The relative career advancement of men and women engineers in the United States

Abstract

Despite the fact that women engineering students perform as well as their male classmates during college, women engineers report lower salaries and supervisory responsibility levels after about five years in the labour force. Several hypotheses concerning the reasons for the differences in career advancement of men and women engineers were investigated in a national survey of engineers in the United States. The gender differences in career advancement could not be explained by differences in education level or in self-perceptions of ability. The fact that women were more likely to have taken a career break than were men did decrease their salaries and supervisory levels. However, gender differences were still apparent even when this factor was controlled. The careers of both men and women were affected by conflicts arising from the multiple roles of worker, spouse, and parent, but many women engineers avoided such conflicts by remaining single and childless. These results challenge several popular explanations for the differential advancement of men and women, but the actual causes remain unknown.     

The relative career advancement of men and women engineers in the United States

Despite the fact that women engineering students perform as well as their male classmates during college, women engineers report lower salaries and supervisory responsibility levels after about five years in the labour force. Several hypotheses concerning the reasons for the differences in career advancement of men and women engineers were investigated in a national survey of engineers in the United States. The gender differences in career advancement could not be explained by differences in education level or in self-perceptions of ability. The fact that women were more likely to have taken a career break than were men did decrease their salaries and supervisory levels. However, gender differences were still apparent even when this factor was controlled. The careers of both men and women were affected by conflicts arising from the multiple roles of worker, spouse, and parent, but many women engineers avoided such conflicts by remaining single and childless. These results challenge several popular explanations for the differential advancement of men and women, but the actual causes remain unknown.     

破解男权资源垄断

全球创业观察项目（GEM）对40个国家和地区的创业情况调查显示,中国女性创业活动指数高达11．16％,高出平均指数4．26个百分点,有意味的是,在女性创业或担任领导人的中国企业中,仅有1．5％的企业亏损,98％的企业赢利。这表明,中国女性在当今复杂的环境中,具有比男性更强的商业把控能力。     

Wage Expectations for Higher Education Students in Spain

We assess students' ability to forecast future earnings by using data on expected wages self‐reported by college students with different graduation horizons. We find a significant gender gap, by which wage expectations are systematically lower for women than for men. However, women do not fully account for the gender gap in their future earnings. We also find that student performance, degree type, and graduation horizon play a relevant role in wage forecasts. In any case, students' expectations do not conform market wages but become more realistic as they approach graduation.     

Women on the boards of listed companies: Evidence from Finland

This paper investigates gender differences on the corporate boards of Finnish listed companies. The personal characteristics, careers, and boardroom roles of female and male directors on boards were analyzed on the basis of empirical data collected by questionnaire. An analysis of the findings revealed only minor differences between the women and men in personal characteristics such as their marital status, number of children and education, or in their careers. However, female board members were on average younger than their male counterparts and considered themselves to be more protean, took more active roles on the board, and enjoyed power more than men did. They also felt a need for more women on the board. The goal of this study is to contribute to the existing research in two ways. Firstly, it provides empirical evidence on women??s representation on boards from Finland, where women??s and men??s rights are regarded as more equal than in many other countries. Secondly, the study aims to increase our knowledge of gender differences, careers and roles of women in top positions in Finnish business.     

Testing the gender similarities hypothesis: differences in subjective task value and motivation to transfer training

ABSTRACT

Are female and male trainees similar or different in their reaction to training programmes, specifically regarding their subjective task value and motivation to transfer? According to the gender similarities hypothesis, women and men are alike on most psychological variables. However, according to research in organizational behaviour, female and male employees differ on certain aspects, such as their job satisfaction and work identity. To test these two views on gender similarities and differences in the context of human resource development and training evaluation, the present study examined the extent to which gender moderated reactions to training. Based on the expectancy-value theory of motivation and self-determination theory, a web-based questionnaire was used to measure six training reactions: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, perceived relative cost, autonomous motivation to transfer, and controlled motivation to transfer. The results indicated that women and men differed in their ratings of attainment value but were similar for the remaining five reaction measures. These outcomes support the gender similarities hypothesis. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for modelling gender effects in HRD research and their practical significance for promoting training effectiveness and transfer of training.     

Factors Affecting the Job–to–joblessness Turnover and Gender

This paper explores gender differences with respect to the factors affecting the job–to–joblessness turnover. It casts light on the characteristics of those men and women who experience the highest propensity of their job ending in joblessness, taking into account the reasons for the job loss. The findings highlight the determinants of gender differences in labour turnover patterns.     

Childcare involvement, job characteristics, gender and work attitudes as predictors of emotional exhaustion and sickness absence

Reports in the literature vary regarding the existence of gender differences in relation to burnout and sickness absence. To investigate this, the present study was aimed at investigating the role of several gender-relevant variables, particularly childcare obligations, job characteristics, and work attitudes in emotional exhaustion and sickness absence in 404 male and female nurses in an institution for people with learning difficulties. Questionnaires were administered reflecting demographic and job characteristics, work and non-work attitudes, and emotional exhaustion (as measured by the Emotional Exhaustion Scale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory). Female nurses were expected to report higher levels of emotional exhaustion and to be absent through sickness more often than men. Also, childcare investment, job characteristics, and (non) work attitudes were expected—via emotional exhaustion—to predict gender differences in sickness absence. It was found that women did not have higher sickness absence rates, and although a gender difference appeared in emotional exhaustion it was in the opposite direction from that predicted. For both genders, emotional exhaustion had a significant positive effect on sickness absence, and especially childcare investment and number of work hours appeared to contribute to both outcomes. These results are of interest because, despite current stereotypes, sickness absence was not higher in women, and neither were women more at risk for emotional exhaustion. In particular, load—workload as well as care load—appeared to predict emotional exhaustion and thus sickness absence.     

Bank Loan Officers' Perceptions of Business Owners: The Role of Gender

There is a widely held belief that banks may be discriminating against female business owners. This study was designed to explore the perceptions held by bank loan officers of male and female business owners, using Bourdieu's theory of practice and Kelly's personal construct methodology. The research literature might lead to an expectation that the characteristics of the business owners would be relatively homogenous but that men and women business owners would be construed differently (for example women might be seen to lack drive). However, the results demonstrate heterogeneity in the constructs held by bank loan officers, and a particular concern with the character of the business owner. Significant gender differences were observed in only 20 of the 325 constructs elicited from 35 bank loan officers. Female bank loan officers were as likely as male bank loan officers to draw gender distinctions between business owners. Detailed multivariate analyses confirmed no evidence of systematic gender differences in the constructs held by bank loan officers of business owners.     

Gender Differences in Formal On‐the‐Job Training: Incidence,Duration, and Intensity

This paper explores whether there is a gender gap in the incidence, duration, intensity, and number of events of on‐the‐job training. Overall, women appear to receive a higher incidence of on‐the‐job training whereas men receive on‐the‐job training of longer duration. Including measures intended to capture the extent of labor force attachment and expected tenure fails to reduce the gender gap in the duration of on‐the‐job training. Therefore, the gender gap in the duration of on‐the‐job training must be attributed to differences in unobserved worker characteristics that differ by gender or discrimination.     

Gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions: A TPB multi-group analysis at factor and indicator level

Previous research suggests that diverse factors predict gender differences in entrepreneurial intent. Our paper integrates and expands on previous findings using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), including the deeper-level measurement model, allowing for a better understanding of the origin of differences. The results of a survey with business students indicate that the effect of gender on entrepreneurial intentions is mediated via personal attitudes and perceived behavioral control but not social norms. More precisely, vis-à-vis their male counterparts, women are more driven toward entrepreneurship by motives to ‘get organized’ (balance) that are less dominant in predicting personal attitude. Moreover, female students are somewhat less driven toward entrepreneurship by beliefs of internal control that are more dominant in predicting perceived control. Finally, while female students are also more motivated to comply with normative role models, this did not influence their entrepreneurial intentions over and above perceived behavioral control and personal attitude. We discuss both practical and theoretical implications of our findings.     

Why Do Women's Wages Increase So Slowly Throughout Their Career? A Dynamic Model of Statistical Discrimination

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to explain the growing wage differentials between men and women during their working careers. We provide a dynamic model of statistical discrimination, which integrates specific human capital decisions: on‐the‐job training investment and wages are endogenously determined. We reveal a small wage differential at the beginning of women's career, but women's wages increase more slowly; this is partly due to a lower level of human capital investment by women and partly because firms smooth training costs between different periods.     

A Pharmacokinetic Study of Occupational and Environmental Benzene Exposure with Regard to Gender

Using physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling, occupational, personal, and environmental benzene exposure scenarios are simulated for adult men and women. This research identifies differences in internal exposure due to physiological and biochemical gender differences. Physiological and chemical-specific model parameters were obtained from other studies reported in the literature and medical texts for the subjects of interest. Women were found to have a higher blood/air partition coefficient and maximum velocity of metabolism for benzene than men (the two most sensitive parameters affecting gender-specific differences). Additionally, women generally have a higher body fat percentage than men. These factors influence the internal exposure incurred by the subjects and should be considered when conducting a risk assessment. Results demonstrated that physicochemical gender differences result in women metabolizing 23–26% more benzene than men when subject to the same exposure scenario even though benzene blood concentration levels are generally higher in men. These results suggest that women may be at significantly higher risk for certain effects of benzene exposure. Thus, exposure standards based on data from male subjects may not be protective for the female population.     

A pawn in someone else's game?: The cognitive,motivational, and paradigmatic barriers to women's excelling in negotiation

Women's relatively worse performance in negotiation is often cited as an explanation for gender differences in advancement and pay within organizations. We review key findings from the past twenty years of research on gender differences in negotiation. Women do underperform relative to men in negotiation, but only under limited circumstances, which means the performance gap is unlikely due to lesser skills on their part. The barriers between women and negotiation excellence are of three types: cognitive, motivational, and paradigmatic. Cognitive barriers stem from negative stereotypes about women's negotiating abilities. Motivational barriers stem from desire to prevent women negotiators from excelling in a masculine domain. Paradigmatic barriers stem from how negotiation is currently studied. We call for greater attention to motivational barriers and for changes to the negotiation paradigm. Women negotiators are not incompetent, and training them to negotiate more like men is not obviously the solution. In fact, women have greater concern for others than men do, and their cooperativeness elevates collective intelligence and enables ethical behavior. Under a new paradigm of negotiation, the value of these strengths could become more readily apparent. In particular, we advocate for greater attention to long-term relationships, subjective value, and relational capital, all of which may have important economic implications in real world negotiations.     

CLASH OF CAREER AND FAMILY: FERTILITY DECISIONS AFTER JOB DISPLACEMENT

In this paper we investigate how career considerations may affect fertility decisions in the presence of a temporary employment shock. We compare the birth rates of women displaced by a plant closure with those of women unaffected by job loss after establishing the pre‐displacement comparability of these groups. Our results reveal that job displacement reduces average fertility by 5%–10%, and that these effects are largely explained by the response of women in more skilled occupations. We offer an explanation of our results based on career interruptions of women.     

The Early‐career Gender Wage Gap among University Graduates in the Finnish Private Sector

In the Finnish private sector, the gender wage gap increases significantly during the first 10 years after labour market entry, accounting for most of the lifetime increase in the gender wage differentials. This paper investigates the reasons for this gender difference in early‐career wage development. By focusing on university graduates the paper considers several explanations based on the human capital theory, job mobility, and labour market segregation. The results suggest that only about 20–26 per cent of the average early‐career gender wage gap is explained by gender differences in experience, the field of education, employer characteristics, and mobility. A substantial unexplained gap thus remains. Of the investigated factors gender differences in the field of education and work experience matter most.     

The stability of job and family involvement: Applying the multi-wave,multi-variable technique to longitudinal data

The main aim of the study was to examine the stability of job and family involvement, applying multi-wave, multi-variable modelling within the framework of LISREL models. The abbreviated job and family involvement scales based on Kanungo's (1979, 1982) motivational model were examined on the basis of 3-year longitudinal data. The study was carried out by means of questionnaires, which were filled in by Finnish employees (n = 109) on three occasions. The results show that both job and family involvement remained relatively stable during the follow-up period. Further, the scales showed reasonable unidimensionality across time. In addition, the item reliability of the scales was found to be adequate. Of the demographic characteristics studied (i.e. gender, age, socioeconomic status, presence of children at home, age of the youngest child) only gender had a significant effect on involvement: men were found to be more involved with their jobs than were women.