We analyze how a larger presence of female evaluators affects committee decision-making using information on 100,000 applications to associate and full professorships in Italy  and Spain.  These applications were assessed by 8,000 randomly selected evaluators. A larger number of women in evaluation committees does  not increase either the quantity  or the quality  of female candidates who qualify.   Gender segregation  across research networks and subfields, often used to justify quotas, play only a minor role in this context. Data from 300,000 individual voting reports suggests that men become less favorable towards female candidates  as soon as a woman joins the committee.

(joint with Mauro Sylos Labini and Natalia Zinovyeva)

Keywords:  scientific committees,  gender discrimination, randomized natural experiment.

JEL Classification: J71, J16.