Title: Women marketers: an examination of gender disparities in the gig economy

Authors: Dalal S. Ahmad; Fatima M. Hajjat

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969 Safat 13060, Kuwait ' New Jersey, USA

Abstract: Previous research indicates a gender income gap among marketers. To the best of our knowledge, no research has been conducted to address that wage discrepancy in marketing in the gig economy. Therefore, this study examines whether women marketers face pay discrimination. Utilising data collected from an online hiring platform, the authors use propensity score matching to address possible endogeneity related to differences between men and women marketers. We create three propensity score-matched samples of varying strictness to run the regression model. We find that gender wage discrimination exists in the gig economy among marketers. These results indicate that even in the gig economy, where marketers are theoretically competing on a level playing field, gender wage discrimination still occurs, potentially having ongoing implications.

Keywords: women marketers; marketing; advertising; marketing wage gap; gender wage gap; gig economy; platforms; income inequality; freelancers; gender discrimination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2025.143016

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2025 Vol.19 No.1, pp.1 - 26

Received: 01 Mar 2023
Accepted: 01 Jan 2024
Published online: 02 Dec 2024 *

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