Promoting Equality: Do Women Work in Jobs with Lower Promotability?

Policy Context

Globally, women are paid on average 20 percent less than men (UN, 2022). Despite increasing educational attainment among women, female workers tend to be concentrated in lower-paying, lower-skilled jobs, and wide gender gaps in earnings remain for high-skilled workers (Goldin, 2014; Blau and Kahn, 2017). In Brazil and Uruguay specifically, women earn 30% less than men and only hold 11-15% of the management positions (Basco et al., 2021; Lara Ibarra and Mueller, 2020; Gukovas et al., 2016). Understanding where the gender gap arises in career development is crucial to promoting gender equality in labor markets.

Study Design

The research team is exploring whether women work in jobs with lower promotability and its causal mechanisms. Using nationally representative datasets from Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay they first construct a measure of job promotability to determine whether women are underrepresented in jobs with high promotability. Next, they use granular online job application data provided by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to disentangle the causal mechanisms, specifically whether the gender promotability gap arises in the application stage or the hiring stage. Finally, the team studies whether a lack of exposure to high-promotability jobs can result in skill gaps and lead to persistent gender differences in career advancement. By matching and utilizing unique datasets provided by ILO and government agencies, the team aims to provide novel evidence on how promotability can explain existing gender inequalities in the labor market.

Results and Policy Lessons

Results forthcoming.