Chapter 5: Barbara Bergmann on Gender Biases

This chapter discusses why the three key whistleblowers of the financial crisis were all women. The chapter introduces insights from feminist economics on gender differences in financial behaviour, referred to as the Lehman Sisters Hypothesis. It discusses the empirical literature on gender differences in risk attitude, moral compass and leadership. Moreover, it argues that gender differences are not natural but behavioural, based on stereotypes of masculine and feminine behaviour. Barbara Bergmann was among the first feminist economists who developed new theories of economic discrimination. Her crowding theory explains segmentation of markets along gender lines. The chapter argues that such segmentation is inefficient and results in more volatility of financial markets than with gender equality in financial behaviour and gender diversity in leadership.