Daddy’s Girl
Using Danish registry data, we study how managers’ gender attitudes shape gender inequality in the workplace by exploiting the birth of a daughter – as opposed to a son – as a plausibly exogenous shock to male managers’ gender attitudes. Comparing within-firm changes in women’s labor outcomes depending on the gender of the manager’s newborn […] The post Daddy’s Girl appeared first on Marginal…
A recent study explores how a manager's gender attitudes can influence workplace gender inequality, using birth of a daughter as a unique exogenous shock. By analyzing data from Danish registries, researchers compare changes in women's labor outcomes within firms following the birth of a manager's first daughter, as opposed to a son.
The findings reveal that women's relative earnings and employment increase by 4.4% and 2.9%, respectively, following the birth of a daughter. This shift is mainly attributed to managers substituting male employees with female counterparts who possess similar education, work hours, and earnings. However, the study found no significant impact on firm performance as a result of these changes.
The rapid and persistent nature of these effects suggests that managers do not require prolonged exposure to gender issues or personal incentives to promote gender equality within their organizations. The research, conducted by Maddalena Ronchi and Nina Smith, is set to be published in the Review of Economic Studies.
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