Misperceived Social Norms: Women Working Outside the Home in Saudi Arabia

We show that the vast majority of young married men in Saudi Arabia privately support women working outside the home (WWOH) and substantially underestimate support by other similar men. Correcting these beliefs increases men’s (costly) willingness to help their wives search for jobs. Months later, w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American economic review 2020-10, Vol.110 (10), p.2997-3029
Main Authors: Bursztyn, Leonardo, González, Alessandra L., Yanagizawa-Drott, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beliefs, opinions and attitudes
Demographic aspects
Employment
Forecasts and trends
Influence
Married men
Selectivity (Psychology)
Social norms
Working women
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Summary:We show that the vast majority of young married men in Saudi Arabia privately support women working outside the home (WWOH) and substantially underestimate support by other similar men. Correcting these beliefs increases men’s (costly) willingness to help their wives search for jobs. Months later, wives of men whose beliefs were corrected are more likely to have applied and interviewed for a job outside the home. In a recruitment experiment with a local company, randomly informing women about actual support for WWOH leads them to switch from an at-home temporary enumerator job to a higher-paying, outside-the-home version of the job.
ISSN:0002-8282
1944-7981
DOI:10.1257/aer.20180975