Mabel Abraham

Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business
Columbia Business School

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As an economic and organizational sociologist, I investigate why common organizational evaluation processes fail to be meritocratic and how they produce inequality.

I am the Barbara and Meyer Feldberg Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and a faculty affiliate of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics.

I also serve on the Academic Advisory Council for the Columbia   Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law ERA Project.

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Latest Research

(Not) Getting What You Deserve: How Misrecognized Evaluators Reproduce Misrecognition in Peer Evaluations

Meritocracy is increasingly touted as the ideal. However, even evaluation processes intended to reward people solely based on their contributions or performance are imperfect. Sometimes people get less or more than they deserve (under or overrecognized). Across a series of field and lab experiments, this paper shows that these misrecognized people are much more likely to continue the same form of misrecognition when later evaluating others.

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Gender Differences in Climbing up the Ladder: Why Experience Closes the Ambition Gender Gap

Women remain underrepresented in the highest positions in America, representing only 11% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 31% of board members, 25% of U.S. Senators, and 24% of Governors. This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to show how professional experience serves as one pathway for closing the gender gap in pursuing higher positions.

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The (Re)Production of Inequality in Evaluations: A Unifying Framework Outlining How Gender and Race Shape Evaluative Outcomes

Evaluations govern the disbursal of critical resources and opportunities across professional contexts. However, these processes are often inequitable, fortifying entrenched social and economic disparities. This paper develops a unifying theoretical framework that uncovers the common categories of drivers that exacerbate (and mitigate) inequality.

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  • Home
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  • Research
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