Exploring the Antecedents of the Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Higher Education

Abstract

Organizational behaviorists have long argued that inequity in worker compensation is problematic. The authors use data on 254 public and private nonprofit research universities to evaluate the antecedents of salary differences between male and female full‐time assistant professors. Drawing on representative bureaucracy theory, they hypothesize that female representation among the associate and full professor ranks, as well as in executive management positions (including the university president), will be negatively associated with gender pay gap differences. Findings support the hypotheses, although the impacts for many of the variables differ between public and private institutions. Important effects are also found related to a variety of institutional characteristics, including funding from state appropriations.

Managerial Perspectives on Implicit Bias, Affirmative Action, and Merit

“…Public sector organizations around the world have sought to redress persistent gender inequality in their ranks, characterized by the underrepresentation of women in senior management roles (OECD ), occupational gender segregation (Riccucci ), and a gender pay gap (Rabovsky and Lee ). Although women in many countries achieve education levels equal to or higher than men (European Commission ) and hold a significant proportion of public sector jobs (OECD , 99), gender inequality remains entrenched, challenging long‐held beliefs about the application of merit in public sector employment.…”

Sustainable Development and Motivation Opportunities from the Perspective of Women in the Polish Science Sector in the Light of Statistical Data and Surveys

“…Another factor influencing the gender pay gap is the composition of the management. It turns out, that more diversity in corporate management is beneficial for decreasing the gender pay gap (Ahamed et al, 2019;Mostak, 2019;Rabovsky and Lee, 2018;Carter et al, 2017;Hedija, 2017). Similar opinion is presented by Stojmenovska (2018), who, according to the research carried out, confirms that an increase in the percentage of female managers in the workplace is associated with decreasing the gender pay gap.…”

Time's Up: Equity, Fairness, and Public Administration

“…Clark () suggests that inequitable public participation will persist unless designers consider what is behind their choices, focusing first on understanding the problem setting, or their narrative of equity in public participation. Taking on a multisector assessment, Rabovsky and Lee () find that representation of women in positions of seniority and power is an important mechanism for reducing disparities between men and women in academia. Interestingly, the effects of representation are more pronounced in private nonprofit research universities, where women make up a majority of managerial staff and senior faculty.…”