Gender occupational segregation: the role of parents

Gender occupational segregation is one of the most stable phenomena of the labor market. In this study we employ PSID dataset to test whether the fact that women have different professions than men can be, at least partially, explained by their parents occupational history. We find that fathers profession, both first one and the one observed by the son correlate positively with gender intensity of son's occupation. Mother's first occupation is associated with daughter's, but the one that it is performed by mother during daughter's growing up is insignificant. While father's profession is negatively correlated with gender intensity of daughter's profession, mother's occupation does not matter for son's career.