Abstract:-
Evidence shows that men describe their professional skills more positively than women with similar experience in the labor market, a phenomenon known as the gender gap in “self-promotion”. This paper presents one of the first clear drivers of this gender gap — stereotypes about the relative performance of men and women in different tasks. In a laboratory experiment, I randomly assign participants to a series of tasks that vary in the strength of gender stereotypes. I find that men self-promote up to 11 percentage points more than women with similar performance in male-stereotyped tasks, but this gender gap is completely reversed in female-stereotyped tasks. In non-stereotypical tasks, I find no significant gender gap in self-promotion. Two key mechanisms explain these results: both men and women form higher beliefs about their performance, and interpret information about their performance more positively, in tasks where stereotypes favor their own gender group. Addressing gender gaps in beliefs and self-confidence is therefore crucial for addressing the gender gap in self-promotion.