Are Double Standards Real? Unpacking the Role of Gender among Elite Professionals in a Market

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 19. Gender and Work

Abstract

Abstract A common explanation for why women are missing from high-status positions and industries is because they face double standards. While numerous lab studies have found support for this perspective, we lack a complete understanding of whether there are persistent differences in the evaluation criteria used to assess minority and majority group members. Alternative views have shown that men and women may not face different standards, especially when the task being evaluated is more closely linked to real labor market processes. We posit that to develop a more nuanced theory of the role of double standards we must examine whether, and to what extent, they contribute to gender inequality in a real market where performance is truly unbiased. We propose a financial market setting, comprised of investment professionals, where performance is clearly observed and objectively assigned. We find that while women receive less attention relative to similarly performing male counterparts, this difference is reversed when male and female top performers are compared. Furthermore, there is no evidence of differences in evaluation among those men and women who receive initial attention. Additionally, contrary to past evidence, we find that women are not more risk-averse than men in this setting allowing us to rule out the alternative explanation that observed gender differences are attributed to women violating industry expectations.

Authors

• Tristan L. Botelho, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Mabel Abraham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology