Seminar: Ingrid Haegele (LMU)

Abstract

Many organizations have sought to increase female representation in leadership through demand-side interventions, such as quotas, but often meet limited success. This paper investigates the role of supply-side factors for limiting female leadership representation. I collect administrative data covering the universe of job application and vacancy data within a large multinational firm and conduct large-scale surveys of the firm’s employees. Women in the firm are 37% less likely to report aspirations to lead a team, which is a key avenue for advancing to higher-level leadership positions. These gender differences appear early in women’s careers and cannot be accounted for by psychological traits or family constraints. Rather, women perceive team leadership as more burdensome in terms of administrative duties and interpersonal conflict. The differences in leadership aspirations translate into significant differences in applications to internal vacancies, implying that gender differences in the perceived burden of leadership limit tthe firm’s ability to fill leadership positions.