Gender Roles and Technological Progress / Stefania Albanesi, Claudia Olivetti.

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Albanesi, Stefania

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w13179.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: Until the early decades of the 20th century, women spent more than 60% of their prime- age years either pregnant or nursing. Since then, improved medical knowledge and obstetric practices reduced the time cost associated with women's reproductive role. The introduction of infant formula also reduced women's comparative advantage in infant care, by providing an effective breast milk substitute. Our hypothesis is that these developments enabled married women to increase their participation in the labor force, thus providing the incentive to invest in market skills, potentially narrowing gender earnings differentials. We document these changes and develop a quantitative model that aims to capture their impact. Our results suggest that progress in medical technologies related to motherhood was essential to generate the significant rise in the participation of married women between 1920 and 1960, in particular those with children. By enabling women to reconcile work and motherhood, these medical advancements laid the ground for the revolutionary change in women's economic role.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w13179 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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Previous	nber w13176 Assessment of U.S. Cap-and-Trade Proposals /	nber w13177 Interest Rate Rules, Inflation Stabilization, and Imperfect Credibility: The Small Open Economy Case /	nber w13178 Climate Change, Mortality, and Adaptation: Evidence from Annual Fluctuations in Weather in the US /	nber w13179 Gender Roles and Technological Progress /	nber w1318 The Heights of Europeans Since 1750: A New Source For European Economic History /	nber w13180 Democracy, Technology, and Growth /	nber w13181 Current and Future Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity in the United States /	Next

June 2007.

Until the early decades of the 20th century, women spent more than 60% of their prime- age years either pregnant or nursing. Since then, improved medical knowledge and obstetric practices reduced the time cost associated with women's reproductive role. The introduction of infant formula also reduced women's comparative advantage in infant care, by providing an effective breast milk substitute. Our hypothesis is that these developments enabled married women to increase their participation in the labor force, thus providing the incentive to invest in market skills, potentially narrowing gender earnings differentials. We document these changes and develop a quantitative model that aims to capture their impact. Our results suggest that progress in medical technologies related to motherhood was essential to generate the significant rise in the participation of married women between 1920 and 1960, in particular those with children. By enabling women to reconcile work and motherhood, these medical advancements laid the ground for the revolutionary change in women's economic role.