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

Autores
Berniell, María Inés; Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos; Marchionni, Mariana; Viollaz, Mariana
Año de publicación
2025
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
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
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/177387

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network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender NormsBerniell, María InésGasparini, Leonardo CarlosMarchionni, MarianaViollaz, MarianaCiencias Económicasgender valuessocial normsattitudesunemploymentgenderThis 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 Sociales2025-03info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/177387enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:47:58Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/177387Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:47:58.32SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
title Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
spellingShingle Hard Times, Hard Attitudes? The Effect of Economic Downturns on Gender Norms
Berniell, María Inés
Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
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
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Berniell, María Inés
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
author Berniell, María Inés
author_facet Berniell, María Inés
Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
author_role author
author2 Gasparini, Leonardo Carlos
Marchionni, Mariana
Viollaz, Mariana
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
topic Ciencias Económicas
gender values
social norms
attitudes
unemployment
gender
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv 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
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.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025-03
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info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
Documento de trabajo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042
info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajo
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dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/177387
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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