Long-Term Consequences of Teaching Gender Roles: Evidence from Desegregating Industrial Arts and Home Economics in Japan

Hiromi Hara and Núria Rodríguez-Planas

Journal of Labor Economics, 2025, vol. 43, issue 2, 349 - 389

Abstract: This paper explores whether a 1990 reform that eliminated gender-segregated and gender normative industrial arts and home economics classes in Japanese junior high schools led to behavioral changes two decades later, when students were married and in their early 40s. Using a regression discontinuity design and Japanese time use data from 2016, we find that the reform narrowed gender gaps in weekend home production and job-related activities by increasing (decreasing) men’s engagement in traditionally female (male) activities, reduced the gender income gap by increasing women’s access to better jobs, delayed men’s fertility, and relaxed women’s attitudes toward traditional gender roles.

Date: 2025
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