Unlearning Traditionalism: The Long-Run Effects of Schools on Gender Attitudes

Abstract Can sustained exposure to females persistently modernise gender attitudes? I study the impact of female peers on gender roles, perceived relative gender ability and gender-related behaviours up to nine years later. For this, I exploit two-decade longitudinal information on cognition, attitudes, aspirations and expectations of a close-to-nationally-representative cohort of Vietnamese primary schoolers exogenously allocated to peers. I find that being in classes with a higher share of females weakens traditional gender views both for males and females, which I complement with suggestive evidence that this translates into actual behaviour. These results indicate that early exposure to females can shift slow-moving attitudes even in contexts of high overall cross-gender interactions.