Born to Care (or Not): How Gender Role Attitudes Affect Occupational Sorting

Carlianne Patrick, Heather Stephens () and Amanda Weinstein ()
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Heather Stephens: Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University
Amanda Weinstein: Department of Economics, University of Akron

Working Papers from Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University

Abstract: Occupation segregation explains a significant portion of the gender wage gap, with women working in lower paid female-dominated occupations. We examine how childhood and adolescent exposure to gender biased norms about work influence this occupational sorting. We document that early life exposure to traditional gender role attitudes, which view women’s role as caretakers, increase women’s likelihood of employment in care occupations and decrease the likelihood for men, thereby increasing the gender care occupation gap. A decomposition of the factors affecting this sorting shows that a primary channel is through differences in the choice of post-secondary field of study or major. Our results suggest that traditional gender role attitudes may work to segment the labor market for men and women and contribute to the gender wage gap. This suggests that more egalitarian gender role attitudes which increase the share of men entering care occupations would increase wages for both men and women, lowering the gender wage gap.

Keywords: gender role attitudes; occupation choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Born to care (or not): How gender role attitudes affect occupational sorting (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rri:wpaper:2023wp01

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