Event Date Mon, Apr 21, 2025 @ 3:40pm - 5:00pm Location Gold Room, Social Sciences and Humanities, 1131 "Early Onset of Gendered Work Assignments"Research has shown that women more than men perform “non-promotable tasks” (NPTs) in the workplace. This study investigates how early unequal task allocations emerge and the impact of unequal task allocations on career progression. We collect survey, experimental, and administrative data from cohorts of MBA students graduating from the Norwegian School of Economics before and after they enter the labor market and follow their career trajectories. Results show that as early as 1 year after entering the labor market, gender differences in task allocations emerge with women more than men reporting that they perform more non-promotable tasks than their peers. This is not driven by differences in preferences, men and women initially wanting or expecting different things from work, or from selection into different industries, firms, or occupations. It is a result that is stronger in male-dominated sectors and which seems to be driven by gendered expectations of who will perform NPTs, consistent with prior findings (Babcock et al 2017). I will also present the results of another study (conducted with Lise Vesterlund and Marissa Lepper) which randomly varies NPT workloads across workers in a laboratory experiment. Results show large and persistent impacts of task assignment on pay, productivity, and promotion, which are in part driven by distorted beliefs about the relative productivity of workers. Event Category Behavioral
