Self-selection in occupation choice: family and gender issues

Gender occupational segregation is one of the most stable phenomena of the labor market. It is also one of the main arguments in the discussion about sources of differences in wages between women and men. Despite such an important context still little is known about why women and men tend to have different careers. In this dissertation we make attempt to explain gender occupational segregation through intergenerational transmission of gender norms from parents to children. The main hypothesis of the dissertation is \textit{parents' gender norms influence their children's choices of education and occupation}. We verify this hypothesis in empirical studies. The main hypothesis is formulated based on the foundation of the theoretical model of gender identity (Akerlof and Kranton, 2000, 2010) and it is tested on American data. We employ several data sources: American Community Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, High School Longitudinal Study and American Time Use Survey. In the first study, we find significant relationship between gender intensity of parents' and children's occupations. In the second study, we show that gender-related views of parents and children correlate strongly as well. Moreover, we find that effect of parents' gender-related beliefs on future planned occupation of the children is stronger than their educational achievements influence. Finally, we test whether additional channels, i.e. intra-household division of household duties and time spend with children and taking care of them, can interfere with the effects that we find in previous studies. In conclusion, we find that parents play an important role in children's choice of occupation, thus intergenerational transmission of gender norms explain, at least partially, gender occupational segregation persistence.