GENDER MATCHING AND COMPETITIVENESS: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE

This paper experimentally investigates if and how people's competitiveness depends on their own gender and on the gender of people with whom they interact. Participants are given information about the gender of the co‐participant they are matched with, they then choose between a tournament or a piece rate payment scheme, and finally perform a real task. As already observed in the literature, we find that significantly more men than women choose the tournament. The gender of the co‐participant directly influences men's choices (men compete less against other men than against women), but only when the gender information is made sufficiently salient. A higher predicted competitiveness of women induces more competition. Giving stronger tournament incentives, or allowing the participants to choose the gender of their co‐participant, increases women's willingness to compete, but does not close the gender gap in competitiveness. (JEL C70, C91, J16, J24, J31, M52)     

Can gender differences in distributional preferences explain gender gaps in competition?

We design a lab experiment to specifically examine whether a preference for favorable inequality and behindness aversion, as well as egalitarian preferences, affect competitive choices differently among males and females. Using data on approximately 2,000 subjects, we find that selection into competitive environments is negatively related to egalitarian preferences, with smaller negative impacts of being egalitarian on females’ choice to compete. Further, behindness aversion and preference for favorable inequality affect willingness to compete in opposite ways. The willingness to compete is negatively affected by behindness aversion, while a preference for favorable inequality positively influences willingness to compete. Interestingly, when we disaggregate behavior along gender lines, we find that compared to behindness averse males, behindness averse females are more likely to enter the competitive environment. In contrast, there is no significant gender difference in the impact of preference for favorable inequality on competition. Our results suggest that the observed gender difference in competitiveness can stem from male-female differences in distributional preferences and selected personality traits developed during one’s lifetime.     

Scared of the Shelter from the Storm: Fear of Crime and Hurricane Shelter Decision Making

Theories about fear of crime may offer insights about the use of public shelters in disaster situations. This study focuses on fear of victimization and gendered explanations of fear of crime in public shelters during hurricane events. From surveys of 424 North Carolina residents, 179 respondents described safety concerns with staying in a public shelter. Fear of victimization was the most commonly identified safety concern in connection to anticipated shelter use, significantly more so than concerns related to sanitation or structural integrity. Female respondents more often described fear of violent and sexual crimes in public shelters, which could be explained through the sexual assault hypothesis. We draw into our analysis literature examining the relationship between fear of crime and gender as we explore the implications of the results on planning for evacuation and sheltering in disaster events. By directly addressing perceived security in public shelters, we hope to expand our understanding of an important U.S. disaster setting by bridging research between fear of crime and disaster studies.     

Women’s Tertiary Education Masks the Gender Wage Gap in Turkey

This paper investigates the gender wage gap for full-time formal sector employees, disaggregated by education level. The gap between the labor force participation rate of women with tertiary education and those with lower levels of education is substantial. There is no such gap for men. Hence, existing gender wage gap studies for Turkey, where we observe lopsided labor force participation rates by education levels, compare two very different populations. We disaggregate the whole sample by education level to create more homogenous sub-groups. For Turkey, without disaggregation, the gender wage gap was 13% in 2011, and women are significantly over-qualified relative to men on observed characteristics. Once we disaggregate the sample by education level, we show that the gender wage gap is 24% for less educated women and 9% for women with tertiary education in full-time formal employment. Observed characteristics only explain 1 % of this gap in absolute terms. We further disaggregate the data by public and private employment. The gender gap is higher in the private sector. However, women with tertiary education in the public sector are significantly better qualified compared to men, and consequently the adjusted gender wage gap is higher for women with tertiary education in the public sector. Our estimates also indicate a rise in the gender wage gap between 2004 and 2011.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN JOB AUTONOMY:

This research investigates the impact of gender, occupational segregation, and authority position on various forms of job autonomy. The empirical analysis was guided by theoretical concerns over the relevance of occupational characteristics and authority position in explaining the gender gap in job autonomy. Ordinary Least Squares regression results show that after taking various individual and employment-related factors into account, authority position, but not female-dominated occupation, explains a large portion of the gender gap in the degree of job autonomy. Furthermore, logistic regressions indicate that no gender differences in the likelihood of having any of five components of job autonomy remain, after taking all other factors in the model into account. It is concluded that authority position at work is more instrumental in explaining the gender gap in job autonomy than the gender composition of occupations.     

Image and Symbolic Leadership: Using Focus Group Research to Bridge the Gaps

Through an exploration of the scholarly and professional literature, this article investigates the concepts of symbolic leadership and organizational image. A critical analysis of the literature establishes that symbolic leaders, especially chief executive officers (CEOs), may operate either symmetrically or asymmetrically. As leader and spokesperson, the CEO personifies the company to its key constituencies. Effective leaders give people power. This empowerment of strategic publics, both external and internal, suggests a symmetrical world view. It replaces the asymmetrical assumptions more characteristic of the autocratic leadership espoused in the management theory of the 1950s. A modest case study of focus group research illustrates the role of public relations in exploring, defining, and communicating image. This counseling or managerial role is critical in helping the organization be, rather than seeming to be—a key philosophical tenet of contemporary public relations. The theoretical frame for this article is Dervin's (1983, 1990, 1991) gap perspective, which suggests that such discontinuities are inherent in human interaction. Because focus groups also may provide insight into how to reconcile any gaps employees or other publics perceive between the image and the reality of the organization, it suggests more of a symmetrical than asymmetrical model.

Senior management's role is to personify the organization externally to customers & others—but also internally to the "family." (pr reporter, 1991)     

RANK‐ORDER COMPETITION IN THE VOLUNTARY PROVISION OF IMPURE PUBLIC GOODS

Publicly provided goods often create differential payoffs due to timely or spatial distances of group members. We design and test a provision mechanism which utilizes rank competition to mitigate free‐riding in impure public goods. In our Rank‐Order Voluntary Contribution Mechanism (Rank‐Order‐VCM) group members compete via observable contributions for a larger share of the public good; high contributors receive preferential access (a larger share), while low contributors receive restricted access (a lower share). In a laboratory experiment, Rank‐Order‐VCM elicits median contributions equal to the full endowment throughout the finitely played games with constant groups. In the control treatment, with randomly assigned ranks, the contributions are significantly lower and decline over time. We thus provide evidence of rank competition, in situations where discriminatory access to public goods is possible, being efficiency enhancing. (JEL C91, H41)     

Visualising Gender Wage Differences in the European Union

The purpose of this article is to illustrate differences in the gender wage gap in 13 EU member states, using figures taken from the Household Panel for 2000. The methodology is based primarily on the kernel density functions of men's and women's wages. A range of situations can be observed from the Mediterranean countries (with a smaller gender pay gap) to the very specific cases of Austria and the UK and to northern European countries where the gender pay gap is chiefly the result of a larger proportion of men at higher‐paid levels. We also offer conclusions on the relevance of public employment, part‐time employment and short‐term hiring to explain the gender wage gap in each of the countries studied.     

Reprivatized Womanhood: Changes in Mainstream Media's Framing of Urban Women's Issues in China, 1995–2012

After waves of women's liberation movements, the reform era has witnessed a puzzling stagnation, if not decline, in women's status in China. Among the existing literature on the changing public gender discourse in postsocialist China, few studies have substantially engaged with feminist critiques of the “separate spheres” as an analytical framework. In this study the authors performed content analyses on 202 articles drawn from 3 Chinese mainstream magazines between 1995 and 2012 to describe changes in media's framing of urban women's issues. Over time, topics on marriage and private relationships became increasingly predominant, while concerns over gender discrimination diminished in the mainstream media. The results provide evidence for a revitalization of traditional gender values attributing women to “private” spheres and reveal the media's repeated use of individualistic approaches to structural problems, suggesting an alliance between patriarchal and neoliberal ideologies in shaping public gender discourse while concealing structural inequalities in urban China.     

CATEGORY REPORTING IN CHARITABLE GIVING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

We examine the effect of category reporting on charitable giving, aiming to disentangle the publicity effect from the category effect. We compare subjects' donation decisions under three reporting plans: category reporting, where an honored category is prespecified and qualifying subjects were publicly acknowledged; category no reporting, where the same category was utilized but the qualifying donors were not publicly acknowledged; and no reporting, where neither category setting nor public reporting was utilized. We found that category reporting significantly increased average donations relative to no reporting, and that this superiority was due to the dual presence of the category setting and the public reporting. The category setting anchors donations toward the category threshold and increased the average donations when the threshold was modestly set. The public reporting, on the other hand, only worked at the highest category level. It further increased the donations by providing extra social‐image benefits. (JEL C90, C91, D64, H00)     

“Family-Friendly” Fringe Benefits and the Gender Wage Gap

Evidence suggests a large portion of the gender wage gap is explained by gender occupational segregation. A common hypothesis is that gender differences in preferences or abilities explain this segregation; women may prefer jobs that provide more “family-friendly” fringe benefits. Much of the research provides no direct evidence on gender differences in access to fringe benefits, nor how provision affects wages. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, we find that women are more likely to receive family-friendly benefits, but not other types of fringe benefits. We find no evidence that the differences in fringe benefits explain the gender wage gap.

Explaining the unionism gap: Public-private sector differences in preferences for unionization

Data indicate a substantial and growing “unionism gap” between the public and private sectors. Previous research identifies possible explanations for this gap, including preferences for collective action, political considerations, fears of employer retaliation, and concerns about job security. Our results provide support for these explanations, but also suggest that perceived differences between private and public sector unions may be a significant factor.     

The Abortion Attitudes Paradox: Model Specification and Gender Differences

Rather unexpectedly, prior work has failed to find consistent gender differences in public support for legal abortion. Given that gender differences in public opinion emerge for a wide range of other issue areas, it seems paradoxical that there is no consistent gender difference on the issue of abortion. I propose that this failure to find a consistent gender difference is due to how abortion attitudes are modeled. Controlling for religiosity, which research has shown women to score higher on, results in a small and consistent gender gap in support for legal abortion with women more likely than men to support.     

The Role of Gender in Varying Forms of Flexible Working

In this article we present empirical data from a research study investigating the implementation of the flexible working policies that emanate from the improving working lives standard in a National Health Service Trust in the UK. We argue that gender is accorded insufficient focus in the literature, considering the barriers that create a take‐up gap in formal flexible working practices. We further argue that gendered perceptions render unworkable attempts to portray flexible working as a gender‐neutral issue and demonstrate that such perceptions mean that formal mechanisms for flexible working continue to be considered to be a women's issue. We present data on informal flexible working mechanisms and suggest that a greater focus on combining these mechanisms with formal flexibility may help provide working time flexibility for a greater proportion of the workforce.     

A Second Look: Is There a Latina/o Gender Gap?

SUMMARY

This research builds upon and updates Montoya's 1996 study of the Latina/o gender gap through the use of the 1999 Harvard Kennedy School/Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post Latino Survey. Not only do we find a gender gap across six questions related to the use of force, social compassion, and women's social roles, we also find that the size and significance of the gap varies across Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin respondents. Our findings challenge past research that found limited evidence of a gender gap in public opinion among Latinos and Latinas nationally, and suggest that more research is needed in order to understand how gendered experiences help to frame public opinion within different racial/ethnic groups in the United States.     

HIGH SCHOOL CHOICES AND THE GENDER GAP IN STEM

Women are less likely than men to graduate with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). We use detailed administrative data for a recent cohort of Ontario high school students, combined with data from the province's university admission system, to analyze the sources of this gap. We show that entry to STEM programs is mediated through an index of STEM readiness that depends on end‐of‐high school courses in math and science. Most of the gender gap in STEM entry can be traced to differences in the share of college entrants who are STEM‐ready; only a small share is attributable to differences in the choice of major conditional on readiness. We then use high school course data to decompose the gender gap in STEM readiness into two channels: one reflecting the gap in the fraction of high school students with the necessary prerequisites to enter STEM, the other arising from differences in the overall fractions of females and males who enter university. The gender gap in the fraction of males and females with STEM prerequisites is small. The primary driver of the gap in STEM readiness is the low rate of university entry by nonscience‐oriented males. (JEL I21, 28, I20)     

Adolescents Seeking Mental Health Services

Summary

Inner-city adolescents receiving mental health services often get inadequate medical care. However, when those who seek counseling are asked about their health concerns, they say they want to discuss them with their therapists. Based on responses to a clinical self-assessment questionnaire (Adquest), adolescent mental health clients reported sleep difficulties, weight and eating concerns, and frequent headaches and stomachaches. Age and gender differences in patterns of vulnerability and willingness to talk were explored.     

The Color of Neoliberalism: The “Modern Southern Businessman” and Postwar Alabama’s Challenge to Racial Desegregation1

Prior research on the origins and diffusion of the neoliberal project have emphasized the role of elite economists, yet no explanations have been provided as to why neoliberal reforms were attractive to the broader U.S. population. To fill this gap in the literature, this article focuses on the voluntary sector struggles against desegregation and corporate taxation in postwar Alabama. I examine the emergence of a language of privatization that degraded all things public as “black” and inferior and all things private as “white” and superior, which provided the pretext to attract national white support for the neoliberal turn. Empirically, the article focuses on the construction of the modern southern businessman that emerged from struggles to economically modernize the South, and the construction of a publicly financed private school system that emerged from the struggles to fight school desegregation. These two struggles fused under the George Wallace political umbrella, whose regional and national political career diffused the racial language from its origins in 1950s Alabama to the national level in the 1960s and early 1970s.     

Modernization and the gender gap in religiosity: Evidence from cross-national European surveys

The tendency of women to be more religious than men has been widely observed. Many theories have been offered to account for this difference, with explanations ranging from the biological to the sociological; no consensus on the explanation has been reached. Using data from the European Social Survey, the European Values Study and the International Social Survey Programme, in conjunction with a new method for measuring the gender gap, we compare different countries, generations and periods in Europe to address three key questions: (1) How much do the differences between men and women depend on what indicator of religiosity (e.g. affiliation, attendance, prayer, belief) is being considered? (2) Is there an association at the national level between the size of the gender gap and the degree of secularization or gender equality? (3) Is there a convergence in the religiosity of men and women across generations or over time? There is some evidence for such a narrowing of the gap in Europe—most noticeably in southern and Eastern Europe—but substantial differences persist. Even in countries that are comparatively secular and where gender inequality has been much reduced, women are considerably more likely than men to identify with a religion, to call themselves religious, and to participate in public and private religious activities.