The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Role Attitudes and its Implications for Female Labor Force Participation

By Ĺıdia Farré, F. Vella. Social Science Research Network, 2013

444 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using a sample of mother-child pairs from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and the Young Adults of the NLSY79 we explore the relationship between a woman’s attitudes towards the role of females in the labor market and the attitudes of her children. We also examine whether this intergenerational cultural link has implications for the labor market behavior of the females in the NLSY79. We find that a woman’s attitudes have a statistically significant effect on her children’s views towards working women. Furthermore we find that this cultural transmission influences female labor market decisions. Our results imply that a woman’s view regarding the role of females in the labor market and family not only affects the labor market force participation decision of her daughter, but also has an equally strong association with the labor force participation of the wife of her son. These results indicate that the transmission of gender role attitudes contributes to the persistence of economic status across generations.

Subfields: Demography, Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/561e151c027cd69a52f47545f4677f8564a864e2

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Citations in the corpus

Politico-Economic Regimes and Attitudes: Female Workers under State Socialism (2019, background): “For instance, Farré and Vella (2013) find that a mother’s gender-role attitudes have a significant effect on those of her children.3 In practical terms, in order to obtain a time-varying measure of attitudes from the attitudes of U.S. immigrants and their descendents, we follow an approach in the sp”
Grandparents’ Childcare and Female Labor Force Participation (2013, background): “However, it seems natural to think that the degree of labor force attachment can be transmitted from grandmothers to mothers (Farré and Vella, 2013).”
The Best Is Yet to Come? Attitudes Toward Gender Roles Among Adolescents in 36 Countries (2017, background): “Beyond many structural characteristics that keep women in a secondary position in society, scholars argue that traditional attitudes toward gender roles are also responsible for the persisting inequalities between women and men (Farré and Vella 2013; Inglehart and Norris 2003).”
The Effect of Grandparental Support on Mothers’ Labour Market Participation: An Instrumental Variable Approach (2014, unknown): “Indeed, Farré and Vella (2012) find that women’s attitudes significantly affect her children’s views towards working women and that this cultural transmission influences female labor market decisions.”
On Norms and Agency: Conversations about Gender Equality with Women and Men in 20 Countries (2013, background): “For thoughtful discussions, see Farré (2011), Quisumbing (1994), Inglehart and Norris (2003), Bisin and Verdier (2001), and Farré and Vella (2007).”
Children and the Remaining Gender Gaps in the Labor Market (2020, unknown): “A few papers provide evidence of the cultural diffusion of gender norms through migration using large-scale migration flows within Germany and the former USSR.”
Push or Pull? Drivers of Female Labor Force Participation During India's Economic Boom (2012, background): “…labor market flexibility and diverse forms of 3Attitudes of both men and women towards gender roles can be shaped by factors such as religion (Lehrer, 1995; Amin and Alam, 2008), education, mass communication, and attitudes and behaviour of previous generations (e.g., Farré and Vella, 2007).”
Gender Inequality and Economic Development: Fertility, Education and Norms (2017, unknown): “Related, Farre and Vella (2013) show that men whose mothers had more modern gender role attitudes are themselves more more likely to have modern attitudes and have wives with modern attitudes.”
Saying and Doing Gender: Intergenerational Transmission of Attitudes towards the Sexual Division of Labour (2016, background): “This problem largely stems from data limitations, which have often led researchers to draw on adult samples to address socialization processes expected to take place during childhood (e.g. Farré and Vella 2013; Fernandez and Fogli 2009).”
The Math Gender Gap: The Role of Culture (2014, background): “…academic achievement with respect to boys yield support for policies that alter the beliefs about gender roles early in life--see for example work on the transmission of preferences from mothers to daughters and sons (Blau et al. 2013; Farré and Vella 2013; Fernández, Fogli, and Olivetti 2004).”