Mothers, Peers and Gender Identity

Claudia Olivetti, Eleonora Patacchini and Yves Zenou

No 904, Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics

Abstract: We study whether a woman’s labor supply as a young adult is shaped by the work behavior of her adolescent peers’ mothers. Using detailed information on a sample of U.S. teenagers who are followed over time, we find that labor force participation of high school peers’ mothers affects adult women’s labor force participation, above and beyond the effect of their own mothers. The analysis suggests that women who were exposed to a larger number of working mothers during adolescence are less likely to feel that work interferes with family responsibilities. This perception, in turn, is important for whether they work when they have children.

Keywords: Role models; identity; female labor supply; peer effects; work-family conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-ure
Note: Previously circulated as NBER WP 19610.
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Forthcoming, Journal of the European Economic Association

Downloads: (external link)
http://fmwww.bc.edu/EC-P/wp904.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Mothers, Peers, and Gender-Role Identity (2020)
Working Paper: Mothers, Peers and Gender-Role Identity (2019)
Working Paper: Mothers, Friends and Gender Identity (2013)
Working Paper: Mothers, Friends and Gender Identity (2013)
Working Paper: Mothers, Friends and Gender Identity (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boc:bocoec:904

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Boston College Working Papers in Economics from Boston College Department of Economics Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill MA 02467 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().