IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v114y2024i6p1816-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Breaking Gender Barriers: Experimental Evidence on Men in Pink-Collar Jobs

Author

Listed:
  • Alexia Delfino

Abstract

I investigate men's limited entry into female-dominated sectors through a large-scale field experiment. The design exogenously varies recruitment messages by showing photographs of current workers (male or female) and providing information on the share of workers who received high evaluations in the past (higher or lower). A male photograph has no impact on men's applications, but informing about a lower share of high evaluations encourages men to apply and enables the employer to hire and retain more talented men. The impact of this informational intervention remains positive for the employer also accounting for its effects on female applicants and hires.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexia Delfino, 2024. "Breaking Gender Barriers: Experimental Evidence on Men in Pink-Collar Jobs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(6), pages 1816-1853, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:114:y:2024:i:6:p:1816-53
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20220582
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20220582
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E194453V1
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20220582.appx
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20220582.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20220582?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoav Benjamini & Abba M. Krieger & Daniel Yekutieli, 2006. "Adaptive linear step-up procedures that control the false discovery rate," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 93(3), pages 491-507, September.
    2. John A. List & Azeem M. Shaikh & Yang Xu, 2019. "Multiple hypothesis testing in experimental economics," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(4), pages 773-793, December.
    3. Delfino, Alexia, 2021. "Breaking Gender Barriers: Experimental Evidence on Men in Pink-Collar Jobs," IZA Discussion Papers 14083, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ardila Brenøe, Anne & Eyibak, Zeynep & Heursen, Lea & Ranehill, Eva & Weber, Roberto A., 2024. "Gender Identity and Economic Decision Making," Working Papers 2024:6, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Abraham, Lisa & Hallermeier, Johannes & Stein, Alison, 2024. "Words matter: Experimental evidence from job applications," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 348-391.
    3. Ayllón, Sara & Zamora, Camila, 2025. "Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Do Debiasing Campaigns Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 17632, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Gulia Bovini & Marta De Philippis & Lucia Rizzica, 2024. "The origins of the gender pay gap: education and job characteristics," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1470, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. Boneva, Teodora & Brás-Monteiro, Ana & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2024. "Are Men's Preferences for Couple Equity Misperceived? Evidence from Six Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 17493, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Larissa Fuchs & Matthias Heinz & Pia Pinger & Max Thon, 2024. "How to Attract Talents? Field-Experimental Evidence on Emphasizing Flexibility and Career Opportunities in Job Advertisements," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 332, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    7. Claudio Schilter, 2025. "How Selectivity Shapes Selection," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0236, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    8. Högn, Celina & Mayer, Lea & Rincke, Johannes & Winkler, Erwin, 2025. "Preferences for Gender Diversity in High-Profile Jobs," IZA Discussion Papers 17750, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Felipe A. Dunsch & David K. Evans & Ezinne Eze-Ajoku & Mario Macis, 2017. "Management, Supervision, and Health Care: A Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 23749, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Felipe Barrera-Osorio & Adriana Kugler & Mikko Silliman, 2023. "Hard and Soft Skills in Vocational Training: Experimental Evidence from Colombia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(3), pages 409-436.
    3. Christopher F. Karpowitz & Stephen D. O’Connell & Jessica Preece & Olga Stoddard, 2024. "Strength in Numbers? Gender Composition, Leadership, and Women’s Influence in Teams," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(9), pages 3077-3114.
    4. Paul M. Gorny & Petra Nieken & Karoline Ströhlein, 2023. "He, She, They? The Impact of Gendered Language on Economic Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 10458, CESifo.
    5. Jeffrey D. Michler & Anna Josephson, 2022. "Recent developments in inference: practicalities for applied economics," Chapters, in: A Modern Guide to Food Economics, chapter 11, pages 235-268, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Dorner, Zack, 2019. "A behavioral rebound effect," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    7. Shagata Mukherjee, 2020. "What Drives Gender Differences in Trust and Trustworthiness?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(6), pages 778-805, November.
    8. Schulte, Patrick, 2015. "Does skill-biased technical change diffuse internationally?," ZEW Discussion Papers 15-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Jae Song & David J Price & Fatih Guvenen & Nicholas Bloom & Till von Wachter, 2019. "Firming Up Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 1-50.
    10. Elira Kuka, 2020. "Quantifying the Benefits of Social Insurance: Unemployment Insurance and Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 490-505, July.
    11. Tommaso AGASISTI & Geraint JOHNES & Marco PACCAGNELLA, 2021. "Tasks, occupations and wages in OECD countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(1), pages 85-112, March.
    12. Francesco Trebbi & Miao Ben Zhang, 2022. "The Cost of Regulatory Compliance in the United States," NBER Working Papers 30691, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Alexandre Belloni & Victor Chernozhukov & Denis Chetverikov & Christian Hansen & Kengo Kato, 2018. "High-dimensional econometrics and regularized GMM," CeMMAP working papers CWP35/18, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    14. Loebbing, Jonas, 2018. "An Elementary Theory of Endogenous Technical Change and Wage Inequality," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181603, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Keller, Elisa, 2019. "Labor supply and gender differences in occupational choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 221-241.
    16. Ellis Scharfenaker, Markus P.A. Schneider, 2019. "Labor Market Segmentation and the Distribution of Income: New Evidence from Internal Census Bureau Data," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2019_08, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    17. Nicholas Bloom & Tarek Alexander Hassan & Aakash Kalyani & Josh Lerner & Ahmed Tahoun, 2021. "The diffusion of disruptive technologies," CEP Discussion Papers dp1798, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Keller, Wolfgang & Utar, Hale, 2023. "International trade and job polarization: Evidence at the worker level," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    19. Davoine, Thomas & Mankart, Jochen, 2017. "Changes in education, wage inequality and working hours over time," Discussion Papers 38/2017, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Rosario Crinò & Paolo Epifani, 2014. "Trade Imbalances, Export Structure and Wage Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(576), pages 507-539, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:114:y:2024:i:6:p:1816-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.