The gender gap in preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook interests

This paper uses information on the frequency of 45,397 Facebook interests to study how the difference in revealed preferences between men and women changes with a country’s degree of gender equality. For preference dimensions that are systematically biased toward the same gender across the globe, differences between men and women are larger in more gender-equal countries. In contrast, for preference dimensions with a gender bias that varies across countries, the opposite holds. The so-called gender-equality paradox is therefore limited to preferences that display the same systematic gender bias across societies.