Cultural Devaluation within Occupations: Demand- and Supply-Side Analysis in Japan

Much existing research on job devaluation infers the role of cultural beliefs using the proportion of women in an occupation as a proxy. This study, rather than relying on the percentage of female workers, directly measures cultural feminine meanings using Japanese job advertisements analyzed through natural language processing. It empirically tests the devaluation mechanism and extends devaluation theory to the job level. Study 1 applies word embedding-based text analysis to identify culturally feminine meanings in job ads. Results show that postings semantically aligned with femininity, such as those using language semantically close to stereotypically feminine traits or family-oriented work-life balance benefits, are associated with lower wages, even after controlling for occupation. This implies devaluation’s operation at the job level. Study 2 consists of a factorial survey experiment targeting the labor supply side. Findings reveal that workers do not perceive jobs containing feminine cultural meanings as deserving of higher pay, even after controlling for occupation. The consistent perceptions across both labor market sides indicate that shared cultural beliefs legitimize lower wages for work culturally coded as feminine, thus empirically capturing the central mechanism of devaluation theory.