Explaining the male-female wage gap: Do gender role attitudes matter?

Abstract

Explaining the Male-Female Wage Gap: Do Gender Role Attitudes Matter? Using data from a unique survey of employees in the Czech Republic, this paper analyzes the rela tionship between gender-role attitudes and the male-female wage gap while controlling for observable characteristics such as work experience, education, family factors, and job characteristics. The analysis focuses on five factors representing gender-role attitudes that have not been systematically explored in the literature: preferred responsibility for income, preferred responsibility for household chores and child care, life priorities (career, family, others), preference for job flexibility, and prioritizing less demanding and stressful jobs over higher wages. The results demonstrate that in the Czech Republic, traditional gender-role attitudes are significantly correlated with wages and explain a significant part of the gender wage gap. To be effective, policies aiming to promote gender equality in the labor market need to take the prevailing gender norms into account.