies, and countries, that allow for everyone's full and equal participation. Design/methodology/approach Labor, anti-discrimination, and other relevant pieces of legislation were identified through the International Labor Organization's NATLEX database, supplemented with legislation identified through country webs…
Impact of Tuition-Free Education Policy on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing
Child marriage and early childbearing severely impact maternal and child health as well as long-term economic outcomes. Given their continued high incidence, analyzing the feasibility of effective national interventions remains crucial. While cross-sectional surveys and a few small-scale randomized experiments suggest delays in marriage and childbearing associated with secondary schooling, the impact of policies that advance secondary school at a…
The Equal Rights Amendment in Global Context
This piece was submitted in connection with the 2022 Symposium The Equal Rights Amendment: A New Guarantee of Sex Equality in the U.S. Constitution. The event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law and the Columbia Law School ERA Project
Recognizing Early Childhood Education as a Human Right in International Law
There is incontrovertible evidence that early learning opportunities shape long-term development and health. Nevertheless, early childhood care and education (ECCE) is not expressly mentioned as part of the right to education in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This paper argues that the right to education c…
Tuition-free secondary education and women's attitudes toward intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is devastatingly common around the world. It rose further during the pandemic, increasing the urgency of finding interventions to prevent IPVAW and supporting women's ability to exit violent situations. Interventions that prevent violence and eliminate views among perpetrators that violence is acceptable should be top priority. It is also critical to study women's attitudes toward IPVAW as these sha…
Supporting children’s health needs
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extent to which national laws and policies shape public health and economic security. Paid leave policies enable parents to meet children's health needs while maintaining job and income security. These policies matter immensely to children's health every year. Yet, little is known about the extent to which policies exist to support the full range of childhood health needs. Using a novel dataset constructe…
Assessing national action through emergency paid leave to mitigate the impact of Covid-19-related school closures on working families in 182 countries
In April 2020, nearly 1.6 billion learners were out of school. While a growing body of literature has documented the detrimental impact of these closures on children, less attention has been devoted to the steps countries took to mitigate the impact of these closures on working families. Paid leave is recognized as an important policy tool to enable working parents the time they need to respond to family needs without risking job or income loss. …
Needless barriers
Progress Towards Ending Sexual Harassment at Work? A Comparison of Sexual Harassment Policy in 192 Countries
Eliminating sexual harassment at work has an important role to play in accelerating progress toward gender equality in the economy. This study examines how 192 countries’ laws address workplace sexual harassment and measures the pace of change in adopting new legislation over the past five years since the #MeToo movement, during which global momentum to address sexual harassment increased. The analysis finds that an additional 13 countries now pr…
Lessons from United States school district policies and approaches to special education during the Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many school districts in countries around the world transitioning rapidly to partial or complete remote learning. These disruptions affected all children’s education, but students with disabilities (SWDs) were particularly at-risk because of the challenges of providing accessible support and services through remote teaching programmes. We examine the experience of SWDs in 24 United States school districts of inst…
Dismantling barriers and advancing disability-inclusive education
Disability-inclusive laws and policies – while not sufficient on their own to advance substantive equality – are an essential step that all countries can take to advance non-discrimination and equity in education for children and youth with disabilities. This is the first study to comprehensively review national law and policy guarantees in 193 countries to assess the extent to which countries have harmonized national laws and policies with inter…
Unfinished work
Work and family divided across borders
Using new data collected in high emigration communities within Mexico, we explore the impact of partial family migration on children left behind in Mexico. Multivariate results suggest that households where respondents have a spouse who was a caregiver and who migrated to the USA are more likely to have at least one child with academic, behavioral, and emotional problems than non-migrant households. This finding supports efforts to decrease the n…
The impact of migration on the well-being of transnational families
We present results from a new study of the effects of migration to the USA on the well-being of transnational families in high emigration communities within Mexico. Our survey measured the well-being of family members in a variety of domains: economic, health, education, and child development for a representative sample drawn from high migration municipalities. Compared to those with no recent emigrants to the USA, Mexican households sending non-…
Child Marriage Laws around the World
The marriage of children below 18 is widely recognized in international human rights agreements as a discriminatory global practice that hinders the development and well-being of hundreds of millions of girls. Using a new global policy database, we analyze national legislation regarding minimum marriage age, exceptions permitting marriage at earlier ages, and gender disparities in laws. While our longitudinal data indicate improvements in frequen…
Low-Income Parents
Numerous studies have documented the importance of parental involvement to children's success at school. Much of the discussion about what influences the outcomes of poor children has assumed that low-income parents have the same opportunity to help with their children's education. Yet, parents' availability to be involved with their children's education is often determined by job benefits and working conditions. The goal of this article is to ex…
Emerging health disparities in Botswana
The impact of welfare reform on parents' ability to care for their children's health
OBJECTIVES: Most of the national policy debate regarding welfare assumed that if middle-income mothers could balance work while caring for their children's health and development, mothers leaving welfare for work should be able to do so as well. Yet, previous research has not examined the conditions faced by mothers leaving welfare for work. METHODS: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examined the availability o…
The Divergent Experiences of Children and Adults in the Relocation Process
Journal Article The Divergent Experiences of Children and Adults in the Relocation Process: Perspectives of Child and Parent Refugee Claimants in Montreal Get access Gillian Morantz, Gillian Morantz Division of General Pediatrics, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Cecile Rousseau, Cecile Rousseau Division of S…
Orphan Care in Botswana’s Working Households
Objectives. Botswana has one of the world’s highest HIV-prevalence rates and the world’s highest percentages of orphaned children among its population. We assessed the ability of income-earning households in Botswana to adequately care for orphans. Methods. We used data from the Botswana Family Health Needs Study (2002), a sample of 1033 working adults with caregiving responsibilities who used public services, to assess whether households with or…
The impact of parental working conditions on school-age children
Non-weekday work schedules are on the rise in the USA. Among non-standard shifts, the evening shift is the most common. Low-income parents are more likely to be required to work non-standard schedules. However, little work has been done to examine the effect of parental evening work on school-age children. Data collected in the USA in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) was used to examine the effect of parental evening work on the h…
Protecting the health of employees caring for family members with special health care needs
Progress towards gender equality in paid parental leave
Gender inequality in infant caregiving contributes to gender inequality in paid work, especially since workers often become parents during pivotal career stages. Whether women and men have equal access to paid leave for infant care can meaningfully shape patterns of caregiving in ways that have long-term economic impacts. We used a longitudinal database of paid leave policies in 193 countries to examine how the availability of paid leave for infa…
Where do Women Stand? New Evidence on the Presence and Absence of Gender Equality in the World's Constitutions
In countries around the world, constitutional protections of women's rights have provided a legal foundation to combat discriminatory laws, customs, and actions and a catalyst for advances in gender equality. This article draws on newly available data from 191 countries to analyze women's constitutional rights across the spheres of general equality and nondiscrimination, political participation, social and economic rights, family life, and custom…
The cost of caregiving
Sixty-one percent of the adults caring for elderly and disabled family members and 53% of parents of children with special needs are employed. Yet studies examining the experience of employed caregivers of children with special needs and elderly or disabled adult family members have not examined the impact on earnings or the workplace policies that might help reduce the conflicts between work and caregiving. This study begins to fill this gap usi…
Resettlement challenges faced by refugee claimant families in Montreal
Adult refugee claimants experience several well‐documented post‐migratory challenges. Little is known about the resettlement process for refugee claimant families with children. This study reports on 75 open‐ended, in‐depth interviews with refugee claimant families in Montreal about their resettlement challenges and their proposed solutions to them. These interviews were conducted with 33 dyads and triads of children and parents attending a paedi…
Child Marriage in the United States
Child marriage occurs throughout the country. Research on the social forces that perpetuate child marriage is needed to inform efforts to prevent it
Paid maternity leave and childhood vaccination uptake
Maternal leave policies and vaccination coverage
National-level factors affecting planned, public adaptation to health impacts of climate change
Impact of Tuition-Free Education Policy on Child Marriage and Early Childbearing
Child marriage and early childbearing severely impact maternal and child health as well as long-term economic outcomes. Given their continued high incidence, analyzing the feasibility of effective national interventions remains crucial. While cross-sectional surveys and a few small-scale randomized experiments suggest delays in marriage and childbearing associated with secondary schooling, the impact of policies that advance secondary school at a…
Paid parental leave policies for single-parent households
Many studies have examined the availability of paid parental leave for the general population, but few have looked specifically at whether leave policies meet the needs of single parents. Across OECD countries, 17% of children on average live in single-parent households. Depending on policy framing, parental leave benefits may not meet the needs of parents and children in single-parent families. This study provides the first comprehensive examina…
Assessing Compliance with the crc
Currently, the report-based monitoring system of the crc provides a wealth of qualitative information about country performance, but not in a form that is frequently updated, easily analysable and comparable across countries and over time. To date, a broad range of quantitatively comparable indicators of laws and policies relevant to the crc have not been widely available. Through the world Policy Analysis Center, we have collected and analysed p…
How to Track Adaptation to Climate Change
Ford, J. D., L. Berrang-Ford, A. Lesnikowski, M. Barrera, and S. J. Heymann. 2013. How to track adaptation to climate change: a typology of approaches for national-level application. Ecology and Society 18(3):40. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05732-180340
Improving Labour Standards in Clothing Factories
This article studies the effects of the United States—Cambodia Textile Agreement (UCTA, 1999—2004) on labour standards in Cambodia. The authors find that the Agreement’s labour initiatives have led to relative improvements in the working conditions in garment factories. The study draws on extensive fieldwork conducted in Phnom Penh in 2006: in-depth interviews with dozens of respondents from all key stakeholders (labour, management, NGOs, governm…
The influence of program acceptability on the effectiveness of public health policy
OBJECTIVES: This study examined how patient acceptability influences the effectiveness of directly observed therapy for tuberculosis. METHODS: Decision and sensitivity analyses were used in assessing influences. RESULTS: If mandatory directly observed therapy discourages 6% of initial tuberculosis patients (range: 4% to 10%) from seeking care, then such therapy will be less effective than self-administered therapy. Directly observed therapy is mo…
Comparing the availability of paid parental leave for same-sex and different-sex couples in 34 OECD countries
The availability of paid family leave has been widely researched in the context of a two-parent household with one mother and one father, yet few studies have explored whether households with same-sex parents have access to equal benefits. Expanding on previous cross-country comparisons of parental leave policies, this study examines parental leave policies in 34 OECD countries to compare the total duration of paid parental leave available to sam…
Modeling the impact of breast-feeding by HIV-infected women on child survival
This study models the survival outcomes of children born to HIV-infected (human immunodeficiency virus) women who are breast-fed, bottle-fed, and wet-nursed. It is estimated that, given the relative risk of alternatives to maternal milk in developing countries, the probability of HIV transmission via breast milk would need to be at least .12 in a community with an under five child mortality rate from non-HIV causes of 100/1000 live births and at …
The work‐family balance
The work-family balance
The work-family balance
The influence of program acceptability on the effectiveness of public health policy
OBJECTIVES: This study examined how patient acceptability influences the effectiveness of directly observed therapy for tuberculosis. METHODS: Decision and sensitivity analyses were used in assessing influences. RESULTS: If mandatory directly observed therapy discourages 6% of initial tuberculosis patients (range: 4% to 10%) from seeking care, then such therapy will be less effective than self-administered therapy. Directly observed therapy is mo…
Mandatory Public Health Programs
Implicitly and explicitly, human rights have played a significant role in public health debates for decades. At turn of century, when health department officials in United States were debating measures to control sexually transmitted diseases, it was argued that the progress of preventive medicine has been a history of conflict between so-called rights of individual and higher rights of community.' In U.S., government has historically treated hum…
The impact of welfare reform on parents' ability to care for their children's health
OBJECTIVES: Most of the national policy debate regarding welfare assumed that if middle-income mothers could balance work while caring for their children's health and development, mothers leaving welfare for work should be able to do so as well. Yet, previous research has not examined the conditions faced by mothers leaving welfare for work. METHODS: Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examined the availability o…
Heymann and Colleagues Respond
Heymann and Colleagues Respond S. Jody Heymann, Timothy F. Brewer, and Randall Sell W J Burman, and W el-SadrCopyRight https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.89.4.601 Published Online: October 07, 2011
Low-Income Parents
Numerous studies have documented the importance of parental involvement to children's success at school. Much of the discussion about what influences the outcomes of poor children has assumed that low-income parents have the same opportunity to help with their children's education. Yet, parents' availability to be involved with their children's education is often determined by job benefits and working conditions. The goal of this article is to ex…
The impact of parental working conditions on school-age children
Non-weekday work schedules are on the rise in the USA. Among non-standard shifts, the evening shift is the most common. Low-income parents are more likely to be required to work non-standard schedules. However, little work has been done to examine the effect of parental evening work on school-age children. Data collected in the USA in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) was used to examine the effect of parental evening work on the h…
Bringing a global perspective to community, work and family
To date, much of the research on the interaction between work and family has focused on single countries or comparative studies on OECD countries. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of bringing a truly global perspective to comparative research on work, family, and community questions. We conducted an examination of extended‐hour work in four countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This paper highlights two facts: firs…
Impact of Gender Disparities in Family Carework on Women's Life Chances in Chiapas, Mexico
The entry of large numbers of women with children into the paid labor force was a major demographic shift throughout North America and Europe during the last half of the 20th century. Mexican women have gone through similar changes in employment, though less research has been done to document their experiences. As in North America and Europe, Mexican women and girls are doing more unpaid caregiving and housework than men and boys. The issue of ce…
Forgotten FamiliesEnding the Growing Crisis Confronting Children and Working Parents in the Global Economy
In the last half-century, radical changes have rippled through the workplace and the home from Boston to Mumbai. In the face of rapid globalization, these changes affect us all, and we can no longer confine ourselves to addressing working and social conditions within our own borders without simultaneously addressing them on a global scale. Based on over 1,000 in-depth interviews and survey data from more than 55,000 families spanning five contine…
HIV/Aids, income loss and economic survival in Botswana
In countries facing severe HIV/AIDS epidemics, the overwhelming majority of those who are infected and affected by HIV are already living in poverty. Further income loss can threaten the ability to meet basic needs such as food, education and access to healthcare. Due to this, understanding the impact of HIV infection and caregiving on household income is essential to improving the health and welfare of HIV-affected individuals and families. This…
A comparative analysis of paid leave for the health needs of workers and their families around the world
The ability of workers to take time off work when they are ill, and when their children or adult family members are ill, is critical to the health of workers and their families. In this study, we examine labor codes and labor-related legislation for 178 countries available from the International Labor Organization, and 160 individual country reports in Social Security Programs Throughout the World to determine the availability of paid sick leave …
Orphan Care in Botswana’s Working Households
Objectives. Botswana has one of the world’s highest HIV-prevalence rates and the world’s highest percentages of orphaned children among its population. We assessed the ability of income-earning households in Botswana to adequately care for orphans. Methods. We used data from the Botswana Family Health Needs Study (2002), a sample of 1033 working adults with caregiving responsibilities who used public services, to assess whether households with or…
Forgotten Families
In the last half-century, radical changes have rippled through the workplace and the home from Boston to Mumbai. In the face of rapid globalization, these changes affect us all, and we can no longer confine ourselves to addressing working and social conditions within our own borders without simultaneously addressing them on a global scale. Based on over a thousand in-depth interviews and survey data from more than 55,000 families spanning five co…
Africa's orphan crisis
The AIDS epidemic has created a crisis for children, severely threatening the health and development of children whose parents are ill, have died and whose communities have lost a large percentage of their adults. Even when extended family can serve as guardians, their need to work in the context of widespread poverty decreases the amount of time they are able to spend with children. Other children live in child-headed households or with seniors …
Extended family caring for children orphaned by Aids
While over 90 per cent of the 15 million children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS are cared for by family members, there is little information about whether adults can meet orphans' essential caregiving needs while working to economically survive. Using a survey we conducted in Botswana of 1033 working adults, we analyse the experience of adults who are caring for orphans. Over one-third of working adults were caring for orphans and many with …
Creating a Healthier Version of Globalization
Emerging health disparities in Botswana
Working to Exit Poverty While Caring for Children's Health and Development in Vietnam
Since the implementation of economic reforms in 1986, levels of urbanization, industrialization, and women's labour force participation have increased in Vietnam. This article focuses on the experiences of parents in Vietnam and how labour and social conditions affect their ability to work and exit poverty while caring for their children's health and development. We interviewed a sample of 147 parents in Ho Chi Minh City using in-depth, semi-stru…
Working HIV care-givers in Botswana
Families provide most of the care to the tens of millions of HIV-infected and -affected in Africa. Little research exists on how care-givers balance the demands of holding a job with providing care for those who have become ill or orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Using data from a large survey administered to 1,077 working care-givers in Botswana, we compared the experience of HIV care-givers with non-HIV care-givers. Compared to non-HIV care-givers, HIV ca…
HIV/Aids, declining family resources and the community safety net
Families play central roles in the HIV/AIDS pandemic, caring for both orphaned children and the ill. This extra caregiving depletes two family resources essential for supporting children: time and money. We use recent data from published studies in sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate deficits and document community responses. In Botswana, parents caring for the chronically ill had less time for their preschool children (74 versus 96 hours per month)…
The extent of community and public support available to families caring for orphans in Malawi
There are an estimated 15 million AIDS orphans worldwide. Families play an important role in safeguarding orphans, but they may be increasingly compromised by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The international aid community has recognized the need to help families continue caring for orphaned children by strengthening their safety nets. Before we build new structures, however, we need to know the extent to which community and public safety nets already pro…
Political science (88 works) · Economics (83 works) · Medicine (71 works) · Economic growth (64 works) · Sociology (54 works) · Psychology (53 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (47 works) · Law (41 works) · Demographic economics (35 works) · Business (34 works)