DYNAMICS OF THE GENDER GAP FOR PROFESSIONALS IN THE CORPORATE SECTOR

In recent years, qualified women were underrepresented in management positions and the gender pay gap was greater for certain business groups. When a man but not a woman elicits disgust for being a stay-at-home parent, this is a gender dynamic. Typically, gender dynamics refer to people treating men and women differently in ways that affect their position, power, status, and authority. Over the years, the world has gotten closer to achieving gender equality. There is better representation of women in politics, more economic opportunities, and better healthcare in many places worldwide. 

How do gender dynamics present in the workplace? 

Different organizations are intended to be highly rational places focused on completing tasks and achieving their goals, with the most tasks and socially competent people in charge because it benefits the group. However, when we introduce gender dynamics, it’s a form of irrationality. Women might have a harder time achieving equal pay and authority despite displaying equal skills because gender dynamics distort people’s views of women’s skills and behavior. However, it’s important to note that most things that are bad for women are also bad for men. Notions of masculinity have burdened men with a lot of financial pressure and minimal emotional permission, in essence limiting their humanity and constricting their life opportunities in different ways. 

Causes of Gender Inequality

Uneven access to education

Around the world, women still have less access to education than men. When girls are not educated on the same level as boys, it has a huge effect on their future and the kinds of opportunities they’ll get.

Lack of employment equality

Only six countries give women the same legal work rights as men. Most economies give women only ¾ the rights of men. Studies show that if employment became a more even playing field, it would have a positive domino effect on other areas prone to gender inequality.

Positions in the business and financial sectors have commanded exceptionally high earnings recently and attracted extraordinary talent. Despite the narrowing of the gender gap in business education, there is a growing sense that women are not getting ahead fast enough in the corporate and financial world. Experimental evidence suggests that women have less taste for the highly competitive environments in top finance and corporate jobs, and females may be less willing to aggressively negotiate for pay and promotion.

Women may be subject to implicit or explicit gender discrimination and even talented females may encounter difficulty getting recognized in male-dominated workplaces. Women may also fall behind because of the career/family conflicts arising from the purportedly long hours, heavy travel commitments, and inflexible schedules of most high-powered finance and corporate jobs.

Most interesting is why females have not done as well as their male peers. We identify three proximate reasons for the large and rising gender gap in earnings that emerges within a few years. Differences in business school courses and grades; differences in career interruptions; and differences in weekly hours worked. Educated Males and females have enough business knowledge or specific business degrees, and begin their careers with somewhat different training. Men take more finance courses and have higher grades in business school. Gender differences in grades and courses are not large but contribute to the earnings gap. Women have more career interruptions and work shorter hours, including more work in part-time positions and self-employment. Although these differences are modest, the remuneration disparity they entail is exceptionally large.

Similarly, women with children typically work 24 percent fewer weekly hours than the average male. The difference between male and female earnings comes from job interruptions, and most job interruptions are due to children. Women who become mothers might be selected as unobservable which could directly lead to lower earnings in the absence of children. However, we uncover no evidence that women who marry and have children are drawn from the lower part of the female earnings distribution. In contradiction, we find that married women have slightly higher predicted earnings than unmarried women, and those with children have slightly higher predicted earnings than those without children.

Women with children are not negatively selected in terms of predicted earnings levels, and may even be positively selected. Mothers are, as well, positively selected on actual early career earnings.

More on the Role of Children and Career Interruptions in the Dynamics of the Gender Gap

Because differences in earnings and employment between male and female employees of the corporate sector appear to be largely associated with the presence of children, Children, and career interruptions are significant factors in the gender gap, which is the difference in social, economic, and other outcomes between men and women. 

Career interruptions

Women tend to take more time off work for child-rearing than men, which can have negative consequences for their careers. These interruptions can destabilize future career paths and reduce wage development. The length of the interruption is a key factor in determining the severity of these consequences.

Gender pay gap

The gender pay gap is influenced by a number of factors, including differences in education, employment, and work experience. However, family responsibilities are also a factor, as they can reduce women's earnings and performance in the corporate sector while increasing men's.

What should workplace leaders consider about gender dynamics? 

Leaders drive culture by letting people know what is and isn’t acceptable behavior, so step one to make clear that the organization won’t tolerate disparate treatment of men and women at work. Generally, more formal, professional work environments are better for women than informal ones. It is essential to educate people on what gendered expectations look like and what to do when they crop up. When gender dynamics emerge, people typically think they are just reacting to the person; they don’t realize that gender informs their reaction, and that’s where knowing the research can help. If you know that women are more likely to be criticized when task- rather than relationship-focused, then you can call out that pattern and try to correct it if it comes up in a group discussion.

Women experience discrimination in promotion in the corporate sector and salary determination is the case in other male-dominated settings. This kind of discrimination could be due to incorrect perceptions of female ability.

The share of women in the corporate or business world has steadily increased over time, but it remains low at 10%. This increases over time for women as compared to men. The gender gaps could be driven by a number of factors: gender differences in characteristics like competitiveness and negotiation, promotion or salary determination, or differences in how male and female leaders are evaluated. Gaps generated by these differences could be mitigated by greater exposure to female leadership, which could explain why we find smaller gaps in female-friendly firms. Overall, it provides important lessons for policymakers interested in closing the remaining gender gaps in employment and compensation.