The promise (and peril) in approaching gender parity: Preregistered survey experiments addressing gender inequality in negotiations

Abstract

Despite repeated calls to reduce gender inequalities arising in negotiations, few solutions have emerged that effectively address the fact that women often ask—and even intend to ask—for less than men in negotiations. In this paper, we focus on intentions prior to a negotiation. We explore how a simple reminder of women’s inferior position in salary negotiations—showing either a stable or closing gender gap in salary requests—can help combat gender inequality by tapping into psychological motivations inherent to status competition. In two preregistered survey experiments of business school students and gig workers (n=4337), we show that any reminder of the gender gap in requested salaries leads women to intend to request more compared to the control groups in both samples. Showing a stable gap without female progress caused men in a business school, but not gig workers, to request less than men in a control condition. Yet, men in the same context request relatively more when shown a closing gap compared to the stable gap condition. Our work thus points both to the promise of simple interventions designed to reduce gender gaps in intended salary requests, as well as the perils arising from competitive dynamics as women actually approach parity.