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Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps

Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2023.

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Other Authors: Nicholls, Nicky
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2024
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Nicholls, Nicky
author_browse Nicholls, Nicky
author_facet Nicholls, Nicky
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2023.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:19.405Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/94275 Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps Nicholls, Nicky u15269320@tuks.co.za Pleace, Michelle Anne UCTD Gender Impostor Phenomenon Decision making Gender wage gap Team work SDG-05: Gender equality Economic and management sciences theses SDG-09 Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2023. Since the second wave of feminism started in the 1960s, women have made progress in the labour force. However, persistent challenges such as low representation in specific fields, limited access to high-ranking positions, and the gender pay gap continue to hinder gender equality. Overcoming these inequalities is crucial for empowering women and challenging societal norms. In this dissertation, we use different methods to investigate how the illusion of feeling incompetent, gender biases around working in teams with women, and the gender wage gap contribute to the challenges faced by women. Firstly, we use anchoring vignettes in a survey to examine whether impostor feelings, characterised by individuals mistakenly perceiving themselves as incompetent despite external evidence of success, discourage women from pursuing fields where they are traditionally underrepresented, such as academia. We observe a negative relationship between impostor feelings and the likelihood of students pursuing further studies. This limits human capital accumulation which can perpetuate gender disparities in the labour market. Secondly, we use a university-based field experiment to explore whether gender perceptions influence team relations and performance. We note a lower willingness to work in randomly assigned teams that have more women, despite majority-female teams outperforming other team types. Since individuals that are less included in their team have fewer opportunities to build upon their human capital, bias against having more women in a team can limit women’s career progression. Lastly, we look at the broader effects of gender inequality, specifically the gender pay gap. Using administrative data pertaining to South Africa’s formal economy, we find that the income differential by gender widened from 2008 to 2021. This lower pay negatively impacts women’s economic autonomy. Also, we note that the gender pay gap is largest at the 90th percentile of the income distribution in high-skill sectors suggesting women earn less than men at top-level management positions. These findings together highlight that women still struggle with gender equality in the labour market. Economics PhD (Economics) Unrestricted Faculty of Economic And Management Sciences SDG-05: Gender equality 2024-02-05T07:58:00Z 2024-02-05T07:58:00Z 2024-04 2023-08 Thesis * A2024 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/94275 https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.23939529 ; https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.21940019 en © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Gender
Impostor Phenomenon
Decision making
Gender wage gap
Team work
SDG-05: Gender equality
Economic and management sciences theses SDG-09
Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title_full Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title_fullStr Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title_full_unstemmed Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title_short Essays on gender : impostor feelings, team composition, and pay gaps
title_sort essays on gender impostor feelings team composition and pay gaps
topic UCTD
Gender
Impostor Phenomenon
Decision making
Gender wage gap
Team work
SDG-05: Gender equality
Economic and management sciences theses SDG-09
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/94275
https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.23939529 ; https://doi.org/10.25403/UPresearchdata.21940019