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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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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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    Cited by:

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    2. Fumarco, Luca, 2015. "Disability Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market – A Field Experiment on Blind Tenants," MPRA Paper 63899, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Paredes, Valentina & Paserman, M. Daniele & Pino, Francisco J., 2020. "Does Economics Make You Sexist?," IZA Discussion Papers 13223, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Elisabeth Tovar & Mathieu Bunel, 2019. "Profit vs morality: how unfair is labor market discrimination? Results from a survey experiment," Post-Print hal-02459378, HAL.
    5. 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, Oxford University Press, vol. 136(2), pages 987-1030.
    6. 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.
    7. Maiti, Surya Nath & Pakrashi, Debayan & Saha, Sarani & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Don’t judge a book by its cover: The role of intergroup contact in reducing prejudice in conflict settings," GLO Discussion Paper Series 549, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. 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.
    9. Paluck, Elizabeth Levy & Green, Seth Ariel & Green, Don, 2017. "The contact hypothesis re-evaluated," SocArXiv w2jkf, Center for Open Science.
    10. 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.
    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(2), pages 37-43, 07.
    12. Krenz, Astrid, 2019. "The gender gap in international trade: Female-run firms and the exporter productivity premium," Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research Discussion Papers 368, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    13. Kübler, Dorothea & Schmid, Julia & Stüber, Robert, 2018. "Gender discrimination in hiring across occupations: a nationally-representative vignette study," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 215-229.
    14. 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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