Sexism, Social Outcomes, and the Gender Wage Gap

Using Google Trends data to identify hostile sexism, we find that sexism explains about 8 cents (or 41 percent) of the residual gender wage gap, the wage gap after controlling for education, occupation, industry, and age. We find evidence for a direct effect of sexism consistent with labor market discrimination and an indirect effect that works through social outcomes that reduce hours worked which itself directly affects wages. Consistent with theories of discrimination, the direct impact of sexism is greater for women who are less educated, work in less competitive industries, and work in industries with fewer female workers.