Demographic shocks tied to World War I’s high death toll induced many women to enter the labor force in the immediate postwar period. I document
a positive impact of these newly employed women on the labor force participation of subsequent generations of women until today. I also find
that the war permanently altered attitudes toward the role of women in the labor force. I decompose this impact into three channels of intergenerational
transmission: transmission from mothers to daughters, transmission from mothers-in-law to daughters-in-law via their sons, and transmission through
local social interactions.