Search

This article studies the effect of team gender composition and leadership on women's influence in two field experiments. Study 1 finds that male-majority teams accord disproportionately less influence to women and are less likely to choose women to represent the team externally. We replicate this finding in a new context, where we also vary the gender of an assigned team leader. We find that a female leader substantially increases women's influence, even in male-majority teams. With a model of discriminatory voting, we show that either increasing women's share or assigning a female leader decreases the penalty women face by more than 50%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many citizen decision-making bodies, from juries to boards, have the potential to represent racial minority views because they must deliberate and decide unanimously. However, little is known about the effects of racial diversity on group decisions. Existing studies use observational data, include too few people of color (POCs), or cannot disentangle race and preferences. We study one such body, the civil jury, which can check economic actors whose actions disproportionately affect minoritized populations. We analyze 2,694 citizens randomly assigned to 449 mock juries tasked with deciding punitive damages against corporations. The number of POCs on a jury affects private opinions, even accounting for other group and individual characteristics. However, group decisions are less affected, because POC dissenters carry less influence than White dissenters: POCs can change minds more easily than votes. Deliberation and veto power do not eliminate racial barriers to substantive representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]