Educational Prestige and Gender Differences in Financial Crisis Experiences

• In Event: 2448 - Integrated Occupations, Segregated Experiences

Abstract

This paper extends traditional explanations of gender difference in crisis experiences. In explaining female-specific crisis experiences, past studies produced controversial findings.
A group of scholars emphasized that a financial crisis deepens the classic gender gap whereas other studies suggest that a financial crisis could operate as an opportunity for women. We develop this line of inquiry and focus on educational prestige as a key factor in determining when female workers have an opportunity (vs. a penalty) in the face of declining economic conditions. Using the empirical context of law professionals around the time of the 2008 financial crisis, this paper finds that female lawyers are more likely to experience negative crisis events. However, this female penalty reversed into a female-specific opportunity when we compare graduates of elite law schools: elite females are less likely to experience compensation decrease or a delay in the promotion and less likely to lose their jobs during the crisis compared to males. Additional findings indicate that such benefits from educational prestige diminish and even reverse into penalties in a highly routinized work context of female professionals. Through these findings, this paper provides novel insights into current explanations of the gender gap, particularly the growing interest in heterogeneous labor market experiences among female workers.

Authors

• Wooseok Jung, HEC Paris

• Roxana Barbulescu