Cognitive ability, stereotypes and gender segregation in the workplace

We carried out a survey among undergraduate students to investigate the role of gender stereotyping in the perception of female work and its consequences in terms of wage differential. Traditional female-oriented and male-oriented jobs are evaluated in terms of compensatory factors related to objective job’s characteristics and wages are then assigned to jobholders. We find that males assign lower wages to jobs thought to be carried out by women while women do not assign different wages to male and female workers but, in gen- eral, assign lower wages to both genders. Further, we find that even though males with high scores in a cognitive reflection test attribute, in general, higher wages they still assign lower wages to women. Finally, we decompose the wage differential using the classical Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition and find that the wage gap can not be explained by differences in the productive characteristcs of the workers.