ABSTRACT
Our research investigates how gender shapes youth’s aspirations, subjective well-being and capabilities in Morocco. We compare two different informational bases in analysing gender inequalities: the subjective well-being framework, and the capability approach. To do so, we propose to operationalise capabilities through mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) based on: 1. An innovative dataset collected by the Office of Economic Cooperation for Mediterranean and Middle East (OCEMO), among young Moroccan individuals living in rural and urban areas of the Marrakesh region; and 2. Qualitative data that we collected in Morocco. Our results suggest that subjective well-being is not a good indicator of gender inequalities among Moroccan youths, as it does not consider adaptive preferences. Capabilities indicators, i.e. the freedom to choose and the capability to achieve, perform much better as they account for both the capability to choose a lifestyle, and the ability to fulfil one’s choice; i.e. spaces of freedom. The work also reveals the striking significance of adaptive preferences among rural young women, as well as the frustrations among young educated men resulting from an inability to fulfil a chosen lifestyle. Gender justice and capabilities—as the freedom to choose and to turn opportunities into valuable outcomes—indeed appear significant in understanding the structural transformations of the Moroccan society.
Keywords: youth, gender, subjective well-being, capabilities, Morocco.
