The intergenerational transfer of the employment gender gap

Abstract

Despite well-documented convergence during the later years of the 20 th century, labor market attachment remains markedly higher for men than for women. The current paper employs rich longitudinal registry data to investigate the intergenerational transfer of the gender gap in employment. We explore the extent that family-and community-level characteristics, measured in childhood, differentially predict employment for adult Norwegian men and women. Drawing on theories pertaining to the importance of information, skills and gender norms transfer, our empirical analysis demonstrates that a parsimonious set of family-and community-level characteristics can explain a substantial part of the gender gap. These results suggest that female employment continues to be influenced by the intergenerational transfer of beliefs and expectations about family and work.

Keeping inequality at home: The genesis of gender roles in housework

“…In line with Farré and Vella (2013) and Haaland et al (2018), our results suggest that gender role attitudes are persistent across generations: the greater gender inequality in housework (i.e., a higher value for the mother to father share of housework) is in parents' households, the greater it is in children's own families, with a slightly larger coefficient for sons. The amount of domestic work performed during childhood and the overall amount of domestic work in the family of origin are not relevant in explaining the gender distribution of domestic work in children's own families.…”

“…However, empirical evidence with direct observation of parents and children behaviour related to gender role attitudes is scarce. For instance, Farré and Vella (2013) and Haaland et al (2018) found that cultural attitudes regarding the role of women in the family and labour market are transmitted across generations. Farré and Vella (2013) based their results on individuals' opinions towards gender roles, finding that the mother's view of the role of women in the labour market and the family is strongly correlated with the views of her sons and daughters.…”

“…Farré and Vella (2013) based their results on individuals' opinions towards gender roles, finding that the mother's view of the role of women in the labour market and the family is strongly correlated with the views of her sons and daughters. Haaland et al (2018) use registry data to link current individual employment data with parental employment in the past, analysing the transmission of employment gender gap as a measure of gender norms. Similarly, we base our analysis on the link between children's and parents' behaviours.…”

The effects of voting franchise extension on education policy

“…25. The spatial distribution of gender norms in Norway is discussed in Haaland et al (2013). They use the regional distribution of support for the Christian Democratic Party ('Kristelig Folkeparti') in elections as a proxy for traditional gender norms.…”

Transgender labour market outcomes: Evidence from the United States

“…Ethnicity is also an important contributor to the gender wage gap, since non-white workers are more likely than white workers to receive lower wages (Mandel & Semyonov, 2016). Many studies include additional factors, such as the extent of risk preferences (Jung et al, 2018), country-specific policies (Christofides, Polycarpou, & Vrachimis, 2013) and intergenerational transfer of gender norms (Haaland, Rege, Telle, & Votruba, 2018), to explain why labour market outcomes differ. However, when differences in all relevant and available characteristics are taken into account, there may still be an unexplained differential in employment or wages.…”