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The Gender Gap in Competitiveness: Women Shy away from Competing with Others, but Not from Competing with Themselves

Author

Listed:
  • Johanna Mollerstrom
  • Katharina Wrohlich

Abstract

Women are less willing than men to compete against others. This gender gap can partially explain the differences between women’s and men’s education and career choices, and the labor market disparities that result. The experiments presented here show that even though women are less willing than men to compete against others, they are just as willing as men are to take on the challenge of improving themselves and competing against their own past performance. For organizations striving towards gender equality, this opens up new possibilities for institutionalizing competitive pressure.

Suggested Citation

  • Johanna Mollerstrom & Katharina Wrohlich, 2017. "The Gender Gap in Competitiveness: Women Shy away from Competing with Others, but Not from Competing with Themselves," DIW Economic Bulletin, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 7(22/23), pages 219-225.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwdeb:2017-22-1
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender; competition; discrimination; experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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