The Ethical Role of Pro-Equality Laws in Reducing Executive Gender Pay Gaps under Cultural Resistance
研究利用世界银行和世界价值观调查数据，发现亲平等法律在性别平等观念薄弱的社会中能显著缩小高管性别薪酬差距，尤其对非CEO高管和工资性薪酬效果明显，表明法律可作为文化失效时的伦理矫正工具。
Abstract This study investigates how informal cultural norms and formal pro-equality legislation shape the executive gender pay gap (GPG), and whether legal interventions can ethically substitute for weak cultural support for gender equity. We integrate insights from role congruity theory, institutional theory, and feminist ethics to explain the phenomena. Pro-equality legislation is measured using the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) Index, while gender egalitarianism is derived from the World Values Surveys. We find that executive pay disparities are most pronounced in less gender-egalitarian societies, especially among non-CEO top management team members and in salary-based compensation. Pro-equality laws—particularly those targeting pay rights, asset ownership, and entrepreneurship—significantly reduce these disparities, with the strongest effects observed in countries with lower cultural egalitarianism. These findings suggest that formal legal reforms can act as ethical correctives where informal norms fail, advancing care-based principles of justice and accountability at the highest organizational levels. Our study contributes to feminist ethics by showing how legal structures can institutionalize equity in the face of cultural resistance.