Abstract/Description

Women engage in work stereotypically seen as "women's work," or work based on the perceived "natural" female tendency towards caring and relational thinking (Tung 2000). In pre-reform China, Shu (2005) found that women were more concentrated in the lowerpaying collective sector compared to men in the state-owned sector, contributing to the gender wage gap. China's horizontal occupational segregation by gender has significant implications for gender pay gaps, workforce attachment, and the perceived value of caring labor in society. Feminist scholars argue that gendered norms around caring originate that conflate womanhood with nurturing (England 2005; Litt & Zimmerman 2003). The main barrier preventing men from entering female-dominated jobs: exposure to gender stereotypes from an early age (Fagan & Norman 2013). To reveal the complexity of why women choose caring professions, this article investigates social norms as one of the explanations behind the job segregation. China is a great case study that explores the determinants of women's career decisions. Thus, to figure out the mechanism behind this condition, we use the panel data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Our paper is concerned with the impact of unfriendly or discriminatory treatment because of traditional social norms on women’s career decisions. Women adhering to traditional gender- or mother-role ideology will be expected to engage in jobs that conform to stereotyped characteristics. Based on the idea of identity in economics (Akerlof and Kranton 2000), we apply the theory of identity and propose an economic model to describe individual decisionmaking processes related to social context. Women who decided to go against the caring nature, deviating from the social norm, will have an identity loss. However, previous studies were based on sociology and feminist theory, which lack empirical work with clear causal identification. Our work supplements how social norms influence women’s career decisions regarding caring labor using instrumental variables, the communication paths. Societal expectations about appropriate work for men and women get reinforced through numerous channels, including media representations. Using instrumental variable regression increases our confidence that our findings are not artifacts of problems with confounding and measurement error. We show that social norms affect women choosing 36 whether to do caring work. The aim of this paper is to examine the complex role that social norms and gender attitudes play in driving horizontal segregation into caring professions. It explores how norms get established and reinforced through socialization processes. The influence of evolving norms is analyzed across media. Insights are provided into promising policy approaches that can update obsolete norms and promote greater integration of caring labor across genders. Reducing occupational segregation is crucial for achieving gender equality, improving job quality in caring occupations, and meeting intensifying care needs. Our work sheds light on the powerful role of social norms in shaping segregation patterns and identifies potential levers for positive change.

Keywords

Gender Pay Gaps, China, Caring-Nature Job, Social Norms, Feminism, Gender Stereotypes

Location

MAV 2 room, Adamjee building

Session Type

Parallel Technical Session

Session Chair

Abdul Salam Lodhi, Baluchistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences

Session Discussant

Amir Jahan, Institute of Business Administration ; Sadia Mehboob, Institute of Business Administration

Start Date

9-12-2024 2:30 PM

End Date

9-12-2024 4:30 PM

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Dec 9th, 2:30 PM Dec 9th, 4:30 PM

Gender Segregation in Caring Labor: The Impact of Social Norms on Career Choices

MAV 2 room, Adamjee building

Women engage in work stereotypically seen as "women's work," or work based on the perceived "natural" female tendency towards caring and relational thinking (Tung 2000). In pre-reform China, Shu (2005) found that women were more concentrated in the lowerpaying collective sector compared to men in the state-owned sector, contributing to the gender wage gap. China's horizontal occupational segregation by gender has significant implications for gender pay gaps, workforce attachment, and the perceived value of caring labor in society. Feminist scholars argue that gendered norms around caring originate that conflate womanhood with nurturing (England 2005; Litt & Zimmerman 2003). The main barrier preventing men from entering female-dominated jobs: exposure to gender stereotypes from an early age (Fagan & Norman 2013). To reveal the complexity of why women choose caring professions, this article investigates social norms as one of the explanations behind the job segregation. China is a great case study that explores the determinants of women's career decisions. Thus, to figure out the mechanism behind this condition, we use the panel data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Our paper is concerned with the impact of unfriendly or discriminatory treatment because of traditional social norms on women’s career decisions. Women adhering to traditional gender- or mother-role ideology will be expected to engage in jobs that conform to stereotyped characteristics. Based on the idea of identity in economics (Akerlof and Kranton 2000), we apply the theory of identity and propose an economic model to describe individual decisionmaking processes related to social context. Women who decided to go against the caring nature, deviating from the social norm, will have an identity loss. However, previous studies were based on sociology and feminist theory, which lack empirical work with clear causal identification. Our work supplements how social norms influence women’s career decisions regarding caring labor using instrumental variables, the communication paths. Societal expectations about appropriate work for men and women get reinforced through numerous channels, including media representations. Using instrumental variable regression increases our confidence that our findings are not artifacts of problems with confounding and measurement error. We show that social norms affect women choosing 36 whether to do caring work. The aim of this paper is to examine the complex role that social norms and gender attitudes play in driving horizontal segregation into caring professions. It explores how norms get established and reinforced through socialization processes. The influence of evolving norms is analyzed across media. Insights are provided into promising policy approaches that can update obsolete norms and promote greater integration of caring labor across genders. Reducing occupational segregation is crucial for achieving gender equality, improving job quality in caring occupations, and meeting intensifying care needs. Our work sheds light on the powerful role of social norms in shaping segregation patterns and identifies potential levers for positive change.