Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Gender-Biased Technological Change: Milking Machines and the Exodus of Woman From Farming
Author-Name: Philipp Ager
Author-Email: philipp.ager@uni-mannheim.de
Author-Name: Marc Goni
Author-Email: marc.goni@uib.no
Author-Name: Kjell G. Salvanes
Author-Email: kjell.salvanes@nhh.no

Classification-JEL:  J16, J24, J43, J61, N34, O14, O33
Keywords: Technological change, rural-to-urban migration, gender effects

Abstract: This paper studies how gender-biased technological change in agriculture affected
women’s work in 20th-century Norway. After WWII, dairy farms began widely adopting milking machines 
to replace the hand milking of cows, a task typically performed
by young women. We show that the adoption of milking machines pushed young rural
women out of farming in dairy-intensive municipalities. The displaced women moved
to cities where they acquired more education and found better-paid employment. Our
results suggest that the adoption of milking machines broke up allocative inefficiencies
across sectors, which improved the economic status of women relative to men.

Note: 
Length: 66
Creation-Date: 2024-04
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp535
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2024_535