PhD Social inequalities and regional effect: unravelling the factors of gender discrimination in India.

Gender discrimination is still prevalent in India. This project will analyse gender inequalities in India from an intersectional perspective. The aim is to understand the role of social composition (such as castes, religions, socio-economic groups) and spatial differentiation in producing these inequalities. The project will explore factors associated with the spatial clustering of gender discrimination in India.
The thesis will focus on various dimensions of gender discrimination, including fertility behaviour, early marriage, health inequalities, access to education, work, and wealth. The selected dimensions and research questions will be refined based on the candidate’s profile and proposals. The project aims to establish the geography of these discriminations and understand how socioeconomic inequalities and anthropological variations are expressed locally.
The primarily quantitative approach will involve measuring and mapping the intensity of discrimination, analysing its spatial configurations, and modelling the factors involved to understand the socio-spatial patterns of gender discrimination. In addition, sociological documentation on micro-scale factors of discriminatory behaviour and norms, field observation, and qualitative surveys will help focus the investigation and recognize and qualify the observed social and spatial configurations.
This thesis will be part of a multidisciplinary research programme revisiting and analysing inequalities in India. One of the aims of this collaborative project is to set up a new spatialised household database, allowing a very detailed intersectional analysis of socioeconomic, demographic, health and gender inequalities across territories in India. The PhD project will benefit from this new dataset.