Catherine C. Eckel

Presenter: Catherine C. Eckel 

Paper: “The gender leadership gap in competitive and cooperative institutions,” joint work with Lata Gangadharan, Philip J. Grossman, Miranda Lambert, and Nina Xue 

Abstract:  

Women are believed to shy away from competitive environments and prefer cooperative environments. This study investigates the impact of the institutional setting on the gender leadership gap. We design an experiment using a modified Centipede game to test whether leaders can foster cooperation among team members under varying incentive systems: competitive ("winner takes all") versus cooperative (equal earnings distribution). The leader, whose gender is revealed, sends a message providing strategic advice to their group.  We find that male and female leaders are similarly effective in enhancing efficiency and are anticipated to perform equivalently. However, in a competitive context, a gender gap emerges: Female leaders receive lower evaluations than male leaders for offering identical advice. Interestingly, this bias is not observed in a cooperative context, suggesting that the congruence of the environment with gender stereotypes has important implications for leadership evaluations. Notably, men consistently demonstrate a higher propensity to lead, regardless of the surrounding context.