Gender and Racial Differentials in Promotions

Abstract

Summary Using a proprietary dataset containing personnel records on over 22,000 full-time, non-unionized employees from a large Canadian firm with nationwide operations from 1996 to 2000, this paper explores the incidence of promotion for women and racial minorities. The findings show that women and racial minorities are less likely than their white male counterparts to be promoted. For both white women and minority women, the disadvantage is most severe at the lower rungs of the organizational hierarchy, lending support to the “sticky floor” hypothesis. Significant promotion disadvantages occur for white women, visible minority women, and visible minority men at the middle ranks of the organization, and visible minority men continue to experience a promotion disadvantage at the highest organizational levels.

Gender differences in speed of advancement: An empirical examination of top executives in the Fortune 100 firms

“…Overall, our findings contribute to the literature on the existence and drivers of a gender gap in the workplace, and specifically at the top of the organizational hierarchy. Going forward, efforts to understand differences in career advancement should examine both speed of advancement and promotion rates (e.g., Gorman & Kmec, 2009;Jones & Makepeace, 1996;Smith, Smith, & Verner, 2013;Yap & Konrad, 2009;Zeng, 2011). Our results also contribute to the literature that studied the effectiveness and limits of institutional pressures in reducing gender inequality in the workplace (Dezső et al, 2016;Dobbin & Kalev, 2017;Gregorič, Oxelheim, Randøy, & Thomsen, 2017).…”

“…The alternative explanation for our finding that women executives got to the executive suite faster is unobserved ability, specifically that the women were more qualified in ways that our observed education and career experience characteristics could not capture. Discrimination at lower levels might produce a smaller pool of female candidates who were nevertheless more motivated and ultimately more qualified than the men (Ferree & Purkayastha, 2000;Yap & Konrad, 2009), attributes that would propel them faster to the top of the corporate hierarchy.…”

“…One aspect of that question is how one does get to be in the pool to be considered for advancement, and the second concerns the specific promotion or advancement decision of individuals into an executive role. Previous studies on the glass ceiling (e.g., Gorman & Kmec, 2009;Smith et al, 2013;Yap & Konrad, 2009) examined the second question-the likelihood of advancement-with mixed results. Such studies typically examined an individual organization where the assumption was that all advancement came from within the organization (or from within the same industry as in the case of Gorman & Kmec, 2009), which made it possible to know the denominator for determining the rate of promotion (e.g., Jones & Makepeace, 1996;Yap & Konrad, 2009).…”

“…Previous studies on the glass ceiling (e.g., Gorman & Kmec, 2009;Smith et al, 2013;Yap & Konrad, 2009) examined the second question-the likelihood of advancement-with mixed results. Such studies typically examined an individual organization where the assumption was that all advancement came from within the organization (or from within the same industry as in the case of Gorman & Kmec, 2009), which made it possible to know the denominator for determining the rate of promotion (e.g., Jones & Makepeace, 1996;Yap & Konrad, 2009). Our interest in examining the question across jobs and across the economy requires a different approach, which is, did those few women who make it to the executive roles reach their positions at a different speed than men?…”

Determinants of Vertical and Horizontal Gender Segregation in the Workplace in Poland

“…Vertical segregation means limiting promotion and career opportunities. Many studies have shown that women are less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues who have the same qualifications (Blau & Devaro 2007, Hau Siu Chow & Crawford 2004, Lyness & Heilman 2006, Yap & Konrad 2009. Women also constitute only a small percentage of CEOs in most countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), despite the fact that they are as well educated as men and have actively participated in the labour market for several decades (Manpower 2008).…”