Working Paper: NBER ID: w27606
Authors: Rocco Macchiavello; Andreas Menzel; Atonu Rabbani; Christopher Woodruff
Abstract: Women remain disadvantaged in access to management positions around the world. We conduct a field experiment with 24 large garment factories in Bangladesh to test for inefficient representation of women among line supervisors. We identify the marginal female and male candidates for supervisory positions and randomly assign them to manage production lines. Three sets of results emerge: (i) extensive diagnostic testing at baseline reveal few skill differences between marginal female and male supervisor candidates; (ii) initially, marginal female candidates have lower productivity and evaluations from sub-ordinate workers, though after four to six months, these gaps disappear; and (iii) the share of the female candidates retained as line supervisor after the trial is significantly higher than the share of female supervisors in the factories at baseline. This suggests that factories previously promoted fewer women than would have been optimal. Additional surveys and a lab-in-the-field experiment suggest that the initially worse performance stems from negative beliefs of workers about the abilities of female supervisors.
Keywords: gender inequality; managerial roles; Bangladeshi garment sector; field experiment; promotion practices
JEL Codes: J16; J71; M51; M54; O14; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| subordinates rating skills lower than those of male supervisors (J16) | beliefs about female supervisors' abilities are misaligned with their actual skills (J16) |
| productivity gap of approximately 7% (O47) | initial performance differences are not indicative of long-term capabilities (D29) |
| initial evaluations of female supervisors are negatively biased (J16) | subordinates rating skills lower than those of male supervisors (J16) |
| female trainees initially have lower productivity during the trial period compared to male counterparts (J24) | productivity gap of approximately 7% (O47) |
| retention rate of female trainees as supervisors post-trial (44%) is significantly higher than baseline share of women in supervisory roles (7%) (J24) | firms were previously underpromoting women due to inaccurate beliefs about their managerial skills (J79) |