The Times Have Changed: Tracking the Evolution of Gender Norms Over Time

43 Pages Posted: 11 Oct 2022 Last revised: 21 Jan 2025

See all articles by Andreas Kuhn

Andreas Kuhn

Swiss Federal Institute of Vocational Education and Research

Abstract

Data on job advertisements from 1950 up to 2020 reveal that there was a significant change among Swiss employers' stated preferences regarding their prospective employees' gender. More specifically, the proportion of gender-neutral job posts increased from 5 to almost 95 percent within the observation period. To further corroborate and contextualize this finding, I complement it with time series on the relative frequency of several specific queries, such as equality between men and women, from Google's German language book corpus. These additional series are broadly consistent with the evolution of the share of gender-neutral job posts. However, it also appears that there are two distinct narratives, one concerned with the personal sphere, identity and intimate relationships, the other with the political and public realm. Interestingly, the narrative on personal relations set off considerably earlier than the change in the proportion of gender-neutral job ads. Overall, the evidence from the different data series shows that gender norms have changed substantively, yet in a complex manner, over the past decades.

Keywords: gender norms, gender equality, job advertisements, narratives, social norms, cultural change, Google books

JEL Classification: D91, J16

Suggested Citation

Kuhn, Andreas, The Times Have Changed: Tracking the Evolution of Gender Norms Over Time. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15621, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4244416

Andreas Kuhn (Contact Author)

Swiss Federal Institute of Vocational Education and Research ( email )

Kirchlindachstrasse 79
Zollikofen, 3052
Switzerland

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
126
Abstract Views
623
Rank
460,328
PlumX Metrics