Abstract
This project studies the gender gap in apologies and its consequences in the labor market. We hypothesize that women are more likely to apologize relative to men with similar performances. Apologies could be seen as a signal of incompetence which might hold women back in the labor market. We first document whether women apologize more frequently in a controlled setting and explore the reasons behind the gender apology gap. Second, we study whether employers infer lower ability from apologies and therefore promote women less. This project proposes a novel explanation of the gender promotion gap and suggests potential interventions to address this problem.