JEDDI Seminar: Gender Inequality at Work
Join the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics, the UBC Sauder Dean’s Office, and the Organizational Behaviour & Human Resources division for a JEDDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Decolonization, & Inclusion) Seminar on “Tuning Out Gender? Understanding the Heterogeneous Effects of Educational Status on Compensation with Implications for the Gender Pay Gaps” by Mabel Abraham, the Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business at Columbia University.
When: Fri., Sept. 22, 2023 1:00-2:30pm PT
Where: UBC Sauder School of Business and online
Register to attend: https://bit.ly/JEDDI922
Abstract: A primary explanation for the gender pay gap is that gender is a status characteristic, proxying for traits valued in the workplace (e.g., competence). Since educational status reflects individuals’ prior achievements, it arguably serves as a better proxy for these traits and may thus attenuate gender pay differences. However, we theorize that educational status will only operate in this way—overcoming reliance on gender—among those with affiliations to the most elite schools. By contrast, a gender-based double standard will lead to heterogeneous effects of status, such that affiliations with high-status schools outside of the most elite yield higher premiums for men. Using data from a digital platform capturing compensation information from a diverse set of professionals across firms and industries, we find support for our theory. Men and women with an affiliation to the most elite schools receive similar premiums (~14%) over those without such affiliations, but among those graduating from schools just below the most elite, men realize a pay premium nearly twice that of women (9% vs. 5%). Furthermore, these gendered pay premiums are primarily driven by individuals in male-typed industries and in terms of bonus compensation, where managers typically have greater discretion. The gender pay gap is thus most pronounced at levels of educational status where men receive disproportionately higher premiums than women. Our research reveals that accounting for educational status in estimates of workplace gender inequality is pivotal, though the effects of educational status are complex.
About the presenter: Dr. Mabel Abraham is the Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and a faculty affiliate of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics. She earned her PhD and MS in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to academia, Professor Abraham worked in defined benefits consulting and risk management at Fidelity Investments.
Professor Abraham’s research examines how organizational and network processes contribute to gender differences in economic outcomes. Professor Abraham’s research has been published in leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization Science, and has been cited in several media outlets, including ABC, Bloomberg, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Abraham has also been recognized by leading scholarly associations for her research, including the American Sociological Association’s Best Published Paper Award, Wharton People Analytics Research Paper Competition, the Academy of Management’s Pondy Best Dissertation Paper Award, the INFORMS Dissertation Proposal Competition, the American Association of University Women American Fellowship, and the Kauffman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
About the JEDDI Seminar Series: The Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics and the UBC Sauder Dean’s Office host the JEDDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Decolonization, & Inclusion) Seminar Series to feature academic and business thought leaders sharing their experiences and strategies for creating more just, equitable, diverse, decolonized, and inclusive workplaces. Learn more about the JEDDI series.