Using Danish registry data, the study examines how managers’ gender attitudes shape gender inequality in the workplace by using the birth of a daughter, rather than a son, as a plausibly exogenous shock to male managers’ gender attitudes. Comparing within-firm changes in women’s labor outcomes based on whether a manager’s newborn child is a girl or a boy, the authors find that women’s relative earnings and employment rise by 4.4% and 2.9%, respectively, after the birth of a manager’s first daughter.

The effects are driven by managers becoming more likely to replace male hires with female hires who have comparable education, hours worked, and earnings. That makes the result relevant beyond a single hiring decision: it points to a change in the composition of new employees inside firms, not simply a one-off adjustment in pay. Consistent with this substitution channel, the study does not detect any significant effect on firm performance.

Because the effects appear quickly and persist over time, the authors conclude that neither prolonged exposure to gender issues nor personal incentives related to improving conditions for their own daughters are necessary prerequisites for managers to promote gender equality within their firms. In other words, the paper links a family event to measurable changes in workplace outcomes, offering a rare empirical look at how managerial attitudes can translate into day-to-day personnel decisions.

The study is by Maddalena Ronchi and Nina Smith and is forthcoming in the Review of Economic Studies.

More information is available at the journal page:

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