Persistence of Occupational Segregation: the Role of the Intergenerational Transmission of Preferences

This article provides an explanation of the evolution and persistence of the women's segregation in jobs with less on-the-job training opportunities within the framework of an overlapping generations model with intergenerational transmission of preferences. 'Job-priority' and 'family-priority' preferences are considered. Firms' policy and the distribution of women's preferences are endogenously and simultaneously determined in the long run. The results show though the gender gap in training will diminish, it will also persist over time. This is because both types of women's preferences coexist at the steady state due to the socialisation effort of parents to preserve their own cultural values. Copyright 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2007.