This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

« Back to Results

Gender and Development

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 2:30 PM - 4:30 PM

Atlanta Marriott Marquis, A705
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Shanthi Manian, Washington State University

Discrimination from Below: Experimental Evidence of Female Leadership in Ethiopia

Ketki Sheth
,
University of California-Merced
Shanthi Manian
,
Washington State University
Shibiru Ayalew
,
Arsi University

Abstract

Globally, women are underrepresented in top management. We propose that this may result from discrimination from "below": gender discrimination by subordinates could make female leaders appear less qualified. Using a novel lab-in-the-field experiment in Ethiopia, we test whether leader gender affects the way subjects respond to leadership. We find striking evidence for discrimination: subjects are ten percent less likely to follow the same advice from a female leader than an otherwise identical male leader, and female-led subjects perform .34 standard deviations worse as a result. Subjects also give lower evaluations to hypothetical female managerial candidates. However, when the leader is presented as highly trained and competent, the gender gap is reversed and subjects are more likely to follow women than men. This pattern allows us to characterize this discrimination as statistical rather than taste-based, and is consistent with a model of statistical discrimination in which the same signal is interpreted differently for each gender. Our results suggest that discrimination from below is an important barrier to female leadership effectiveness, and suggests new policy approaches are necessary for organizations seeking to achieve gender equity.

Closing the Gender Gap in Leadership Positions: Can Expanding the Pipeline Increase Parity?

Ryan Brown
,
University of Colorado-Denver
Hani Mansour
,
University of Colorado-Denver
Stephen D. O'Connell
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Abstract

We study whether and how increasing the number of women in career stages that precede high-level positions affects female representation at the top of the career ladder. We exploit state legislature elections narrowly won by female candidates to examine the effect of expanding the pipeline of women in local politics on subsequent female representation and success in parliamentary elections. For each additional state legislature election won by a woman, there is a 34 percent increase in the number of female candidates contesting in the subsequent parliamentary election, and a 2.6 percentage-point increase in the average vote share won per female parliamentary candidate. We find that this relationship is driven by new female politicians, and not by the progression of female state legislators nor an increase in the number of past female parliamentary candidates.

Gender Gaps in Technology Diffusion

Ariel Ben Yishay
,
College of William and Mary
Maria Jones
,
World Bank Research Group
Florence Kondylis
,
World Bank Research Group
Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak
,
Yale University

Abstract

Even with comparable innate ability and performance on assigned tasks, women may be subject to discrimination. We run a field experiment across 142 Malawian villages in which either men or women were assigned the task of learning about a new agricultural technology, and then communicating it to others to convince them to adopt. Despite persistent gender gaps in perceptions and attention to their message, female-assigned communicators, perform just as well as their male-assigned counterparts. Micro-data on individual interactions from 4,000 households suggest that other farmers perceive female communicators to be less capable and are less receptive to the women’s messages. Data on social relationships in the village at large do not support a generalized gender communication gap. Instead, the gender gaps in perceptions appear to be aimed at women in communicator roles. Yet, other farmers in female-assigned village learn and retain the new information just as well as in male-assigned villages, and experience similar farm yields.
Discussant(s)
Sofia Amaral
,
University of Birmingham
Jermey Magruder
,
University of California-Berkeley
Gaurav Khanna
,
University of California-San Diego
JEL Classifications
  • J7 - Labor Discrimination
  • O1 - Economic Development