"Be more confident. Be more assertive. Be more like a man". These words of advice are commonly given to women as the way to catch up to the careers of men. But where is the evidence this works?

 

This presentation brings together a series of economic studies that investigate the extent to which gender gaps in the workforce can be explained by gender differences in personality. These studies interrogate whether the advice to women to "lean in" delivers the payoffs it promises or whether this well-intentioned advice could do more harm than good.

 

The analysis uses data for the Australian workforce, drawn from the HILDA Survey. Econometric methods include the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique, which allows us to detect the potential for men and women to be evaluated differently for exhibiting the same trait, and Stochastic Frontier Analysis, which assesses the degree to which workers are held back from reaching their potential in the workforce.

 

Results are interpreted in light of the growing body of evidence indicating that closing gender gaps will not be achieved by "fixing women", but by debiasing workplace culture and practices. The presentation opens up the opportunity for us to look towards the research and evidence to figure out how this can be practically achieved.

 

Dr Leonora Risse is a Lecturer in Economics at RMIT University and a 2019-2020 Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Her research focuses on understanding gender differentials in the workforce, wellbeing and disadvantage, demographics, the role of psychology in understanding economic outcomes, and applying a gender lens to economic policymaking. Leonora brings public policy experience, having served as a Senior Research Economist for the Australian Government Productivity Commission, and she holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Queensland. She currently serves as National Chair of the Women in Economics Network. 

 

Meeting ID: 926 8653 8600

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