Does Rosie Like Riveting? Male and Female Occupational Choices

This paper explores the possibility that women and men have different tastes for the content of the work they do. It runs regressions of job satisfaction on the share of males in an occupation. Overall, there is a strong negative relationship between female satisfaction and the share of males. This relationship is stable across different specifications and contexts, and the magnitude of the association is not attenuated by personal characteristics or other occupation averages. These results suggest that women may care more about job content, and this is a possible factor preventing them from entering some male dominated professions. This study continues to find a strong negative relationship between female satisfaction and the occupation level share of males in a separate analysis that includes share of males in the firm. This suggests that it is not just picking up differences in the work environment, although these seem to play an independent and important role as well. [Working Paper 22495]