few sociological and qualitative studies however have shed light on the relevance of gender norms in driving migration decisions diner is one of the first attempts to include discriminatory social norms into the possible explanations of womens international migration studying the irish diaspora to the united states in the late nineteenth century she finds that most of the migrants were women in search for better opportunities since the famine of those years made impossible for families to give dowry to each daughter marriage was only possible for one daughter