2024
Working Paper
HBS Working Paper Series

A Gender Backlash: Does Exposure to Female Labor Market Participation Fuel Gender Conservatism?

By: Paula Rettl, Diane Bolet, Catherine E. De Vries, Simone Cremaschi, Tarik Abou-Chadi and Sergi Pardos-Prado

| Pages:65

Abstract

The growing participation of women in the labor market has marked a significant societal transformation, coinciding with the rise of gender conservatism and far-right support. We study whether the economic consequences of labor market feminization and gender backlash are causally connected beyond other well-known factors, such as cultural change. Using Swiss panel data and a novel shift-share instrument measuring men’s exposure to changes in the gender composition of the labor force across industries (labor market feminization), we make two contributions. First, labor market feminization negatively affects men’s income and employment prospects, making men more conservative in their gender attitudes. Second, while labor market feminization affects gender attitudes within the private sphere, in a context of low politicization of gender by political elites, it does not influence broader political outcomes like policy preferences or far-right voting. These findings reveal the sequence and mechanisms behind the distributional consequences of labor market feminization.

Keywords

Gender Bias; Gender Equality; Gender Inclusivity; Politics; Political Backlash; Political Culture; Conservatism; Gender; Government and Politics; Equality and Inequality; Prejudice and Bias; Labor

Citation

Rettl, Paula, Diane Bolet, Catherine E. De Vries, Simone Cremaschi, Tarik Abou-Chadi, and Sergi Pardos-Prado. "A Gender Backlash: Does Exposure to Female Labor Market Participation Fuel Gender Conservatism?" Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-022, November 2024.