Preference formation and the rise of women's labor force participation
Subtitle: Evidence from WWII
By: Raquel Fernandez, Alessandra Fogli, Claudia Olivetti.
Contributors: Fogli, Alessandra.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10589; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10589.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Women -- Employment -- United States; Labor supply -- United States; Armed Forces -- Mobilization; World War, 1939-1945 -- Economic aspects -- United States
Description: "This paper presents intergenerational evidence in favor of the hypothesis that a significant factor explaining the increase in female labor force participation over time was the growing presence of men who grew up with a different family model--one in which their mother worked.  We use differences in mobilization rates of men across states during WWII as a source of exogenous variation in female labor supply.  We show, in particular, that higher WWII male mobilization rates led to a higher fraction of women working not only for the generation directly affected by the war, but also for the next generation.  These women were young enough to profit from the changed composition in the pool of men (i.e., from the fact that WWII created more men with mothers who worked).  We also show that states in which the ratio of the average fertility of working relative to non-working women is greatest, have higher female labor supply twenty years later"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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