The return of the king: Political conflict and female labour force participation in postwar Greece

Xanthi Tsoukli

No 208, BERG Working Paper Series from Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group

Abstract: Little is known about the effects of political conflicts on the status of women in society. Polarizing attitudes might have a differential effect on women's lives after a conflict. To consider this, the case of Greece after the Second World War is exploited, when the country became highly polarized between left and right ideologies, resulting in a threeyear full-scale civil war. A referendum regarding the reinstatement of the monarchy is used as an indicator of political beliefs, and, in a difference-in-differences setting, it is demonstrated that 10% greater political opposition to the monarchy implied that female labour force participation was 1.4% higher after the war. A plausible mechanism is through conservative areas becoming more conservative and liberal areas becoming more liberal, and data on the construction of new churches, a conservative institution, are consistent with this hypothesis. Finally, it is found that these effects were persistent, as reflected by female labour force participation until 1981, and attitudes revealed in the European Value Survey of 1999.

Keywords: political conflict; female labour force participation; gender norms; Greece (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J71 N34 N44 R23 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:bamber:328242

DOI: 10.20378/irb-109323

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