Outrunning the Gender Gap – Boys and Girls Compete Equally

Anna Dreber, Emma von Essen () and Eva Ranehill

No 709, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: Recent studies find that women are less competitive than men. This gender difference in competitiveness has been suggested as one possible explanation for why men occupy the majority of top positions in many sectors. In this study we explore competitiveness in children, with the premise that both culture and gendered stereotypes regarding the task at hand may influence competitive behavior. A related field experiment on Israeli children shows that only boys react to competition by running faster when competing in a race. We here test if there is a gender gap in running among 7-10 year old Swedish children. We also introduce two female sports, skipping rope and dancing, to see if competitiveness is task dependent. We find no gender difference in reaction to competition in any task; boys and girls compete equally. If gender equality matters for competitiveness, this result may be explained by cultural factors, since Sweden scores higher on gender equality indices than Israel.

Keywords: competitiveness; gender differences; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2009-01-29, Revised 2011-03-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab and nep-spo
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (45)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Outrunning the gender gap—boys and girls compete equally (2011)
Working Paper: Outrunning the Gender Gap – Boys and Girls Compete Equally (2011)
Working Paper: Outrunning the Gender Gap – Boys and Girls Compete Equally (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hastef:0709

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