Gender Bias Follows Women Into the Gig Economy

The gig economy was supposed to be different. Without corporate hierarchies, traditional promotion processes or office politics, freelancing promised a level playing field where talent and results would speak louder than the background noise of the workplace. For women especially, the flexibility and autonomy of freelance work seemed to offer an escape from the proverbial glass ceiling that has long limited career advancement in traditional organizations.

Sadly, this promise may be illusory. A study of creative freelancers reveals that women may be trading that glass ceiling for a glass wall — an invisible obstacle that limits their opportunities when they attempt to expand their expertise across multiple work roles.

“The dominant idea has been that now women can freelance and be more flexible, they can finally bypass the glass ceiling,” says Christy Zhou Koval, an assistant professor of organizational behaviour at Smith School of Business. “But there are still challenges.”

To female freelancers, the barriers appear to be horizontal rather than vertical. To understand why, consider the fundamental challenge facing most freelancers, female or male: They need work experience to develop expertise, but they need expertise to get work. The so-called career progression paradox is particularly acute in creative fields, where much of the necessary knowledge can only be acquired through hands-on experience.

The conventional wisdom among career researchers has been that freelancers should start as specialists to build credibility and expertise, then gradually expand into related roles to access more opportunities and increase their influence. This strategy of “progressive role expansion” has been shown to help freelancers overcome the initial hurdle of establishing themselves while later benefiting from the advantages of diversification.

The reasoning is straightforward: Early career specialization allows rapid skill development and makes it easier for clients to understand what a freelancer can deliver. Later expansion provides access to more work opportunities, reduces downtime between projects and offers greater autonomy and control over one’s career trajectory. 

“As you grow your career,” says Koval, “you want to take on more varied roles because there’s a lot of uncertainty in a freelancing career and you don’t want to be typecast.”

Women viewed as less serious about their career

But research by Koval and colleagues Yonghoon Lee (Texas A&M University) and S. Susie Lee (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) suggests this strategy plays out differently for men and women. Through experimental studies and archival field data spanning the Korean pop music industry and Hollywood film sector, the research team found that when women expand their roles, they are viewed as less agentic — that is, less likely to be taking purposeful control of their careers. 

The same role expansion that signals strategic career shift in male freelancers is interpreted through a different lens when performed by women. Rather than being seen as ambitious moves to increase influence and expertise, women’s career diversification is more likely to be attributed to external pressures, emotional decision-making or even failure to persevere in their original specialization, according to the study.

This bias has concrete consequences. The research found that male freelancers who expanded their roles were more likely to secure new work opportunities, while female freelancers saw no such benefit — and, in some cases, experienced reduced prospects.

The root of this disparity lies in persistent gender stereotypes. Women are often perceived as more communal and emotional, says Koval, leading evaluators to assume their career decisions are driven by external factors such as family obligations or impulsive choices rather than strategic planning. Conversely, men benefit from stereotypes that portray them as more competitive and career-focused, making their role expansion appear calculated and purposeful.

These perceptions directly impact how clients assess two critical factors: competence and commitment. In freelancing relationships, where clients have limited ability to monitor work and may be concerned about divided attention across multiple projects, these assessments can make or break career opportunities.

The researchers found that perceived agency — the sense that someone is actively controlling their career destiny — strongly predicted how competent and committed freelancers were perceived to be. Since women's role expansion is viewed as less agentic, they receive lower ratings on these crucial dimensions. 

The study suggests that the glass wall is most likely to emerge under two conditions: workers must have significant autonomy in crafting their careers and there must be high uncertainty in evaluating their capabilities. “As a client looking for freelancers, you don’t have references from organizations, you don’t have their employment history,” says Koval. “So stereotypes tend to happen when there’s a lot of this uncertainty because it allows people to make free attributions. Our brains are hardwired to stereotype, and that’s unfortunately where our brains go.”

Importantly, these conditions may not be limited to freelancing. As traditional organizations increasingly delegate career development to employees and adopt more flexible, remote work arrangements, similar dynamics may emerge within corporate settings. Koval says women may find themselves facing both the traditional glass ceiling that limits vertical advancement and a glass wall that constrains horizontal movement across roles. 

Adjusting to the reality 

Women make up a growing part of the 7.4 million Canadians who work in the gig economy (around one million men and women rely on freelance work as their main job). For them, this study offers valuable insights on how to manage their careers, particularly when transitioning from specialist to generalist.

Knowing that prospective clients may question their commitment, Koval advises female freelancers to proactively explain why they are branching out from their speciality. “When you’re talking to a client, send out a signal and make it known why you're expanding,” she says. “Because the problem is this faulty attribution: ‘You’re expanding because you’re not committed to your existing role.’ So proactively correct that misconception.”

Another option is to operate under an incorporated business name rather than a personal name, redirecting attention from irrelevant demographic characteristics to their work portfolio. Formal credentials or licenses also provide objective signals of their expertise and commitment.

“Ultimately, the onus is not on the women freelancers themselves to overcome these systemic barriers,” says Koval. “It needs the involvement of policy makers and companies, though those changes can take a long time.”