Publications
Publications
  • August 2022
  • Article
  • Quarterly Journal of Economics

The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion

By: Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:37
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Abstract

In applications, interviews, performance reviews, and many other environments, individuals are explicitly asked or implicitly invited to assess their own performance. In a series of experiments, we find that women rate their performance less favorably than equally performing men. This gender gap in self-promotion is notably persistent. It stays just as strong when we: eliminate gender differences in confidence about performance, eliminate incentives to self-promote, provide information about the average self-promotion of others, and make environments more ambiguous. Because of the prevalence of self-promotion opportunities, this self-promotion gap may contribute to persistent gender gaps in education and labor market outcomes.

Keywords

Self-promotion; Gender Gap; Experiments; Performance Evaluation; Gender

Citation

Exley, Christine L., and Judd B. Kessler. "The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion." Quarterly Journal of Economics 137, no. 3 (August 2022): 1345–1381.

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