What Works for Women Does Not Work for Men: A Large Field Experiment on Countering Gendered Occupational Choices

To foster gender equality and diversity in the workplace, firms and policymakers strive to attract women and men to gender-atypical occupations. However, particularly for men, such attempts have been of limited success. We theorize (a) that identity threat-related barriers hinder gender-atypical occupational choices, (b) that these barriers differ for women and men, and (c) that therefore the success of policy interventions aiming to encourage gender-atypical occupational choices differs for women and men. We conduct a large-scale field experiment with young women and men choosing their occupations when applying for their first job. We find that a brief intervention featuring counter-stereotypical framing and female role models in typically male jobs in STEM substantially increases women's applications for STEM jobs. However, an equivalent intervention featuring counter-stereotypical framing and male role models in typically female jobs in health and care does not increase men's applications for those jobs. Thus, strategies that work for women - such as portraying role models - do not necessarily work for men. To foster full gender equality in the workplace, firms and policymakers should not only continue investing in interventions aiming to attract women to male-dominated occupations but also develop interventions particularly focused at encouraging men to consider female-dominated occupations.