Working Paper: NBER ID: w24351
Authors: Gordon Dahl; Andreas Kotsadam; Danolof Rooth
Abstract: We examine whether exposure of men to women in a traditionally male-dominated environment can change attitudes about mixed-gender productivity, gender roles and gender identity. Our context is the military in Norway, where we randomly assigned female recruits to some squads but not others during boot camp. We find that living and working with women for 8 weeks causes men to have more egalitarian attitudes. There is a 14 percentage point higher fraction of men who think mixed-gender teams perform as well or better than same-gender teams, an 8 percentage point increase in men who think household work should be shared equally and a 14 percentage point increase in men who do not completely disavow feminine traits. Moreover, men exposed to mixed-gender teams are more likely to choose military occupations immediately after boot camp which have a higher fraction of females in them. But these effects do not persist once treatment stops. Treated men’s attitudes converge to those of the controls in a 6-month follow up survey and there is no long-term effect on choosing fields of study, occupations or workplaces with a higher fraction of women in them after military service ends. Contrary to the predictions of many policymakers, we do not find that integrating women into squads hurt male recruits’ performance or satisfaction with service, either during boot camp or their subsequent military assignment. These findings provide evidence that even in a highly gender-skewed environment, gender stereotypes are malleable and can be altered by integrating members of the opposite sex. But they also suggest that without continuing intensive exposure, effects are unlikely to persist.
Keywords: gender attitudes; integration; military; occupational segregation
JEL Codes: J16; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| exposure to women in squads (J16) | more egalitarian attitudes (P39) |
| exposure to women in squads (J16) | belief that mixed-gender teams perform as well or better than same-gender teams (C92) |
| exposure to women in squads (J16) | belief that household work should be shared equally (D13) |
| exposure to women in squads (J16) | acceptance of feminine traits (B54) |
| more egalitarian attitudes (P39) | reduced gap in mean attitudes between men and women (I24) |
| integration of women (J16) | no negative effect on male recruits' performance or satisfaction (Z22) |