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Policy intent vs. resource curse: a comparative analysis of women's legal empowerment in Rwanda and Qatar
   

Policy intent vs. resource curse: a comparative analysis of women's legal empowerment in Rwanda and Qatar

Yiu-Fai Chan, Lawrence M. Ngoe, Shailendra Baghel, William Tannor, Giamene Odom Rasheed Bello
Scientific Culture, Vol.12(4), pp.6761-6773
04/2026
Women, Business and the Law resource curse transformative constitutionalism gender economic governance strategic ignorance capabilities approach institutional theory 6762 Qatar Rwanda
Why does one of the world's poorest countries outperform one of its wealthiest on women's legal empowerment? Across 199 countries, a regression of Women, Business and the Law (WBL) scores on log GDP per capita explains only 41% of crosscountry variance (R² = 0.411). Rwanda, with GDP per capita of $1,027, scores 66.1 — 25.2 points above its income-predicted level. Qatar, with GDP per capita of $81,817, scores 27.2 — 47.0 points below. The combined residual gap of 72.2 points is the widest in the dataset. We develop a Revenue-Institution-Capability (RIC) framework, anchored in gender economic governance theory, that identifies three institutional mechanisms explaining this divergence: revenue structure, political inclusion, and capability conversion infrastructure. The framework generates three testable institutional equilibria predicting WBL residual direction. An extended OLS regression confirms this: adding oil rents (β = −0.636, p < 0.001) and female parliamentary representation (β = 0.419, p < 0.001) raises R² from 0.405 to 0.662 on the same sample. Internet penetration does not explain crosscountry variation once income is controlled (p = 0.983). Qatar's persistent residual of −27.9 after institutional controls is explained through strategic ignorance — formal equality commitments maintained without enforcement infrastructure. These findings challenge income-led convergence narratives and carry direct implications for institutional approaches to gender empowerment policy

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Policy intent vs. resource curse: a comparative analysis of women's legal empowerment in Rwanda and Qatar336.91 kB
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Published (Version of record) Open Access  — You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
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