Why do staff nonetheless segregate by intercourse throughout occupations, industries, and corporations? Current analysis has centered on how preferences for job facilities, like flexibility, could differ by intercourse. Nonetheless, one “amenity” that has obtained comparatively little consideration is the intercourse composition of a job itself. In a current paper, I carried out a survey experiment to estimate males’s and ladies’s preferences for intercourse composition within the office. One result’s that ladies and younger single males choose jobs with no less than half feminine coworkers.
Measuring Preferences for Job Facilities
Quantifying employee preferences for job facilities isn’t simple. Utilizing observational knowledge, it’s onerous to disentangle employee preferences, the price of offering facilities, and agency hiring habits. For instance, if ladies usually tend to be in part-time jobs, is that as a result of ladies choose working part-time, as a result of it is more cost effective to supply part-time choices in occupations that ladies carry out, or as a result of corporations anticipate that ladies can be extra profitable or pleased in part-time jobs? Separating these channels is much more tough once we contemplate the demographic make-up of a agency as an amenity: intercourse composition is a direct consequence of each employee selection and agency hiring habits.
In my paper, I exploit a hypothetical job selection experiment to measure employee preferences for office composition. Within the experiment, respondents make a number of decisions between pairs of workplaces the place the occupation carried out is similar and the job duties are the identical, however the two workplaces differ in wages and demographics. By way of this design, I maintain fixed many attributes that will usually range with the intercourse composition of a job, and thus I can estimate preferences for intercourse composition itself. Respondents make a number of of those decisions throughout totally different occupations, together with trainer, insurance coverage gross sales agent, nurse, and software program engineer.
Beneath, I present an instance of a selection respondents would possibly make, specifically between two jobs as a gross sales affiliate at a retail retailer.
Instance Job Alternative
The chart beneath reveals the estimated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for intercourse composition individually for women and men. All WTPs are expressed relative to a 50 p.c feminine office. For instance, the -3 p.c WTP amongst ladies for a ten p.c feminine job signifies that, on common, the wage in a ten p.c feminine job should be 3 p.c increased than that in a 50 p.c feminine job for a girl to be detached between them.
Estimated Willingness-to-Pay for Feminine Share by Intercourse
Response to “With Whom Would You Reasonably Work”
Notes: The chart reveals the willingness-to-pay, as a fraction of the wage, for every potential feminine share estimated on knowledge from the survey. Bars present 95 p.c confidence intervals.
Strikingly, the form of the WTP profile throughout intercourse compositions is clean and remarkably related for women and men. Ladies have destructive WTPs for jobs lower than 50 p.c feminine, indicating that they like jobs with a feminine majority. Nonetheless, above 50 p.c, the WTP curve is generally flat and even barely downward sloping, indicating that the worth ladies place on extra feminine coworkers is negligible as soon as a job is no less than 50 p.c feminine.
The sample of WTPs is comparable for males. They’ve, on common, a destructive WTP for majority-male jobs, which decreases in magnitude as the feminine share approaches 50 p.c. Nonetheless, relative to ladies, males have a barely bigger destructive WTP for majority-female jobs, and most choose jobs which might be evenly balanced by intercourse. General, males’s WTPs for his or her most well-liked intercourse composition are barely smaller than ladies’s.
Within the accompanying paper, I additionally look at staff’ WTP for different demographic attributes, together with age and parental standing. I discover that respondents aged 40 and up choose extra coworkers aged 40 and up, and people with out kids have a slight desire for extra coworkers with out kids.
Choice Heterogeneity
The estimated intercourse composition preferences range broadly throughout people. The chart beneath reveals the desire estimates from a mannequin that teams respondents into desire courses primarily based purely on their solutions to the hypothetical selection questions. (The values in parentheses are shares of the full.) I discover that for each ladies (prime panel) and males (backside panel), about half of respondents appear to have no desire for intercourse composition in any respect—they like higher-wage jobs and are detached to the intercourse of their coworkers. One other group of women and men choose majority-female jobs, and dislike majority-male jobs greater than the common respondent. Lastly, for males, there’s a third group that prefers extra male coworkers. These outcomes counsel that composition preferences should not homogenous throughout people, so understanding this heterogeneity could be vital for understanding the motivations behind these preferences.
Heterogeneous Willingness-to-Pay for Feminine Share
Notes: The highest panel of the chart reveals the willingness-to-pay (WTP), as a fraction of the wage, for the 2 courses amongst ladies estimated as described in Schuh (2024). The underside panel reveals the identical for the three courses amongst males as described within the paper. The values in parentheses are shares of the full. Bars present 95 p.c confidence intervals.
Within the paper, I discover how totally different respondent traits range with their composition preferences. I discover that older ladies usually tend to choose feminine coworkers, relative to youthful and middle-aged ladies. Though I can’t distinguish immediately from my survey whether or not this can be a cohort impact or an age impact, each potentialities current fascinating tales. On the one hand, if it’s a cohort impact, it may very well be that older ladies skilled a labor market with extra restrictive gender norms previously or could have skilled extra gender-based discrimination within the office, main them to choose extra feminine coworkers. Alternatively, it may very well be that as ladies age, their preferences change, or they be taught from expertise that they like feminine workplaces.
Apparently, youthful, single males usually tend to choose feminine coworkers. This implies that for younger males, discovering a romantic accomplice within the office could also be a motivation for demographic preferences. Coupled with current analysis demonstrating each the prevalence of couple formation within the office and the potential prices of office courting for ladies, a possible space for additional analysis could be exploring the collection of males into female-dominated jobs and its impact on feminine staff’ welfare.
Rachel Schuh is a analysis economist within the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York’s Analysis and Statistics Group.
How one can cite this put up:
Rachel Schuh, “What Office Composition Are Job Candidates Trying For?,” Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York Liberty Avenue Economics, February 19, 2026, https://doi.org/10.59576/lse.20260219
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Disclaimer
The views expressed on this put up are these of the writer(s) and don’t essentially replicate the place of the Federal Reserve Financial institution of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the duty of the writer(s).
