Perceptions of Gender Diversity in Occupations

Abstract

We design a survey experiment to investigate the effect of intervention with diversity on preferences for diverse outcomes. First, subjects report their perceptions of the archetypical occupations boss, professor, nurse, and clerk, rating boss/professor as higher status than nurse/clerk. Importantly, while respondents expect overrepresentation of women among nurses and clerks, they expect a relatively equal gender distribution among bosses and professors. We then randomize participants to view either diverse or nondiverse images for each occupation. Diversifying the image sets significantly increases the likelihood of underrepresented individuals being selected in both domains, but correctness of preexisting beliefs only matters in female-typed domains.