Abstract

This paper uses a lab experiment to investigate the role of gender norms in household specialisation choices. In a “battle of the sexes” game, the salience of gender norms varies across treatments: the Norm group chooses between strategies labelled as a family specialisation game (Career vs. Family), the Neutral group chooses A vs. B. When norms are salient, women opt for Career at a significantly lower rate, but men’s rate only increases when they play with a stranger, not with their real partner. Additional analyses suggest that some men might seek to signal progressive gender attitudes to their partner.