Let the Girls Learn! It is not Only about Math It's about Gender Social Norms

Arbeitspapier

Using PISA test scores from 11,527 second-generation immigrants coming from 35 different countries of ancestry and living in 9 host countries, we find that the positive effects of country-of-ancestry gender social norms on girls' math test scores relative to those of boys: (1) expand to other subjects (namely reading and science); (2) are shaped by beliefs on women's political empowerment and economic opportunity; and (3) are driven by parents' influencing their children's (especially their girls') preferences. Our evidence further suggest that these findings are driven by cognitive skills, suggesting that social gender norms affect parent's expectations on girls' academic knowledge relative to that of boys, but not on other attributes for success--such as non-cognitive skills. Taken together, our results highlight the relevance of general (as opposed to math-specific) gender stereotypes on the math gender gap, and suggest that parents' gender social norms shape youth's test scores by transmitting preferences for cognitive skills.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 10625

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Analysis of Education ; Education and Inequality ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: gender gap in math ; reading and science ; immigrants ; beliefs and preferences ; cognitive and non-cognitive skills ; culture and institutions

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Nollenberger, Natalia ; Rodríguez-Planas, Núria
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/161248
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET