1. Gender occupational segregation
The role of parents
Magdalena Smyk, Iga Magda
FAME| GRAPE, IBS, Warsaw School of Economics
19th June 2023
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2. Motivation
Gender occupational segregation:
common and permanent pheonomenon
contributes to explaining gender wage differences
unexplained by changes in barriers in access to occupation
Gender differences in the choice of occupation:
preferences
traits (risk aversion, competitiveness, altruism, etc.)
nature or nurture?
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3. Contribution
The role of parents:
inheritance of the profession
transmision of gender norms
Hypothesis:
Parents’ gender norms influence their children’s choices of
education and occupation.
Empirical test of intergenerational transmission of:
gender beliefs related to education (DIRECT)
gender norms related to choice of occupation (INDIRECT)
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4. Transmission of gender beliefs
Do parents’ gender beliefs related to education correlate
with children’s plans regarding choice of occupation?
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5. Transmission of gender beliefs
P(STEM = 1|Xi ) = α+β1OwnBeliefsi +β2Parents0
Beliefsi +γXi +i
Dependent variable P(STEM = 1|Xi )
Pupil plans to work in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Math) occupation
Independent variables
Pupil: ”boys are better in math than girls” (OwnBeliefsi )
Parent: ”boys are better in math than girls” (ParentsBeliefsi )
Control variables (Xi )
GPA in math, parents’ STEM occupation, math teacher gender,
race, school controls
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6. Transmission of gender beliefs
Data
What we need:
gender beliefs of students and parents
student’s occupational plans
student’s, family and school characteristics
High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (USA)
What do we expect?
own beliefs and parents’ beliefs correlate with plan to work in
STEM field at age 30:
positively - for boys
negatively - for girls
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7. Gender beliefs and STEM plans - marginal effects
reference level: ”boys and girls are equally good in math”
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8. Summary
Results:
Gender beliefs correlate with occupational plans (STEM) of
high-school pupils
Stereotypical belief of a parent is especially harmful for girls
Parent’s gender beliefs effect is stronger than own beliefs or
math GPA’s effect
Additionally:
Different pattern when considering science gender beliefs
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9. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
Do parents transmit gender norms related to choice of
occupation to their children?
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10. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
Empirical proxy of gender norms and choices:
index of dissimilarity - useless
new index showing how typical is the occupation for women:
Gender Intensity of an Occupation (GIOcc) Index
GIOcci,t =
share of womeni,t
share of woment
,
where i - narrow occupational group, t - year
computed on American Community Survey Data 1968-2017
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11. Gender Intensity of an Occupation (GIOcc) Index
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12. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
GIOcci = α + β1 Father0
s GIOcci + β2 Mother0
s GIOcci + γ Xi + i
Dependent variable (GIOcci )
Gender intensity of the occupation of an individual i
Independent variables:
Father0s GIOcc - gender intensity of i father’s occupation
Mother0s GIOcc - gender intensity of i mother’s occupation
Control variables (Xi )
gender, years of education, age in 2017, race, siblings order
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13. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
Data
What do we need?
occupation of the individual
occupations of the parents
characteristics of the individual
characteristics of the family
Panel Study of Income Dynamics 1968-2017
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14. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
What do we expect?
Correlation between GIOcc indexes of:
father and son - positive
mother and daughter - positive
father and daughter - negative
mother and son - negative
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15. Transmission of norms related to choice of occupation
Total Different Only
occupations siblings
FATHER - SON 0.05*** 0.03* 0.04*
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
MOTHER - DAUGHTER 0.01 -0.02 -0.02
(0.03) (0.03) (0.03)
FATHER - DAUGHTER -0.04*** -0.04** -0.03**
(0.03) (0.03) (0.03)
MOTHER - SON -0.02 -0.04* -0.02
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
Observations 7017 6539 6027
controls: gender, years of education, age in 2017, siblings order
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16. Summary
Robustness checks:
Parents’ occupations specifications
Placebo tests
Results:
Transmission from father to son and daughter - confirmed
Transmission from mother to son or daughter - rejected
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17. Baltic context - Polish sample (2021)
Regression on the share of women (fs) in reported occupation
(based on LFS):
Coef. Std. Err. Significance
Father’s fs son’s fs 0.14 0.06 **
Father’s fs daughter’s fs -0.09 0.08 ***
Mother’s fs son’s fs 0.01 0.06 -
Mother’s fs son’s fs 0.06 0.06 -
sample size: 638
controls: gender, education, age
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18. Conclusions
Parents play significant role for their children’s choice of
occupation in the context of gender norms
Parents’ gender beliefs correlate with children’s occupational
plans (STEM)
Father’s occupation gender intensity correlates with gender
intensity of son’s and daughter’s occupation
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19. Thank you!
Magdalena Smyk msmyk@grape.org.pl
NCN grant no. 2019/33/B/HS4/01645
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