GEP Seminar: Heather Sarsons (University of British Columbia)

Title: Measuring Gender Attitudes toward Men and Women (with Josh Dean, Christine Exley, and Muriel Niederle)

 Abstract:   A large literature uses opinion surveys to document a positive correlation between gender attitudes and gender inequality. These surveys typically measure attitudes toward women in traditional roles. Within a couple, the norms that men face may also matter when deciding how to split childcare, housework, and earning responsibilities. This paper uses standard survey measures of gender attitudes and adjusts them to elicit beliefs about men's roles in the household and labor market. We find that standard measures of gender attitudes do not adequately capture individuals' gender attitudes and overstates the number of respondents with traditional views. In addition, we find that respondents have less progressive views about men than about women. We construct measures of attitudes facing both men and women and correlate them with respondents' labor market and marriage decisions, as well as county-level labor force participation and voting patterns. 

This is an online event

Host:  Martina Uccioli