Gender in the Labor Market

This thesis examines the link between gender norms, parenthood, and labor market seg-regation. It does so by focusing on three different aspects of gender equality: the role of parental leave policies in reducing gender gaps, men’s and women’s ability to adjust to labor market shocks, and role models’ influence on labor market choices. The thesis consists of four independent chapters that are placed at the intersection of labor and gender economics. The first chapter presents a survey of a large and active literature on the causal studies of parental leave. The three following chapters employ causal frame-works to Danish register data to document and explain gender gaps in labor market outcomes. Each chapter uses the tool of applied micro-econometrics that has become central in the field of economics. Combined, these different angles shed new light on how parenthood, labor market shocks, and gender segregation contribute to gender inequal-ity. Specifically, the thesis contributes by bringing in gender norms as a mechanism for the persistent gender gaps following parenthood and in labor market segregation.