Women's Entry Into Management: Trends in Earnings, Authority, and Values Among Salaried Managers

Abstract

Jerry A. Jacobs University of Pennsylvania This paper examines whether the dramatic increase in women's representation among managers between 1970 and 1988 was real or was simply a case of women being given managerial titles but not commensurate pay or supervisory responsibility. Earnings and authority differentials between male and female managers are analyzed with data from three sources for this period. The results indicate that the sex gap in earnings among managers narrowed during this period, while the gap in authority remained constant. Thus, women's increasing representation in management was not simply a matter of their artificial reclassification. Nonetheless, the sex gap in wages within management continues to exceed that in the labor force as a whole. The implication of these results for theories of internal organizational dynamics are discussed.'