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Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society

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Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society Econometrica, Vol. 77, No. 5 (September, 2009), 1637–1664 GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITION: EVIDENCE FROM A MATRILINEAL AND A PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY BY URI GNEEZY,KENNETH L. LEONARD, AND JOHN A. LIST1 We use a controlled experiment to explore whether there are gender differences in selecting into competitive environments across two distinct societies: the Maasai in Tanzania and the Khasi in India. One unique aspect of these societies is that the Maasai represent a textbook example of a patriarchal society, whereas the Khasi are matrilineal. Similar to the extant evidence drawn from experiments executed in West- ern cultures, Maasai men opt to compete at roughly twice the rate as Maasai women. Interestingly, this result is reversed among the Khasi, where women choose the com- petitive environment more often than Khasi men, and even choose to compete weakly more often than Maasai men. These results provide insights into the underpinnings of the factors hypothesized to be determinants of the observed gender differences in selecting into competitive environments. KEYWORDS: Gender and competition, matrilineal and patriarchal societies, field ex- periment. 1. INTRODUCTION ALTHOUGH WOMEN HAVE MADE important strides in catching up with men in the workplace, a gender gap persists both in wages and in prospects for advancement. Commonly cited explanations for such disparities range from charges of discrimination to claims that women are more sensitive than men to work–family conflicts and therefore are less inclined to make career sacrifices.2 Combining results from psychology studies (see Campbell (2002), for a review) with recent findings in the experimental economics literature (e.g., Gneezy, Niederle, and Rustichini (2003), Gneezy and Rustichini (2004), Niederle and Vesterlund (2005)), an alternative explanation arises: men are more compet- itively inclined than women.3 A stylized finding in this literature is that men and women differ in their propensities to engage in competitive activities, with men opting to compete more often than women, even in tasks where women are more able. Such data patterns might provide insights into why we observe a higher fraction of women than men among, for example, grammar school teachers, but the reverse among CEOs. An important puzzle in this literature relates to the underlying factors re- sponsible for the observed differences in competitive inclinations. One oft 1We thank our research team for aiding in the collection of these data, especially Steffen An- dersen. A co-editor was instrumental in guiding us toward a much improved manuscript, both in content and in style. Four anonymous referees also provided quite useful comments, as did many seminar participants. 2See Altonji and Blank (1999), Blau and Kahn (1992, 2000), and Blau, Ferber, and Winkler (2002). 3See also Vandegrift, Yavas, and Brown (2004), Gneezy and Rustichini (2005), and Datta Gupta, Poulsen, and Villeval (2005). © 2009 The Econometric Society DOI: 10.3982/ECTA6690 1638 U. GNEEZY, K. L. LEONARD, AND J. A. LIST heard hypothesis is that men and women are innately different (Lawrence (2006)). For example, in discussions concerning why men considerably out- number women in the sciences, several high profile scholars have argued that men are innately better equipped to compete (see, e.g., Baron-Cohen (2003), Lawrence (2006), and the citations in Barres (2006)). An empirical regularity consistent with this notion is the fact that substantial heterogeneity exists in the competitiveness of individuals raised in quite similar environments; see, for example, the discussion of the tendency to compete in bargaining (Shell (2006)). Nevertheless, the role of nurture, or the fact that culture might be critically linked to competitive inclinations, is also an important consideration. More than a handful of our male readership can likely recall vividly their grammar school physical education teacher scorning them with the proverbial “you’re playing like a girl” rant to induce greater levels of competitive spirit. Clearly, however, the explanations might not be competing; rather the nature–nurture interaction might be of utmost importance, either because nurture enables the expression of nature (Turkheimer (1998, 2003), Ridley (2003)) or because na- ture and nurture co-evolve (Boyd and Richerson (1985, 2005)). Our goal in this study is to provide some insights into the underpinnings of the observed differences in competitiveness across men and women using a simple experimental task. One approach to lending insights into the source of such preference differences is to find two distinct societies and observe choices that provide direct insights into the competitiveness of the participants. After months of background research, we concluded that the Maasai tribe of Tan- zania and the Khasi tribe in India provided interesting natural variation that permitted an exploration into the competitiveness hypothesis. As explained in greater detail below, while several other potentially important factors vary across these societies, the Maasai represent a patriarchal society, whereas the Khasi are a matrilineal and matrilocal society. Our experimental results reveal interesting differences in competitiveness: in the patriarchal society, women are less competitive than men, a result con- sistent with student data drawn from Western cultures. Yet, this result reverses in the matrilineal society, where we find that women are more competitive than men. Perhaps surprisingly, Khasi women are even slightly more competitive than Maasai men, but this difference is not statistically significant at conven- tional levels under any of our formal statistical tests. We view these results as providing potentially useful insights into the crucial link between culture and behavioral traits that influence economic outcomes.4 Such insights might also have import within the policy community where targeting of policies can be 4As we discuss below, this result might be due to learning or an evolutionary process whereby the selection effects across societies generate natural differences. We argue that, in either case, culture has an influence. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMPETITION 1639 importantly misguided if the underlying mechanism generating the data is ill understood. The remainder of our study proceeds as follows. The next section provides an overview of the two societies and our experimental design. We proceed to a discussion of the experimental results in Section 3. Section 4 provides various robustness tests, Section 5 concludes. 2. SOCIETAL BACKGROUND AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We are sick of playing the roles of breeding bulls and baby-sitters. A Khasi man (Ahmed (1994)) Men treat us like donkeys. A Maasai woman (Hodgson (2001)) 2.1. Brief Societal Backgrounds The Maasai and the Khasi represent, respectively, a patriarchal and a matri- lineal/matrilocal society. Originally, we attempted to find two societies in which the roles of men and women were mirror images, but this approach found little success. Indeed, the sociological literature is almost unanimous in the conclu- sion that truly matriarchal societies no longer exist.5 In addition, even ordinal classification of societies on any dimension is dangerous, as culture and society are not static fixtures handed down from prehistory. Certain reports of extreme female domination in the Khasi or strong male domination among the Maasai are somewhat exaggerated and subject to charges of ethnocentrism.6 The Khasi The Khasi of Meghalaya, in northeast India are a matrilineal society, and in- heritance and clan membership always follow the female lineage through the youngest daughter. Family life is organized around the mother’s house, which is headed by the grandmother who lives with her unmarried daughters, her youngest daughter (even if she is married), and her youngest daughter’s chil- dren. Additionally, her unmarried, divorced, or widowed brothers and sons reside in the home. The youngest daughter never leaves and eventually be- comes the head of the household; older daughters usually form separate house- holds adjacent to their mother’s household. Furthermore, a woman never joins 5Campbell (2002) summarized as follows: “there are societies that are matrilineal and ma- trilocal and where women are accorded veneration and respect but there are no societies which violate the universality of patriarchy defined as ‘a system of organization in which the overwhelm- ing number of upper positions in hierarchies are occupied by males’ (Goldberg, 1993, p. 14).” 6About the Maasai in particular, there is a vigorous debate on the current and historical role of women (see Hodgson (2000, 2001) and Spencer (1965, 1994)). 1640 U. GNEEZY, K. L. LEONARD, AND J. A. LIST the household of her husband’s family and a man usually leaves his mother’s household to join his wife’s household. In some cases, a man will practice duolocal marriage (in which he lives in both his mother’s and his wife’s house- holds). Even in cases when a married man resides with his wife’s family, he spends much, if not most, of his time in his mother’s or sisters’ household (Nakane (1967), Van Ham (2000)). Though Khasi women do not generally assume the roles held by men in pa- triarchal societies (they do not become warriors or hunters, for example), they always live in households in which they or their mothers have authority over most household decisions. On the other hand, men frequently hold roles that seem to mirror those of women in patriarchal societies. The Khasi husband dwells in a household in which he has no authority or property, is expected to work for the gain of his wife’s family, and has no social roles deemed impor- tant. His role is summarized by Nakane (1967, p. 125), who provided accounts of the subservient role of Khasi men. Such status has lead to the formation of a men’s rights movement (Nonbgri (1988), Ahmed (1994), Van Ham (2000)). Perhaps the most important economic feature of Khasi society is that the re- turn to unverifiable investment in the human capital of girls is retained within the household, whereas, in other cultures, only the verifiable component of in- vestment can be retained through bride price or dowry.
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