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Women Leaving the Playpen: the Emancipating Role of Female Suffrage

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  • Michaela Slotwinski
  • Alois Stutzer

Abstract

We study how political empowerment affected women’s emancipation as reflected in their life choices. The staggered introduction of female suffrage in Swiss states allows us to exploit the variation in the age at which women were exposed to the right to vote to estimate the differences in life choices between women who were socialised in a world with politically empowered women and those who were socialised before. Our empirical findings document that early exposure to female suffrage increased female labour force participation, weakened marital bonds and motivated human capital investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaela Slotwinski & Alois Stutzer, 2023. "Women Leaving the Playpen: the Emancipating Role of Female Suffrage," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(650), pages 812-844.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:133:y:2023:i:650:p:812-844.
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    Cited by:

    1. Getik, Demid & Meier, Armando N., 2021. "Early Socialization and the Gender Wage Gap," Working Papers 2021:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Stutzer, Alois & Baltensperger, Michael & Meier, Armando N., 2018. "Overstrained Citizens?," Working papers 2018/25, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    3. Stutzer, Alois & Baltensperger, Michael & Meier, Armando N., 2019. "Overstrained citizens? The number of ballot propositions and the quality of the decision process in direct democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 483-500.
    4. Roth, Anja, 2019. "How the provision of childcare affects attitudes towards maternal employment," Working papers 2019/22, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    5. Alois Stutzer & Michaela Slotwinski, 2021. "Power sharing at the local level: evidence on opting-in for non-citizen voting rights," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 1-30, March.
    6. Kainuma, Shuhei, 2024. "Transition to broader-based politics: The role of suffrage extension in early 20th century Japan," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Anja Roth, 2020. "How the provision of childcare affects attitudes towards maternal employment," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 156(1), pages 1-30, December.
    8. Hansen, Kerstin F. & Stutzer, Alois, 2021. "Experiencing Booms and Busts in the Welfare State and Support for Redistribution," IZA Discussion Papers 14327, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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