Gender Differences in Accepting and Receiving Requests for Tasks with Low Promotability

Linda Babcock, Maria Recalde, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart

American Economic Review, 2017, vol. 107, issue 3, 714-47

Abstract: Gender differences in task allocations may sustain vertical gender segregation in labor markets. We examine the allocation of a task that everyone prefers be completed by someone else (writing a report, serving on a committee, etc.) and find evidence that women, more than men, volunteer, are asked to volunteer, and accept requests to volunteer for such tasks. Beliefs that women, more than men, say yes to tasks with low promotability appear as an important driver of these differences. If women hold tasks that are less promotable than those held by men, then women will progress more slowly in organizations.

JEL-codes: I23 J16 J44 J71 M12 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141734
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (188)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20141734 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... b7UcMUtMwJ0Aruar5-St (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... 336ZlKKmwE0osl08NiXU (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... xvDcR7PwTZPVo_XIlUY- (application/zip)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:107:y:2017:i:3:p:714-47

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().