Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence from India

Diva Dhar, Tarun Jain and Seema Jayachandran

No 21429, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes in India, a setting where discrimination against women and girls is severe. We use survey data on gender attitudes (specifically, views about the appropriate roles and rights of women and girls) collected from adolescents attending 314 schools in the state of Haryana, and their parents. We find that when a parent holds a more discriminatory attitude, his or her child is about 15 to 20 percentage points more likely to hold the view. As a benchmark, classmates' average gender attitudes have a similar effect size. We find that mothers influence children's gender attitudes more than fathers do. Parental attitudes also affect their children's aspirations; girls with more discriminatory parents are less likely to want to continue their schooling beyond high school.

JEL-codes: J16 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dev and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published as Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2019. "Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence from India," The Journal of Development Studies, vol 55(12), pages 2572-2592.

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Journal Article: Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Attitudes: Evidence from India (2019)
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