Natalie Irmert

This paper investigates whether cultural gender norms about occupations, defi ned as a
society’s perception of what is appropriate work for men and women, contribute to persis-
tent gender-stereotypical occupational choice. Using large-scale international survey data
and high-quality administrative records, I study whether second-generation immigrant men
(women) are less likely to work in an occupation that is perceived as female (male)-typical
work in their country of ancestry. I fi nd robust evidence that men, but not women, adhere
to occupation-specifi c cultural gender norms: men are less likely to work in an occupation
that is perceived as female work in their country of ancestry, while there is no such eff ect
for women. To investigate mechanisms behind this result, I design an international survey
experiment. The results corroborate the gender asymmetry found in the observational data
and reveal a social perception penalty for men in heavily female-dominated occupations,
but no comparable consistent penalty for women in male-dominated fi elds. Taken together,
the fi ndings of this paper suggest that persistent social norms are a key factor behind the
slow integration of men into female-dominated occupations.