When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender

Katherine B. Coffman; Christine L. Exley; Muriel  Niederle

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2017

When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender

by Katherine B. Coffman, Christine L. Exley and Muriel Niederle

Abstract

We use an experiment to show that employers prefer to hire male over female workers for a male-typed task even when they have identical resumes. Using a novel control condition, we document that this discrimination is not specific to gender. Employers are simply less willing to hire a worker from a group that performs worse on average, even when this group is instead defined by birth month, a non-stereotypical characteristic. A reluctance to discriminate emerges if workers share the gender or birth month of the worker from the worse-performing group, but even then, a small "excuse" counters this reluctance.

Keywords: Gender; Demographics; Attitudes; Prejudice and Bias;

Language: English

Format: Print

39 pages

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Citation:

Coffman, Katherine B., Christine L. Exley, and Muriel Niederle. "When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-054, December 2017.

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When Gender Discrimination Is Not About Gender

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