Are Gender Differences in Performance Innate or Socially Mediated?

To explain persistent gender gaps in
market outcomes, a lab experimental literature explores
whether women and men have innate differences in ability (or
attitudes or preferences), and a separate field-based
literature studies discrimination against women in market
settings. This paper posits that even if women have
comparable innate ability, their relative performance may
suffer in the market if the task requires them to interact
with others in society, and they are subject to
discrimination in those interactions. The paper tests these
ideas using a large-scale field experiment in 142 Malawian
villages where men or women were randomly assigned the task
of learning about a new agricultural technology, and then
communicating it to others to convince them to adopt it.
Although female communicators learn and retain the new
information just as well, and those taught by women
experience higher farm yields, the women are not as
successful at teaching or convincing others to adopt the new
technology. Micro-data on individual interactions from 4,000
farmers in these villages suggest that other farmers
perceive female communicators to be less able, and are less
receptive to the women's messages. Relatively small
incentives for rewards undo the disparity in performance by
encouraging added interactions, improving farmers'
accuracy about female communicators' relative skill.