The Origin and Scale of Gender Inequality: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

In the United States, women make roughly 75% of what men make. This inequality is reduced to roughly 92% once factors like occupation and job performance are controlled. The central debate over which number is correct has been whether these occupational and behavioral inequalities are related to gender or incidental to it. This study uses a natural experiment from a crowdfunding website for public school teachers to answer this question. The study shows there is no occupational and behavioral inequality in the likelihood of funding when teachers are anonymous. Yet, there is substantial inequality after they are identified as “Mr. Smith” or “Ms. Jones.” These results indicate gender gaps by occupation and behavior only occur as a result of exposure to gender and that estimates of gender inequality are likely under-inflated by thirty percent.