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Exposure to female colleagues breaks the glass ceiling—Evidence from a combined vignette and field experiment

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  • Finseraas, Henning
  • Johnsen, Åshild A.
  • Kotsadam, Andreas
  • Torsvik, Gaute

Abstract

We study discrimination among recruits in the Norwegian Armed Forces during boot camp. In a vignette experiment female candidates are perceived as less suited to be squad leaders than their identical male counterparts. Adding positive information leads to higher evaluations of the candidates, but does not reduce the amount of discrimination. However, randomized intense collaborative exposure to female colleagues reduces discriminatory attitudes: Male soldiers who were randomly assigned to share room and work in a squad with female soldiers during the recruit period do not discriminate in the vignette experiment.

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  • Finseraas, Henning & Johnsen, Åshild A. & Kotsadam, Andreas & Torsvik, Gaute, 2016. "Exposure to female colleagues breaks the glass ceiling—Evidence from a combined vignette and field experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 363-374.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:90:y:2016:i:c:p:363-374
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.11.010
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    3. Fumarco, Luca, 2015. "Disability Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market – A Field Experiment on Blind Tenants," MPRA Paper 63899, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Élisabeth Tovar & Matthieu Bunel, 2019. "Profit vs morality: how unfair is labor market discrimination? Results from a survey experiment," Working Papers hal-04141860, HAL.
    5. Paredes, Valentina & Paserman, M. Daniele & Pino, Francisco J., 2020. "Does Economics Make You Sexist?," IZA Discussion Papers 13223, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    7. Gordon B Dahl & Andreas Kotsadam & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2021. "Does Integration Change Gender Attitudes? The Effect of Randomly Assigning Women to Traditionally Male Teams," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 987-1030.
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    9. Finseraas, Henning & Hanson, Torbjørn & Johnsen, Åshild A. & Kotsadam, Andreas & Torsvik, Gaute, 2019. "Trust, ethnic diversity, and personal contact: A field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 72-84.
    10. Maiti, Surya Nath & Pakrashi, Debayan & Saha, Sarani & Smyth, Russell, 2022. "Don't judge a book by its cover: The role of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice in conflict settings," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 533-548.
    11. Henning Finseraas & Åshild A. Johnsen & Andreas Kotsadam & Gaute Torsvik, 2016. "Exposure to Female Colleagues Breaks the Glass Ceiling – A Summary of the Findings from a Lab Experiment in the Field," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(02), pages 37-43, July.
    12. Paluck, Elizabeth Levy & Green, Seth Ariel & Green, Don, 2017. "The contact hypothesis re-evaluated," SocArXiv w2jkf, Center for Open Science.
    13. Luca Fumarco, 2017. "Disability Discrimination in the Italian Rental Housing Market: A Field Experiment with Blind Tenants," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 93(4), pages 567-584.
    14. Karen Evelyn Hauge & Andreas Kotsadam & Anine Riege, 2023. "Culture and Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(654), pages 2403-2426.
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    16. Henning Finseraas & Åshild A. Johnsen & Andreas Kotsadam & Gaute Torsvik, 2016. "Exposure to Female Colleagues Breaks the Glass Ceiling – A Summary of the Findings from a Lab Experiment in the Field," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(2), pages 37-43, 07.
    17. Lenz, Lisa & Mittlaender, Sergio, 2022. "The effect of intergroup contact on discrimination," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Schoonjans, Eline & Hottenrott, Hanna & Buchwald, Achim, 2023. "Welcome on board? Appointment dynamics of women as directors," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Kunze, Astrid & Katrin Scharfenkamp, Katrin, 2022. "Gender diversity, labour in the boardroom and gender quotas," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 16/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    20. Krenz, Astrid, 2019. "The gender gap in international trade: Female-run firms and the exporter productivity premium," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 368, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    21. Astrid Kunze & Katrin Scharfenkamp, 2022. "Gender Diversity, Gender in the Boardroom and Gender Quotas," CESifo Working Paper Series 10077, CESifo.
    22. Kübler, Dorothea & Schmid, Julia & Stüber, Robert, 2018. "Gender discrimination in hiring across occupations: a nationally-representative vignette study," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55, pages 215-229.
    23. Kunze, Astrid & Scharfenkamp, Katrin, 2022. "Gender Diversity, Labour in the Boardroom and Gender Quotas," IZA Discussion Papers 15691, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Lepage, Louis Pierre, 2020. "Endogenous learning and the persistence of employer biases in the labor market," CLEF Working Paper Series 24, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    J16; J78; C93; Discrimination; Exposure; Field experiments; Gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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