Do men and women discriminate against women for the same reason? Evidence from China

In this study, we examine whether men and women form gender discrimination for the same reason. To do that, we build an experimental Chinese labor market in which employers evaluate the productivity of workers who perform a real-effort task. Before evaluation, the employer observes the worker’s personal and group information. The personal information contains gender identity and a signal of productivity. The group information reveals the productivity distributions of some other male and female workers who do not differ in average productivity. However, it shows more male workers at the very top productivity levels and more female workers at the very bottom productivity levels in one treatment than in the other. According to the belief-based theory, there will be a greater degree of discrimination against female workers in the former. We find that, however, only male employers’ evaluations are well predicted by this approach. Female employers behave oppositely: their degree of gender discrimination is smaller in the treatment emphasizing men’s advantage in the tails of the productivity distributions. To explain female employers’ evaluations, we adopt the preference-based approach. Our findings suggest that employers of different genders can have different motivations for gender discrimination, and thus call attention to the theoretical foundation of gender discrimination and policy measures aimed at reducing gender discrimination.