Addressing Gender-Based Segregation through Information : Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Republic of Congo

This paper describes a randomized experiment that used a sample of men and women who were eligible for a vocational training program in the Republic of Congo to test the effect of providing information on trade-specific earnings on trade choice. The analysis finds that women are 28.6 percent more likely to apply to a traditionally male- dominated trade when receiving this information. Men and women are also both more likely to apply to more lucrative trades. This may in part be driven by the intervention filling an information gap. The analysis suggests, however, that behavioral mechanisms, which make trade-specific returns more salient in the decision process of applicants, play an even bigger role. Indeed, there are much larger treatment effects among women who have technical knowledge and experience or male role models, even though the information does not impact their expectations of earnings in male-dominated trades. The treatment is thus most effective among women who are already well positioned to cross over into male-dominated trades and can give greater weight to earning considerations when choosing a trade. The results indicate that this low-cost intervention can be a useful tool to encourage women to cross over to more lucrative trades in which their presence has been limited, and thereby contribute to reducing the gender gap in earnings. There is also a high potential for interventions that would pair information on returns and trade exposure