Gender Wage Gap, Gender Norms, and Long-Term Care: A Theoretical Framework

ABSTRACT Population aging in developed and developing economies has led to increasing number of older persons in need of care, posing a challenge to the social arrangements of care and creating important aggregate economic implications. This article proposes a simple theoretical framework to evaluate the interplay of gender norms and the gender wage gap, as well as specific characteristics of the paid care market such as occupational segregation and market power rents. By incorporating a degree of substitutability between women’s and men’s care work, the model shows how declines in the gender wage gap have small effects on the division of long-term care work in the presence of persistent gender norms. The study also shows that market power dynamics, in conjunction with gender norms, perpetuate reliance on women’s provision of unpaid care. The model has important implications for policies promoting gender-egalitarian household division of labor and affordable access to quality long-term care. HIGHLIGHTS The market logic of the paid care service sector must be analyzed in conjunction with gender norms. A declining gender wage gap does not translate to more equal sharing of long-term care work due to persistent traditional gender norms. Social norms shape the response of the distribution of care work to changes in market prices and perpetuate reliance on women’s unpaid care. Gender-aware policies should encourage egalitarian social norms to reduce women’s unpaid care burden.