Gender identity and power imbalance in a group contest

Many high-stakes organisational decisions are made by committees, where members exert costly influence to shape a single collective outcome. When committees are gender-imbalanced, the salience of gender identity may affect who mobilises influence and how numerical power translates into effective decision weight. We study how gender-identity salience interacts with numerical power in a controlled laboratory setting using a group-contest design. We vary the numerical balance of power (Female-Majority vs. Male-Majority) and manipulate whether gender composition is revealed. We find larger, advantaged groups invest significantly more and identity salience has asymmetric effects by gender. Among minority men facing female-majority groups, making gender salient increases investment and their initial disadvantage shrinks over time. Among minority women facing male-majority groups, investment does not increase and their relative disadvantage grows over time. These divergent responses are not explained by general social preferences or in-group cohesion. The findings suggest highlighting gender identity may intensify mobilisation by minority men without similarly empowering minority women, with implications for the design of diversity and transparency policies.