Her chance
The Effect on Lawyers Income of Gender Information Contained in First Names
Bentley Coffey & Patrick McLaughlin
Review of Law & Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We test the Portia Hypothesis – that a more masculine name improves a woman’s legal career – using primary data that we collected so that we can control for an arguably important, but previously omitted, confounding factor: the woman’s parents. In theory, a correlation between nominal masculinity and success may be due to a common cause: parents’ ability to advance their children’s career prospects and the more able parents having an irrelevant preference for masculine names. We control for the family’s wealth by using their child’s educational debt at the time of graduating from law school and for the family’s reputation, within the legal profession, by using the probability of being a lawyer conditional upon their last name. We find robust evidence that a more masculine name improves a woman’s earnings as a lawyer, even when we control for her parents’ wealth and reputation.
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Desirable but not smart: Preference for smarter romantic partners impairs women's STEM outcomes
Lora Park et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, March 2016, Pages 158–179
Abstract:
Although women today excel in many areas of society, they are often underrepresented in the traditionally male-dominated fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The present research examined whether traditional romantic partner preferences — specifically, a desire to date partners who are smarter than oneself — affects women's tendency to minimize their intelligence in STEM fields when pursuing romantic goals. Women (but not men) who preferred smarter romantic partners showed worse math performance (Studies 1–2), less identification with math (Study 2), and less interest in STEM careers (Study 3) when the goal to be romantically desirable was activated. A meta-analysis across studies supported results. This research thus demonstrates that partner preferences influence women's STEM outcomes in response to romantic goal pursuit.
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The Performance of Female Hedge Fund Managers
Rajesh Aggarwal & Nicole Boyson
Review of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using data for the period 1994-2013, we examine the return and risk-taking behavior of hedge funds having at least one female portfolio manager and funds that have all female portfolio managers. Funds with all female managers perform no differently than all male-managed funds and have similar risk profiles. For single style funds, those with mixed teams of both genders underperform male-only funds on both a raw and risk-adjusted basis, although mixed funds incur less risk and their Sharpe ratios do not differ. For funds of funds, both all-female and mixed funds have similar performance to male-managed funds. We then consider the failure rate across all fund styles. Funds with at least one female manager fail at higher rates, driven by difficulty in raising capital – these funds are smaller and are less likely to be closed to new investment. Surviving funds with at least one female manager have better performance than male-managed surviving funds, consistent with the idea that female managers need to perform better for their funds to survive. Yet, female-managed surviving funds have fewer assets under management than surviving male-managed funds. Using media mentions as a proxy for investor interest, female-managed funds receive proportionately less attention. Our results suggest that there are no inherent differences in skill between female and male managers, but that only the best performing female managers manage to survive.
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Lisa Leslie, Colleen Manchester & Patricia Dahm
Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Abundant research documents a gender pay gap; women earn less than men, all else being equal. Against the backdrop of an overall female penalty, we propose that the widespread adoption of diversity goals in organizations creates a female premium for certain women. We integrate the economic principle of supply and demand with theory from the field of strategic human resource management and theorize that individuals perceive high potential women — who have the abilities needed to reach the upper echelons of organizations, where women remain underrepresented — as more valuable for achieving organizational diversity goals than high potential men and, in turn, reward them with higher pay. Two field studies (Studies 1 & 3) and two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 & 4) reveal a female premium that is unique to high potential women (Studies 1 & 2), driven by perceptions that high potential women have more diversity value than high potential men (Studies 2 & 4), and larger in contexts where diversity goals are stronger (Studies 3 & 4). Our theory and findings challenge the assumption that the gender pay gap uniformly disadvantages women and offer new insight into why and when the female penalty reverses and becomes a female premium.
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CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the efficiency of capital allocation
Mara Faccio, Maria-Teresa Marchica & Roberto Mura
Journal of Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
We extend the literature on how managerial traits relate to corporate choices by documenting that firms run by female CEOs have lower leverage, less volatile earnings, and a higher chance of survival than otherwise similar firms run by male CEOs. Additionally, transitions from male to female CEOs (or vice-versa) are associated with economically and statistically significant reductions (increases) in corporate risk-taking. The results are robust to controlling for the endogenous matching between firms and CEOs using a variety of econometric techniques. We further document that this risk-avoidance behavior appears to lead to distortions in the capital allocation process. These results potentially have important macroeconomic implications for long-term economic growth.
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Equal Opportunity? Gender Gaps in CEO Appointments and Executive Pay
Matti Keloharju, Samuli Knüpfer & Joacim Tåg
Harvard Working Paper, February 2016
Abstract:
This paper uses exceptionally rich data on Swedish corporate executives and their personal characteristics to study gender gaps in CEO appointments and pay. Both gaps are sizeable: 18% for CEO appointments and 27% for pay. At most one-eighth of the gaps can be attributed to observable gender differences in executives’ and their firms’ characteristics. Further tests suggest that unobservable gender differences in characteristics are unlikely to account for the remaining gaps. Instead, our results are consistent with the view that male and female executives sharing equal attributes neither have equal opportunities to reach the top, nor are they equally paid.
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Katherine Kimble et al.
Law and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
In 2 studies, we found support for current sexual harassment jurisprudence. Currently, the courts use a 2-prong test to determine the viability of a sexual harassment claim: that the adverse treatment is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter conditions of employment based on a protected class from the perspective of the individual complainant (subjective prong) and from the perspective of a reasonable person (objective prong). In Experiment 1, trained male undergraduate research assistants administered sequential objectifying gazes and comments to undergraduate female research participants. We found that the pervasive objectification delivered by multiple men (compared with 1 man) did not elicit more negative emotion or harm the experiencers’ task performance, although it did lead them to make increased judgments of sexual harassment. In Experiment 2, observers (who viewed a recording of an experiencer’s interactions with the male research assistants) and predictors (who read a protocol describing the facts of the interaction) anticipated the female targets would experience negative emotions, show impaired performance, as well as find more evidence in the interaction of sexual harassment. Observers’ judgments mirrored those of the experiencers’ while predictors’ judgments demonstrated affective forecasting errors. Predictors were more likely to anticipate more negative emotion, worse performance, and greater likelihood of sexual harassment. Overall, these studies demonstrate the impact and importance of considering perceptions of sexual harassment from multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
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A burden for the boys: Evidence of stereotype threat in boys' reading performance
Pascal Pansu et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, July 2016, Pages 26–30
Abstract:
There is ample evidence that Stereotype Threat (ST) contributes to gender differences favoring males on standardized math tests; however, whether ST also contributes to gender differences favoring females in reading remains unanswered. This is surprising as the gender gap in reading is three times bigger than the gender gap in math (OECD, 2014). In this study, we examined whether ST may explain gender differences favoring schoolgirls in reading, assuming that boys are negatively stereotyped in this domain. Eighty students (3rd grade) took a reading test while being assigned to either a threat or a reduced-threat condition (test presented as diagnostic of reading abilities versus as a game, respectively). Boys underperformed girls in the threat condition, whereas they outperformed girls in the reduced-threat condition. Consistent with ST theory, this pattern was obtained only among highly-identified students. These findings offer another explanation for the well-known gender gap favoring girls in reading.
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Does Gender Diversity Promote Nonconformity?
Makan Amini et al.
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Failure to express minority views may distort the behavior of company boards, committees, juries, and other decision-making bodies. Devising a new experimental procedure to measure such conformity in a judgment task, we compare the degree of conformity in groups with varying gender composition. Overall, our experiments offer little evidence that gender composition affects expression of minority views. A robust finding is that a subject’s lack of ability predicts both a true propensity to accept others’ judgment (informational social influence) and a propensity to agree despite private doubt (normative social influence). Thus, as an antidote to conformity in our experiments, high individual ability seems more effective than group diversity.
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Paul MacArthur et al.
Sport in Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
All 63 h of the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC) scheduled primetime coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic broadcast were analyzed revealing significant sex-based trends. Women athletes received 47.7% of the clock-time on the broadcast, more than in any other Winter Olympiad examined, and significantly more than in the previous four Winter Olympic Games. Women received 41.7% of the mentions in the broadcast and comprised 45% of the top-20 most mentioned athletes. Sex-based divergences in dialogues surrounding attributions of success were found, but none were detected for attributions of failure. Sex-based differences were also found in descriptions of personality/physicality. Contextualization is offered related to other intervening factors such as US medal successes by sex, celebrity and salient storylines surrounding American athletes.
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Who You Know in Hollywood: A Network Analysis of Television Writers
Patricia Phalen, Thomas Ksiazek & Jacob Garber
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Winter 2016, Pages 160-170
Abstract:
“It’s who you know, not what you know,” is a familiar phrase — often repeated by professionals in Hollywood. The present study focuses on “who knows who” among Hollywood television writers. Using network analysis, this exploratory study identifies the degree of centralization and types of connections found in this elite writers’ network. Results show a great deal of collaboration in the network, and while male writers are more connected overall in Hollywood, women are more likely to be brokers — a structurally advantageous position. The authors provide explanations for collaboration patterns, especially with regard to gender differences in network roles, and propose avenues for further research.
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Aggregate Effects of Gender Gaps in the Labor Market: A Quantitative Estimate
David Cuberes & Marc Teignier
Journal of Human Capital, Spring 2016, Pages 1-32
Abstract:
This paper examines the quantitative effects of gender gaps in entrepreneurship and workforce participation. We simulate an occupational choice model with heterogeneous agents in entrepreneurial ability. Gender gaps in entrepreneurship affect negatively both income and aggregate productivity, since they reduce the entrepreneurs’ average talent. Specifically, the expected income loss from excluding 5 percent of women is 2.5 percent, while the loss is 10 percent if they are all employers. We find that gender gaps cause an average income loss of 15 percent in the OECD, 40 percent of which is due to entrepreneurship gaps. Extending the model to developing countries, we obtain substantially higher losses, with significant variation across regions.
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STEM Stereotypic Attribution Bias Among Women in an Unwelcoming Science Setting
Jennifer LaCosse, Denise Sekaquaptewa & Jill Bennett
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) stereotypic attribution bias (SSAB) is the tendency to spontaneously generate external attributions for men’s setbacks in STEM fields and to spontaneously make internal attributions for women’s setbacks in STEM fields. Among samples of undergraduate STEM students, STEM settings perceived as unwelcoming to women through self-report (Study 1) and a manipulation (Study 2) were shown to predict SSAB. Among undergraduate women, experiencing the negative treatment of other women in a science setting predicted SSAB, which was negatively correlated with feelings of belonging in STEM (Study 1) and with intentions to continue in STEM after graduation (Studies 1 and 2). Research materials (i.e., data, measures, materials, etc.) used in both studies will be made available upon request to either of first two authors. The results of our studies suggest that those interested in increasing retention of women in STEM majors should develop strategies designed to reduce internal attributions for women’s setbacks among women facing negative STEM environments and cultivate a more positive climate for women in STEM fields.