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• I study the causal effect of education on traditional gender-role attitudes. • Traditional gender-role attitudes are correlated with several socio-economic outcomes. • I use compulsory schooling laws in Europe as an instrument for education. • Individuals with highly educated parents are not affected by these reforms. • Education reduces the probability of agreeing with the traditional role of women. Many studies report a strong correlation between gender role attitudes and the economy. Determining which factors are affecting them is crucial to avoid negative consequences. This paper identifies the causal relationship between education and traditional gender role attitudes. I use data from the European Social Survey for 14 European countries, along with a quasi-experimental approach that exploits exogenous variation in compulsory schooling across countries and year of birth. I find that for women from a poor family background, education reduces the probability of agreeing with traditional gender norms in more than 11 percentage points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]