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The Origin and Persistence of Black-White Differences in Women's Labor Force Participation

In: Human Capital in History: The American Record

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  • Leah Platt Boustan
  • William J. Collins

Abstract

Black women were more likely than white women to participate in the labor force from 1870 until at least 1980 and to hold jobs in agriculture or manufacturing. Differences in observables cannot account for most of this racial gap in labor force participation for the 100 years after Emancipation. The unexplained racial gap may be due to racial differences in stigma associated with women's work, which Goldin (1977) suggested could be traced to cultural norms rooted in slavery. In both nineteenth and twentieth century data, we find evidence of inter-generation transmission of labor force participation from mother to daughter, which is consistent with the role of cultural norms.
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  • Leah Platt Boustan & William J. Collins, 2014. "The Origin and Persistence of Black-White Differences in Women's Labor Force Participation," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital in History: The American Record, pages 205-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12902
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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Jiaqi, 2021. "Racial Difference in Child Penalty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1382, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Chabé-Ferret, Bastien, 2019. "Adherence to cultural norms and economic incentives: Evidence from fertility timing decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 24-48.
    3. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The legacies of slavery in and out of Africa," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Zachary Parolin, 2018. "Race, Social Assistance & the Risk of Child Poverty across the 50 United States," Working Papers 1804, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    5. Claudia Olivetti & Eleonora Patacchini & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Mothers, Peers, and Gender-Role Identity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 266-301.
    6. Bertocchi, Graziella & Dimico, Arcangelo, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," GLO Discussion Paper Series 564, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Janet L. Yellen, 2017. "So We All Can Succeed: 125 Years of Women's Participation in the Economy : a speech at \"125 Years of Women at Brown Conference,\" sponsored by Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Ma," Speech 952, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    8. Catherine G. Massey, 2016. "Playing with Matches: An Assessment of Accuracy in Linked Historical Data," CARRA Working Papers 2016-05, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    9. Zhongda Li & Lu Liu, 2019. "Preference or endowment? Intergenerational transmission of women’s work behavior and the underlying mechanisms," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1401-1435, October.
    10. Graziella Bertocchi & Arcangelo Dimico, 2020. "Bitter Sugar: Slavery and the Black Family," Department of Economics 0172, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    11. Graziella Bertocchi, 2016. "The Legacies of Slavery in and out of Africa," Department of Economics 0096, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    12. Ager, Philipp & Brueckner, Markus & Herz, Benedikt, 2017. "The boll weevil plague and its effect on the southern agricultural sector, 1889–1929," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 94-105.
    13. David S. Johnson & Catherine Massey & Amy O’Hara, 2015. "The Opportunities and Challenges of Using Administrative Data Linkages to Evaluate Mobility," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 247-264, January.
    14. Tomaz Cajner & Tyler Radler & David Ratner & Ivan Vidangos, 2017. "Racial Gaps in Labor Market Outcomes in the Last Four Decades and over the Business Cycle," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-071, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • N11 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • N12 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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