This article employs a couple-level framework to examine how a child’s severe illness affects within-family gender inequality. We study parental labor market responses to a child’s cancer diagnosis by exploiting an event-study methodology and rich individual-level administrative data on hospitalizations and labor market variables for the total population in Finland. We find that a child’s cancer negatively affects the mother’s and the father’s labor income. The effect is considerably larger for women, increasing gender inequality beyond the well-documented motherhood penalty. We test three potential moderators explaining the more negative outcomes among mothers: (1) breadwinner status, (2) adherence to traditional gender roles and conservative values, and (3) the child’s care needs. We find that mothers who are the main bread winner experience a smaller reduction in their household income contribution than other mothers. Additionally, working in a gender-typical industry and a child’s augmented care needs reinforce mothers’ gendered responses. These findings contribute to the literature by providing new insights into gender roles when a child falls ill and demonstrating the effects of child health on gender inequality in two-parent households.

Along with the late 1980s Medicaid expansion for pregnant women and children, states implemented multiple reforms to reduce administrative burdens and facilitate access to Medicaid and prenatal care. We use National Vital Statistics birth data from 1985 to 1994 and a difference-in-discontinuities approach to compare the effectiveness of these reforms for improving infant health and access to prenatal care. Results indicate that combinations of reforms to reduce administrative burdens increased Medicaid enrollment and improved infant health nearly as much as Medicaid expansion. In most cases, these reforms yield larger benefits for racially and socioeconomically marginalized mothers, but targeted reforms could better address unequal barriers and further improve equality. Benefits of the reforms are larger in states with more physicians per capita, particularly for marginalized mothers. Overall, results suggest that combined policy responses to reduce multiple burdens at the same time are needed to address unequal barriers.

Administrative burdens are the frictions that people face in their encounters with public services, leading to meaningful costs that include learning, compliance, and psychological costs. We offer evidence that burdens are a key source and consequence of inequality, resulting in disparate outcomes in people’s access to basic rights. We also detail how these outcomes are patterned by targeting, federalism, bureaucratic pathologies, and the growing use of the private sector and tax system to deliver social welfare benefits. Throughout, we highlight recent and novel contributions, including empirical research in this double issue, that have helped clarify how and why administrative burdens shape inequality. Burdens have not received the political, policy, or research priority that is commensurate with their magnitude or impact on individuals. We conclude by arguing that we need a coherent language and framework to recognize and, where appropriate, reduce burdens across a wide array of policy domains.

To achieve social change towards sustainable ways of living, it is essential to promote a culture of sustainability among young people. Universities have a very important role, as sustainable education on college campuses has the potential to achieve long-term results by promoting the development of awareness and skills for youth engagement in order to face complex challenges, now and in the future. This study investigates the application of design-based thinking and participatory design to support a culture of sustainability among youth. It aims to bridge the value-action gap and to develop sustainable competencies. Design-based strategies integrated within educational experiences promote dealing with change and complexity, as well as offering a range of potentialities and interfaces for innovative action in the transition to sustainability. This research used a qualitative multi-method approach which consisted of a literature review, context analysis, ethnographic observation, and application of participatory design in educational settings in Brazil and the United States. This paper summarizes preliminary findings, including guidelines for engagement strategies. These reinforce the importance of understanding values and challenges of youth development, exploring dimensions of sustainability connected to student realities, building contexts for transformation, stimulating empowerment and autonomy, and using mediation to facilitate change processes conducted by young people. These findings also demonstrate that design-based participatory approaches in educational settings offer excellent opportunities for intervention to both engage youth in sustainability and support their positive development.