Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms

This paper examines the impact of economic fluctuations on social norms, specifically exploring the link between changes in unemployment and shifts in attitudes toward gender roles in the labor market. The results are not immediately obvious, as the literature suggests several potential mechanisms w...

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Autores principales: Berniell, María Inés, Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos, Marchionni, Mariana, Viollaz, Mariana
Formato: Articulo Documento de trabajo
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 2025
Materias:
Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
Acceso en línea:http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/177387
Aporte de:
SEDICI (UNLP) de Universidad Nacional de La Plata
id I19-R120-10915-177387
record_format dspace
spelling I19-R120-10915-1773872025-03-14T20:11:30Z http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/177387 Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms Berniell, María Inés Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos Marchionni, Mariana Viollaz, Mariana 2025-03 2025-03-14T13:54:47Z en Ciencias Económicas gender values social norms attitudes unemployment gender This paper examines the impact of economic fluctuations on social norms, specifically exploring the link between changes in unemployment and shifts in attitudes toward gender roles in the labor market. The results are not immediately obvious, as the literature suggests several potential mechanisms with conflicting outcomes. Using microdata from the World Values Survey for a panel of 103 countries that cover close to 90% of the world population, we estimate individual-level probability models of agreement with traditional gender roles over the period 1995 to 2021, including country and year fixed effects. We find that an increase in unemployment is associated to more conservative views about gender roles in the labor market. This result is remarkably robust across different groups and specifications. We also find that some contextual factors matter. In particular, the link between higher unemployment and more conservative views on gender roles is stronger in countries with, on average, higher gender inequality and lower female labor force participation. Overall, this study contributes to a growing body of research on the complex relationship between economic conditions, gender norms, and social change. Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales Articulo Documento de trabajo http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) application/pdf
institution Universidad Nacional de La Plata
institution_str I-19
repository_str R-120
collection SEDICI (UNLP)
language Inglés
topic Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
spellingShingle Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
Berniell, María Inés
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
topic_facet Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
description This paper examines the impact of economic fluctuations on social norms, specifically exploring the link between changes in unemployment and shifts in attitudes toward gender roles in the labor market. The results are not immediately obvious, as the literature suggests several potential mechanisms with conflicting outcomes. Using microdata from the World Values Survey for a panel of 103 countries that cover close to 90% of the world population, we estimate individual-level probability models of agreement with traditional gender roles over the period 1995 to 2021, including country and year fixed effects. We find that an increase in unemployment is associated to more conservative views about gender roles in the labor market. This result is remarkably robust across different groups and specifications. We also find that some contextual factors matter. In particular, the link between higher unemployment and more conservative views on gender roles is stronger in countries with, on average, higher gender inequality and lower female labor force participation. Overall, this study contributes to a growing body of research on the complex relationship between economic conditions, gender norms, and social change.
format Articulo
Documento de trabajo
author Berniell, María Inés
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
author_facet Berniell, María Inés
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
author_sort Berniell, María Inés
title Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title_short Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title_full Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title_fullStr Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title_full_unstemmed Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title_sort hard times, hard attitudes? the effect of economic downturns on gender norms
publishDate 2025
url http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/177387
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