Technological adoption and women’s rights: Evidence from Switzerland

Gender equality and economic growth have historically tended to move together yet identifying causal effects has been difficult. This paper uses data on the support for female suffrage in Switzerland in order to explore the impact of technological adoption on gender norms. We argue that the early adoption of electricity was conducive to local economic development, which in turn led to more egalitarian gender norms. We use data on the Swiss 1959 referendum to decide whether or not to give voting rights to women, arguing that voting shares at the municipality level capture men’s attitudes towards gender equality. The potential for economic growth is measured by electricity adoption at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries, a local phenomenon in the absence of a national grid. To identify causality, we exploit exogenous variation in the potential to produce electricity, a strategy possible because electricity was produced from waterpower. This allows us to explore the impact of early electrification on outcomes such as female employment and sectoral structure to identify the mechanisms through with technology may affect gender attitudes.