Full Citation
Title: Language and Gender Roles among Immigrants to the US: A Historical Perspective
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: Purpose: Our paper investigates whether historical trends in the labor market participation of immigrant women in the U.S. can be explained in part by variation in the grammatical structure of their language spoken. Design/Methodology/Approach: We investigate the labor market behavior of first generation immigrants to the U.S. from 1910 to the present. Using individual-level census data, we show that the presence or absence of grammatical gender in the linguistic structure of a language spoken by an immigrant influences sex-specific behaviors. We further analyze the stability of relationship throughout the course of 20th and 21st century. Originality/Value: The originality of our approach is to consider language as a repository for accumulated ancestral culture. By studying an entire century, we are able to investigate whether the association between language and gender roles persists or evolves over time. Because female labor force participation for both native and immigrant populations has greatly increased, institutions have transformed, and motivations and compositions of immigrant flows have changed, studying a long time horizon allows us to more clearly isolate the role of linguistic structure as a cultural mechanism. Practical Implications: Our findings can help explain important patterns in female labor force participation among immigrant populations, groups for which large gender gaps persist even today. These results have direct policy ramifications as programs designed to promote female labor force participation could be more appropriately designed and targeted by recognizing the existence of stronger gender norms among certain subsets of speakers.
Url: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/H/Daniel.Hicks-1/US_Hist_Lang.pdf
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Hicks, Daniel L; Gay, Victor; Santactreu-Vasut, Estefania
Publisher: University of Chicago, University of Oklahoma, ESSEC Business School and THEMA
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Gender, Migration and Immigration, Other
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