Of housewives and feminists: Gender norms and intra-household division of labour

To investigate the role of gender norms in household specialisation choices, I conduct a lab experiment with real hetero-sexual couples playing battle sexes game. The salience varies across treatments: Norm group chooses between strategies labelled as family game (Career vs. Family), Neutral A B. Women respond strongly to Norms; they opt for Career at significantly lower rate compared Neutral, regardless familiarity their partner. By contrast, men’s response is weak and heterogeneous partner stranger pairings. Additional analyses suggest that pattern not explained by differential beliefs, but consistent marriage market motives some men who may want signal progressive attitudes