From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy
Numerous studies have examined patterns of gender in equality in organizational advancement, with some showing results indicative of “glass ceilings,” where gender disparities are strong at the upper reaches of the organization, while others suggest “sticky floors,” where the gender differences in...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Sociological Association
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87719 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0461-9711 |
| _version_ | 1811080116560723968 |
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| author | Fernandez, Roberto Abraham, Mabel Lana Botelho |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Fernandez, Roberto Abraham, Mabel Lana Botelho |
| author_sort | Fernandez, Roberto |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Numerous studies have examined patterns of gender in equality in organizational advancement, with some showing results indicative of “glass ceilings,” where gender disparities are strong at the upper reaches of the organization, while others suggest “sticky floors,” where the gender differences in advancement occur at the lower levels of the organization. These studies, however, have been less clear on the mechanisms that produce these descriptive patterns. With few exceptions, extant studies have focused on internal promotion practices and have not addressed the extent to which these patterns might reflect gender differences in external recruitment and hiring into the organization. We construct queues consisting of both external and internal candidates—the set of candidates under consideration—for over 2,200 job openings during a 27-month period for a large retail bank. We find that women are more likely than men to be hired, and that this pattern holds for jobs up and down the organizational hierarchy. The applicant pools are themselves gendered, however, with women comprising a lower percentage of the applicant pools for high-level jobs, but a greater proportion of the pools for lower-level jobs. Since women are more likely than men to advance from each applicant pool to hire at all levels of the hierarchy, the apparent “glass ceiling” observed among job incumbents is not due to gendered screening practices. Instead, the roots of gender inequality in this firm lie in the initial sorting of applicants into queues. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:26:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/87719 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:26:05Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Sociological Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/877192022-10-01T03:33:29Z From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting Into an Organizational Hierarchy Fernandez, Roberto Abraham, Mabel Lana Botelho Sloan School of Management Fernandez, Roberto Abraham, Mabel Lana Botelho Numerous studies have examined patterns of gender in equality in organizational advancement, with some showing results indicative of “glass ceilings,” where gender disparities are strong at the upper reaches of the organization, while others suggest “sticky floors,” where the gender differences in advancement occur at the lower levels of the organization. These studies, however, have been less clear on the mechanisms that produce these descriptive patterns. With few exceptions, extant studies have focused on internal promotion practices and have not addressed the extent to which these patterns might reflect gender differences in external recruitment and hiring into the organization. We construct queues consisting of both external and internal candidates—the set of candidates under consideration—for over 2,200 job openings during a 27-month period for a large retail bank. We find that women are more likely than men to be hired, and that this pattern holds for jobs up and down the organizational hierarchy. The applicant pools are themselves gendered, however, with women comprising a lower percentage of the applicant pools for high-level jobs, but a greater proportion of the pools for lower-level jobs. Since women are more likely than men to advance from each applicant pool to hire at all levels of the hierarchy, the apparent “glass ceiling” observed among job incumbents is not due to gendered screening practices. Instead, the roots of gender inequality in this firm lie in the initial sorting of applicants into queues. 2014-06-10T16:02:15Z 2014-06-10T16:02:15Z 2010-08 2010-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper MIT Sloan School Working Paper 4779-10 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87719 Fernandez, Roberto M. and Mabel Botelho Abraham. "From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy." ASA 2010 105th Annual Meeting, Aug. 14-17, Atlanta, GA, USA. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0461-9711 en_US http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/asa/asa10/ Proceedings of the ASA 2010 Annual Meeting Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Sociological Association SSRN |
| spellingShingle | Fernandez, Roberto Abraham, Mabel Lana Botelho From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title | From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title_full | From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title_fullStr | From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title_short | From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy |
| title_sort | from metaphors to mechanisms gender sorting in to an organizational hierarchy |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87719 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0461-9711 |
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