Head count
Uncovering the Origins of the Gender Gap in Political Ambition
Richard Fox & Jennifer Lawless
American Political Science Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Based on survey responses from a national random sample of nearly 4,000 high school and college students, we uncover a dramatic gender gap in political ambition. This finding serves as striking evidence that the gap is present well before women and men enter the professions from which most candidates emerge. We then use political socialization — which we gauge through a myriad of socializing agents and early life experiences — as a lens through which to explain the individual-level differences we uncover. Our analysis reveals that parental encouragement, politicized educational and peer experiences, participation in competitive activities, and a sense of self-confidence propel young people's interest in running for office. But on each of these dimensions, women, particularly once they are in college, are at a disadvantage. By identifying when and why gender differences in interest in running for office materialize, we begin to uncover the origins of the gender gap in political ambition. Taken together, our results suggest that concerns about substantive and symbolic representation will likely persist.
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Elite male faculty in the life sciences employ fewer women
Jason Sheltzer & Joan Smith
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15 July 2014, Pages 10107–10112
Abstract:
Women make up over one-half of all doctoral recipients in biology-related fields but are vastly underrepresented at the faculty level in the life sciences. To explore the current causes of women’s underrepresentation in biology, we collected publicly accessible data from university directories and faculty websites about the composition of biology laboratories at leading academic institutions in the United States. We found that male faculty members tended to employ fewer female graduate students and postdoctoral researchers (postdocs) than female faculty members did. Furthermore, elite male faculty — those whose research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, or who had won a major career award — trained significantly fewer women than other male faculty members. In contrast, elite female faculty did not exhibit a gender bias in employment patterns. New assistant professors at the institutions that we surveyed were largely comprised of postdoctoral researchers from these prominent laboratories, and correspondingly, the laboratories that produced assistant professors had an overabundance of male postdocs. Thus, one cause of the leaky pipeline in biomedical research may be the exclusion of women, or their self-selected absence, from certain high-achieving laboratories.
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Gender Effects in Venture Capital
Paul Gompers et al.
Harvard Working Paper, May 2014
Abstract:
We explore gender differences in performance in a comprehensive sample of venture capital investments in the United States. We find that female venture capitalists significantly underperform their male colleagues controlling for personal characteristics including employment and educational history as well as the characteristics of the portfolio companies in which they invest. When we examine their performance differences, we find that the difference results from a lack of contribution by the male colleagues within their firms. We explore the mechanism for this lack of contribution from male colleagues in a large sample survey of female venture capitalists and in detailed one-on-one interviews. We find support for the notion that formal feedback mechanisms and hierarchies are useful in ameliorating the female performance gap. Female venture capitalists find gender bias in informal mentoring systems as well as in the attitude of entrepreneurs.
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Arielle Silverman & Geoffrey Cohen
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Stereotype threat, the concern about being judged in light of negative stereotypes, causes underperformance in evaluative situations. However, less is known about how coping with stereotypes can aggravate underperformance over time. We propose a model in which ongoing stereotype threat experiences threaten a person’s sense of self-integrity, which in turn prompts defensive avoidance of stereotype-relevant situations, impeding growth, achievement, and well-being. We test this model in an important but understudied population: the physically disabled. In Study 1, blind adults reporting higher levels of stereotype threat reported lower self-integrity and well-being and were more likely to be unemployed and to report avoiding stereotype-threatening situations. In Study 2’s field experiment, blind students in a compensatory skill-training program made more progress if they had completed a values-affirmation, an exercise that bolsters self-integrity. The findings suggest that stereotype threat poses a chronic threat to self-integrity and undermines life outcomes for people with disabilities.
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Julia DiBenigno & Katherine Kellogg
Administrative Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
We use data from a 12-month ethnographic study of two medical-surgical units in a U.S. hospital to examine how members from different occupations can collaborate with one another in their daily work despite differences in status, shared meanings, and expertise across occupational groups, which previous work has shown to create difficulties. In our study, nurses and patient care technicians (PCTs) on both hospital units faced these same occupational differences, served the same patient population, worked under the same management and organizational structure, and had the same pressures, goals, and organizational collaboration tools available to them. But nurses and PCTs on one unit successfully collaborated while those on the other did not. We demonstrate that a social structure characterized by cross-cutting demographics between occupational groups — in which occupational membership is uncorrelated with demographic group membership — can loosen attachment to the occupational identity and status order. This allows members of cross-occupational dyads, in our case nurses and PCTs, to draw on other shared social identities, such as shared race, age, or immigration status, in their interactions. Drawing on a shared social identity at the dyad level provided members with a “dyadic toolkit” of alternative, non-occupational expertise, shared meanings, status rules, and emotional scripts that facilitated collaboration across occupational differences and improved patient care.
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The Impact of City Contracting Set-Asides on Black Self-Employment and Employment
Aaron Chatterji, Kenneth Chay & Robert Fairlie
Journal of Labor Economics, July 2014, Pages 507-561
Abstract:
In the 1980s, many US cities initiated programs reserving a proportion of government contracts for minority-owned businesses. The staggered introduction of these set-aside programs is used to estimate their impacts on the self-employment and employment rates of African American men. Black business ownership rates increased significantly after program initiation, with the black-white gap falling 3 percentage points. The evidence that the racial gap in employment also fell is less clear as it depends on assumptions about the continuation of preexisting trends. The black gains were concentrated in industries heavily affected by set-asides, and they mostly benefited the better educated.
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Leaning In or Leaning On? Gender, Homophily, and Activism in Crowdfunding
Jason Greenberg & Ethan Mollick
University of Pennsylvania Working Paper, July 2014
Abstract:
Female founders seek and receive less startup capital than male entrepreneurs. One reason for this disparity is a lack of female representation among funders of startups, and a potential solution is to increase the proportion of women in decision-making roles. Both the problem and the solution implicitly rely on homophily – that women will support other women given a chance. However, a lack of clarity over when and how homophily influences individual choices makes it uncertain when better representation is actually advantageous. Using data from crowdfunding, we empirically examine whether higher proportions of female funders lead to higher success rates in capital-raising for women. We find that women outperform men, and are more likely to succeed at a crowdfunding campaign, all other things being equal. Surprisingly, this effect primarily holds for female founders proposing technological projects, a category that is largely dominated by male founders and funders. This finding stands in stark contrast to expectations concerning homophily. A laboratory experiment helps explain how this pattern might emerge and allows us to theorize about the types of choice homophily driving results. We find that a small proportion of female backers disproportionately support women-led projects in areas where women are historically underrepresented. This suggests an activist variant of choice homophily, and implies that mere representation of female funders without activism may not always be enough to overcome the barriers faced by female founders.
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Affirmative Action Bans and College Graduation Rates
Peter Hinrichs
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper estimates the effects of statewide affirmative action bans on graduation rates within colleges and on the fraction of college entrants who become graduates of selective institutions. On net, affirmative action bans lead to fewer underrepresented minorities becoming graduates of selective colleges. Although the graduation rates for underrepresented minority groups at selective institutions rise when affirmative action is banned, this may be due to the changing composition of students at these universities. Moreover, this effect is small relative to the number displaced from selective universities due to affirmative action bans.
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Kirsten Kainz & Yi Pan
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Fall 2014, Pages 531–537
Abstract:
Increasing evidence from observational studies indicates that students attending minority segregated schools are at risk for constrained performance in reading. However, analyses of data gathered under observational conditions may yield biased results. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 1998–1999 Kindergarten Cohort, this study used propensity score matching to address selection bias due to students’ observed socio-economic, literacy, and social-emotional background characteristics, allowing for a less biased estimate of minority segregated schooling on African-American, Latino, and European-American students’ reading gains in first grade. We found that African-American students attending segregated schools made less gain in reading across the first grade year than African-American students in non-segregated schools. There was no evidence for significant negative effects of segregation on reading gains for Latino and European-American students.
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Trond Petersen, Andrew Penner & Geir Høgsnes
American Journal of Sociology, March 2014, Pages 1434-1472
Abstract:
Given the key role that processes occurring in the family play in creating gender inequality, the family is a central focus of policies aimed at creating greater gender equality. We examine how family status affects the gender wage gap using longitudinal matched employer-employee data from Norway, 1979–96, a period with extensive expansion of family policies. The motherhood penalty dropped dramatically from 1979 to 1996. Among men the premia for marriage and fatherhood remained constant. In 1979, the gender wage gap was primarily due to the motherhood penalty, but by 1996 husband premia were more important than motherhood penalties.
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Maternity Leave, Effort Allocation, and Postmotherhood Earnings
Evgenia Kogan Dechter
Journal of Human Capital, Summer 2014, Pages 97-125
Abstract:
Women with children earn less than women without children. I study this wage gap using a dynamic model of human capital accumulation with endogenous time and effort allocation between household and market activities. Selection into motherhood does not drive the gap in hourly wage. I decompose this gap into forgone human capital and changing effort at work. Human capital depreciates as a result of maternity leave and accumulates at a lower rate after childbirth because of a reduction in work hours. Effort at work does not decline after childbirth. Reduced human capital accumulation explains the entire postmotherhood loss in hourly wage.
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Young Women's Job Mobility: The Influence of Motherhood Status and Education
Jessica Looze
Journal of Marriage and Family, August 2014, Pages 693–709
Abstract:
Previous research has found that women who become mothers in their 20s face larger wage penalties compared to women who delay childbearing until their 30s. Explanations for this have focused on the consequences of employment breaks early in one's career and reduced opportunities in the workplace following the birth of a child. In this article, the author uses panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N = 4,566) to examine another possible explanation: differences in patterns of and wage returns to job mobility. She found that young mothers, relative to childless women, make fewer wage-enhancing voluntary job separations and often receive lower wage returns for these separations. Educational attainment exacerbates these patterns, largely to the disadvantage of women with less education.
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Amy Moors, Janet Malley & Abigail Stewart
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
One reason for women’s absence in science, technology, engineering, math, and medical science (STEMM) disciplines is the perceived incompatibility of having a family and a science career. However, little is known about the climate surrounding support for balancing work and family responsibilities for STEMM and non-STEMM scholars at the postdoctoral training level. In Study 1, we examined the relationship between STEMM and non-STEMM postdocs’ perceived family-friendly climate, job satisfaction, and workplace belonging (N = 553). In Study 2, we examined the relationship between a broad range of tenure-track faculty members’ family-friendly climate, job satisfaction, and workplace belonging (N = 385). Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that perceived institutional support for family commitments was linked with job satisfaction and sense of belonging for men and women in faculty and postdoctoral training positions in both STEMM and non-STEMM fields. In addition, for STEMM postdocs (but not for non-STEMM postdocs or faculty), gender moderated the effects of perceived support for family on job satisfaction and sense of belonging, such that women with low institutional support for family commitments were significantly less satisfied with their jobs and felt less belonging to their workplace environment than comparable men. We discuss implications of academic departmental climate and initiatives for family-friendly policies for retention of women in academia.
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Gender, Trial Employment, and Initial Salaries
Adina Sterling & Roberto Fernandez
MIT Working Paper, June 2014
Abstract:
Gender disparities in wages among professionals exist because women begin their professional careers making less than men. Prior research indicates this occurs because employers lack information about prospective employees at the hiring stage which triggers discrimination and bias in wage setting. Building on work that suggests organizational practices impact inequality, we examine if trial employment affects initial salaries by providing employers a first-hand look at candidates prior to employers making permanent hiring decisions. Using a unique data set that is well-suited for this inquiry, we find evidence that a female wage discount occurs among entry-level business professionals. However, as predicted, the female wage discount dissipates when offers are received from employers where trial employment takes place.
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Extremal Quantile Regressions for Selection Models and the Black-White Wage Gap
Xavier D'Haultfoeuille, Arnaud Maurel & Yichong Zhang
NBER Working Paper, June 2014
Abstract:
We consider the estimation of a semiparametric location-scale model subject to endogenous selection, in the absence of an instrument or a large support regressor. Identification relies on the independence between the covariates and selection, for arbitrarily large values of the outcome. In this context, we propose a simple estimator, which combines extremal quantile regressions with minimum distance. We establish the asymptotic normality of this estimator by extending previous results on extremal quantile regressions to allow for selection. Finally, we apply our method to estimate the black-white wage gap among males from the NLSY79 and NLSY97. We find that premarket factors such as AFQT and family background characteristics play a key role in explaining the level and evolution of the black-white wage gap.
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Socially gainful gender quotas
Oded Stark & Walter Hyll
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, September 2014, Pages 173–177
Abstract:
We study the impact of gender quotas on the acquisition of human capital. We assume that individuals’ formation of human capital is influenced by the prospect of landing high-pay top positions, and that these positions are regulated by gender-specific quotas. In the absence of quotas, women consider their chances of getting top positions to be lower than men's. The lure of top positions induces even men of relatively low ability to engage in human capital formation, whereas women of relatively high ability do not expect to get top positions and do not therefore engage in human capital formation. Gender quotas discourage men who are less efficient in forming human capital, and encourage women who are more efficient in forming human capital. We provide a condition under which the net result of the institution of gender quotas is an increase in human capital in the economy as a whole.
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Karen Grandy
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article examines the inclusion of female sources in feature articles in American and Canadian business magazines and compares the findings from its 2011-12 sample with corresponding labor force data, and also with the results of a research study conducted twenty years earlier. While results revealed a shift in the occupations most often included as sources in the publications, women accounted for only 15.2% of sources in the 2011-12 sample and are still underrepresented in comparison with occupation data, as they were in 1991-92.
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Breaking the Glass Ceiling? The Effect of Board Quotas on Female Labor Market Outcomes in Norway
Marianne Bertrand et al.
NBER Working Paper, June 2014
Abstract:
In late 2003, Norway passed a law mandating 40 percent representation of each gender on the board of publicly limited liability companies. The primary objective of this reform was to increase the representation of women in top positions in the corporate sector and decrease gender disparity in earnings within that sector. We document that the newly (post-reform) appointed female board members were observably more qualified than their female predecessors, and that the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially. While the reform may have improved the representation of female employees at the very top of the earnings distribution (top 5 highest earners) within firms that were mandated to increase female participation on their board, there is no evidence that these gains at the very top trickled-down. Moreover the reform had no obvious impact on highly qualified women whose qualifications mirror those of board members but who were not appointed to boards. We observe no statistically significant change in the gender wage gaps or in female representation in top positions, although standard errors are large enough that we cannot rule economically meaningful gains. Finally, there is little evidence that the reform affected the decisions of women more generally; it was not accompanied by any change in female enrollment in business education programs, or a convergence in earnings trajectories between recent male and female graduates of such programs. While young women preparing for a career in business report being aware of the reform and expect their earnings and promotion chances to benefit from it, the reform did not affect their fertility and marital plans. Overall, in the short run the reform had very little discernible impact on women in business beyond its direct effect on the newly appointed female board members.
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Why does height matter in hiring?
Jens Agerström
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, October 2014, Pages 35–38
Abstract:
Previous research shows the existence of a height premium in the workplace with tall individuals receiving more benefits across several domains (e.g., earnings) relative to short people. The current study probes deeper into the height premium by focusing on the specific favourable traits, attributes, and abilities tall individuals are presumed to have, ultimately giving these individuals an advantage in hiring. In an experiment, we made a male job applicant taller or shorter by digitally manipulating photographs, and attached these to job applications that were evaluated by professional recruiters. We find that in the context of hiring a project leader, the height premium consists of increased perceptions of the candidate's general competence, specific job competency (including employability), and physical health, whereas warmth and physical attractiveness seem to matter less. Interestingly, physical height predicted recruiters’ hiring intentions even when statistically controlling for competence, warmth, health, and attractiveness.
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Scott Pruysers & Julie Blais
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Negative stereotypes have been shown to create cognitive burdens that decrease intellectual performance in a number of tasks such as math and standardized tests. Applying a multidisciplinary approach and an experimental research design, this paper examines the effect of stereotype threat on political knowledge and political efficacy. A sample of 226 undergraduate students completed an online survey on political knowledge and efficacy. Participants were randomly assigned to a stereotype threat condition or a non-threat condition. Contrary to what was hypothesized, stereotype threat does not explain the political knowledge gap between men and women; men score significantly higher than women in both conditions. However, preliminary evidence suggests the presence of stereotype lift in men's sense of political efficacy. Men's political efficacy demonstrates a moderate increase in the stereotype threat condition while women's sense of efficacy does not change (d = .53).
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Maciej Górecki & Paula Kukolowicz
Electoral Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study the effects of mandatory (legislated) gender quotas in Poland, a country utilising an open-list proportional representation electoral system. We use a unique data set comprising multiple characteristics of all candidates running in two consecutive elections to the lower chamber of the Polish parliament (the Sejm). The first of them (held in 2007) was the last pre-quota election and the second (held in 2011) the first post-quota one. We show that quotas have an inherently paradoxical nature: they cause a substantial increase in the number of female candidates but the increase is accompanied by a sharp decline of these candidates' success rates. This regularity holds even if we account for multiple indicators of candidate background, including previous political experience.