Women and Work: What Role Do Social Norms Play?

Against the background of the current economic research which concen-trates particularly on individual and structural factors, this paper examines if and to what extent social norms (in terms of attitudes towards gender roles and work commitment) can make a complementary statement in ex-plaining women’s employment status. The impact is presumed to be en-hanced through norms shared by people belonging to the same households, peer groups, and by residents of the same region. The analysis relies on a rich German dataset and employs a zero inflated negative binomial model. The results highlight the importance of ‘relevant others ’ in explaining women’s employment status