Abstract
Religion is a preeminent social institution that meaningfully shapes cultures. Prevailing theory suggests that it is primarily a benevolent force in business, and differences across world religions preclude examining effects that thread across religions. We develop a theoretical account that fundamentally challenges these assumptions by explaining how and why religiosity-regardless of which religion is prominent-differentiates based on gender, widening the gender wage gap. Guided by an integrated review of the religion literature, we specify three dimensions of gender differentiation-social domains, sexuality, and agency-that explain why religiosity widens the gender wage gap. A series of studies tested our theoretical model. Two studies showcased the predictive power of religiosity on the gender wage gap across 140 countries worldwide and the 50 United States via gender-differentiated social domains, sexuality, and agency, explaining 37% of the variance in the wage gap. U.S. longitudinal data indicated that the gender wage gap is narrowing significantly faster in secular states. Moreover, experiments allowed for causal inference, revealing that gender-egalitarian interventions blocked the effect of religiosity on the gender wage gap. Finally, theoretical and empirical accounts converge to suggest that religiosity's effect on the gender wage gap applies across the major world religions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1016-1048 |
| Number of pages | 33 |
| Journal | Academy of Management Journal |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:For valuable feedback and insightful commentary during the development of this research, we thank David Chandler, Colleen Flaherty Manchester, Brady Firth, Theresa Glomb, John Mathieu, Liam Moore, Alexandra Rheinhardt, Kristie Rogers, Pauline Schilpzand, Madison Schwartz, Connie Wanberg, and members of the University of Kansas speaker series. We are grateful to Senior Editor Laszlo Tihanyi and three anonymous reviewers for incisive questions and constructive comments that improved this paper’s contribution through the review process. We would also like to thank the Academy of Management Fellows Group for selecting this research as a winner of the 2021 Responsible Research in Management award. Elizabeth M. Campbell’s work on this research was supported in part by the Lawrence Fellowship from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Correspondence regarding this paper should be addressed to Traci Sitzmann, Department of Management, University of Colorado Denver Business School, 1475 Lawrence Street, Denver, CO 80202. Email: traci.sitzmann@ ucdenver.edu.
Publisher Copyright:
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