Gender Inequality and Product Choice: Evidence from the Weinstein Scandal and #MeToo

The #MeToo movement, triggered by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, highlighted gender inequality not only in labor markets but also in firms’ product choices. Using Hollywood as a setting, we examine whether movie producers responded to these events by changing their project selection and how their responses differed depending on whether the team included female representation. We leverage the idea that producers associated with the scandal had greater motivation to respond, which helps isolate project changes driven by the demand of #MeToo rather than confounding trends. We find a sharp contrast by gender composition of the team: all-male Weinstein-associated teams increased female-protagonist projects relative to their non-associated counterparts, whereas Weinstein-associated teams with women shifted toward male-protagonist projects. Moreover, female protagonists created by all-male Weinstein-associated teams deviated more from traditional stereotypes, and these projects performed worse than projects of Weinstein-associated teams with women. These patterns highlight the role of #MeToo in helping female talent overcome entry barriers in male-dominated domains. They also underscore the heterogeneous effects of a scandal on the associated parties: they may create reputational risks for some but opportunities for others, depending on whether they have demonstrated progress in addressing the issues revealed by the scandal.