We close the calendar year with one of the most impressive conferences that I have the pleasure of joining. The conference lasted for just one day, and it consisted of four sessions/ thematic blocks These thematic blocks relate to gender questions in different domains: labor market, preference for competition, politics and intimate partner violence. While the focus on gender and the carefully crafted agenda would make this conference stand out, the icing on the cake were the keynote speakers.  Each thematic block was introduced by recognized experts in the field: Barbara Petrongolo, Muriel Niederle, Manuel Baguez and ....

Barbara presented an overview of gender issues in the labor market, describing what would be her chapter in the upcoming Handbook of Labor Economics. The keynote provide a thorough description of the situation of women in the labor market, and delineated an agenda for future research. We look forwards to reading the chapter!

Muriel showcased her extensive research on differences in competivity across genders, a field that she created (at least in its modern understanding). Her work documented that men are more likely to compete with women in the lab, to some extent because women dislike competing with men. Muriel also show that differences in preference for competition matter outside of the lab, they can help explain why men and women select into different careers (evidence from the Netherlands). It was a fascinating tour de force.

We presented our research as well during the poster session. We discussed our paper on Gender Neutral Hiring, which shows that external evaluators do not exhibit gender bias when evaluating CVs. This finding suggests that one can use their inputs to improve hiring decisions. The paper received some nice comments and encouragement that we hope we will introduce in future versions.