Events at CERGE-EI

Prof. Lata Gangadharan

Monash University, Australia

Join online: https://call.lifesizecloud.com/18158170 (Passcode: 3684)

Abstract: Several factors contribute to the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. For instance, gender differences in preferences for risk taking, competition, as well as social preferences can create gender differences in leadership positions. Gender differences in evaluations, both by women themselves and by others also play a critical role. Another important element for the success of female leaders is the institutional environment, which will be the focus of the talk. We design a laboratory experiment to examine how the institutional environment (competitive or cooperative) affects the performance and evaluation of male and female leaders. We find that in a competitive environment, women received lower evaluations than men for the same performance and advice, while in a cooperative environment, gender had no impact on evaluations. In addition, men were consistently more willing to take on leadership roles, regardless of the environment. These findings suggest that congruence of the environment with gender stereotypes has important implications for leadership outcomes and that creating more cooperative work environments may help to mitigate the gender leadership gap.