Sociology 699F: Gender & Social Change

Goldin and Katz, 2002

Women's professional education <- marriage delay <- pill availability

Model

• DVs: change in marriage age; professional education "investments"
• increase in age at marriage
• increase in professional school admissions
• increase in sexual behavior
• IV: pill availability
• l960: FDA approves pill
• contraceptive use among younger women takes off in late 1940s g cohort (Figures 1 & 2)
• but not widely available until late 1960s because of changes in state laws
• uses this state variation to test effects of pill
• not endogenous because legal changes motivated by non-gender concerns
• state laws do affect pill use: table 3
• Mechanisms:
• Pill reduces the cost of marriage delay (p747). Why?
• Pill also creates a thicker marriage market for delayers
• Social multiplier effect [an economist trying to think like a sociologist]
• Design:
• college graduate women only. Why?
• state effects estimated without random coefficient model

Results:

• Career decisions of college women changed abruptly around 1970 (Figure 4)
• Age at first sex declines after the pill (Figure 6)
• Age at marriage increases with access to pill (Table 4)
• Share of college women who are lawyers doctors increases with access to pill (Table 5)
• Access (law) results more important than use because of endogeneity of use. (Maybe more women using the pill because they are seeking professional careers).

Implications:

• Importance of sexual behavior for gender outcomes.
• methods: use of exogenous variation in legal changes to investigate effects.