Managers and the Cultural Transmission of Gender Norms

Virginia Minni, Kieutrang Nguyen, Heather Sarsons and Carla Srebot

No 21201, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This paper studies how managers’ gender attitudes shape workplace culture and gender inequality. Using data from a multinational firm operating in over 100 countries, we leverage cross-country manager rotations to identify the effects of male managers’ gender attitudes on gender pay gaps within a team. Managers from countries with one standard deviation more progressive gender attitudes reduce the pay gap by 5 percentage points (18%), largely through higher promotion rates for women. These effects persist after managers rotate out and are strongest in more conservative countries. Managers with progressive attitudes also influence the local office culture, as local managers who interact with but are not under the purview of the foreign manager begin to have smaller pay gaps in their teams. Our evidence points to individual managers as critical in shaping corporate culture

Keywords: Managers; Gender gaps; Corporate culture; Multinationals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 J16 J24 M14 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02
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