Title

The Origin and Persistence of Black-White Differences in Women’s Labor Force Participation

Author(s)

Leah Platt Boustan Leah Boustan (UCLA)

William J. Collins William Collins (Vanderbilt University)

Abstract

Black women were more likely than white women to participate in the labor force from 1870 until at least 1980 and to hold jobs in agriculture or manufacturing. Differences in observables cannot account for most of this racial gap in labor force participation for the 100 years after Emancipation. The unexplained racial gap may be due to racial differences in stigma associated with women’s work, which Goldin (1977) suggested could be traced to cultural norms rooted in slavery. In both nineteenth and twentieth century data, we find evidence of inter-generation transmission of labor force participation from mother to daughter, which is consistent with the role of cultural norms.

Creation Date

2013-05

Section URL ID

Paper Number

2013-6

URL

https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/lboustan/files/research22_women_lfp.pdf

File Function

Jel

J22, N11, N12

Keyword(s)

Labor, Racial Gap in Labor, Female Labor

Suppress

false

Series

13