Gender Role Attitudes and the Labour-market Outcomes of Women across OECD Countries

This paper uses data from the World Value Surveys (1990, 1995,1999)to investigate the impact of gender role attitudes and workvalues on women's labour-market outcomes across 25 OECD countries.Anti-egalitarian views are found to display the strongest negativeassociation with female employment rates and the gender paygap. These views are, however, softening among recent cohorts.On the other hand, perceptions of women's role as homemakers,which are likely formed in youth and linked to religious ideology,are more persistent over time. They could be implicated in therecent slowdown of the gender convergence in pay. Finally, theunavoidable clash between family values and egalitarian views,that takes the form of an inner conflict for many women—theso-called ‘mother's guilt’—is another obstaclein the path towards greater gender equality in the labour market. Footnotes ¹ E-mail address: nifortin{at}interchange.ubc.ca