Evidence suggests that America’s resource wealth undermines women’s economic and political power

The problem of the ‘resource curse’ for countries with access to a greater abundance of natural resources is well known – but does this curse also extend to the undermining of women’s economic and political power? In new research examining US states, Joel W. Simmons finds that states which produce more resource wealth have lower levels of labor force participation, lower voter turnout rates, and lower political representation among women. He argues that these trends are caused by higher wage flows to male dominated sectors during resource booms, which in turn leads to more women exiting the workforce, and therefore having less political power.