From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy

Fernández, Roberto; Abraham, Mabel

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1589012

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…While internal barriers are undoubtedly important, recent studies show that many executive jobs are filled by external hires (Lazear and Oyer 2004;Cappelli and Hamori 2005;Fernandez and Abraham 2010;Hassink and Russo 2010;Fernandez and Abraham 2011;Fernandez and Campero 2015) and that managers hired externally tend to be better paid than those promoted from within the firm (Harris and Helfat 1997;Bidwell 2011; but see Hassink and Russo 2008). Demand-side gender biases can occur also in the external labor market, and some authors argue that female executives benefit less than men from external labor market transitions (Brett and Stroh 1997;Lyness and Judiesch 1999;Hom et al 2008; but see Gorman and Kmec 2009).…”

Section: Gender Inequality In the Executive Labor Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is especially the case in the context of top management jobs, where it is difficult to observe the supply of candidates considered (not just those who were actually hired) and the demand-side selection process into these positions (Fernandez and Abraham 2010). Yet irrespective of the hierarchical level of the job in question, researchers face the problem of determining how supplyside choices might be affected in anticipation of gender-biased treatment on the demand side.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bending the Pipeline? Executive Search and Gender Inequality in Hiring for Top Management Jobs

2016

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We study the sources of women's underrepresentation in hiring for top management jobs, by focusing on the context of executive search. Using data that include proprietary information on 10,970 individuals considered by a search firm, we examine the sources of the low proportion of women placed in senior roles. Contrary to received wisdom, we find limited evidence that demand-side screeners strongly contribute to gender disadvantage in this setting. What gender differences exist tend to play out at the start of the hiring process and are driven both by supplyside and demand-side actors. Once considered for a position, women are no less likely than men to be hired-though they are slightly less likely to be interviewed by the search firm. Our findings highlight the theoretical importance of disentangling candidates' "self-steering" behavior from the "pipeline bending" of hiring agents. We discuss the implications of our results for understanding gender inequality at upper echelons of the labor market.

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Section: Gender Inequality In the Executive Labor Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bending the Pipeline? Executive Search and Gender Inequality in Hiring for Top Management Jobs

2016

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“…To the degree that both internal and external candidates are in competition for job openings (Bidwell and Keller 2014; Bidwell and Mollick 2014), studies of internal processes will not reflect the actual mechanisms producing gender stratification and may yield misleading inferences on the nature of the organizational barriers to women’s advancement. Failing to take into account that external candidates may be vying for the same openings as internal candidates can lead to a biased assessment of the gender composition of those at risk for filling jobs across levels of the organization (Fernandez and Abraham 2010, 2011). If external market competition is itself gendered, then gender biases in screening candidates entering the firm from the external labor market will also limit women’s organizational achievement.…”

Section: Hierarchy and Gender Inequality In Rewardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Sorting and the Glass Ceiling in High-Tech Firms

Fernández

Campero

2016

ILR Review

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With few exceptions, studies have conceived of the glass ceiling as reflecting internal promotion biases. In this article, the authors argue that glass ceiling patterns can also be the result of external recruitment and hiring processes. Using data on people applying by means of the Internet for jobs at 441 small- and medium-sized high-tech firms, they find evidence that the glass ceiling is produced by both internal and external hiring processes. On the supply side, females are sorted into lower-level job queues than males. On the demand side, screening biases against women also are evident, but a series of “what if” simulations suggest that demand-side screening processes play a comparatively minor role in producing the glass ceiling pattern. These results suggest that bias remediation policies designed to equalize gender differences in hiring chances are likely to be less effective than recruitment and outreach policies designed to improve gender disparities in candidate pools.

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“…Although many glass ceiling studies invoke the image of an internal labor market or a within-firm job ladder, recent work argues that the pattern applies to the labor market more broadly (Fernandez and Campero 2017; Fernandez-Mateo and Fernandez 2016). In this work, the glass ceiling is seen as a vertical form of more general gendered job segregation patterns (Fernandez and Campero 2017; Fernandez and Abraham 2010, 2011; Fernandez-Mateo 2009). In this respect, insight into the phenomenon can be gained by drawing on the rich research addressing job sex segregation (for example, Bielby and Baron 1986; Jacobs 1989).…”

Section: The Glass Ceiling and Network Recruitmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies have adopted the glass ceiling metaphor to describe the phenomenon where gender inequality in outcomes is more severe at the top of the reward distribution. Although many other factors are theorized to be at play, some recent research has sought to understand the external sources of the glass ceiling pattern (Gorman and Kmec 2009; Fernandez and Abraham 2010, 2011). One factor that is often invoked to account for gender differences in outcomes is firms’ reliance on hiring through social networks.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Network Recruitment and the Glass Ceiling: Evidence from Two Firms

Fernández¹,

Rubineau

2019

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

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Does network recruitment contribute to the glass ceiling? We use administrative data from two companies to answer the question. In the presence of gender homophily, recruitment through employee referrals can disadvantage women when an old boys’ network is in place. We calculate the segregating effects of network recruitment across multiple job levels in the two firms. If network recruitment is a factor, the segregating impact should disadvantage women more at higher levels. We find this pattern, but also find that network recruitment is a desegregating force overall. It promotes women’s representation strongly at all levels, but less so at higher levels. This article shows how administrative data can be used to tackle the complex problem of gender inequality in organizations to counter the glass ceiling.

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From Metaphors to Mechanisms: Gender Sorting in(to) an Organizational Hierarchy

Cited by 9 publications

References 25 publications

Bending the Pipeline? Executive Search and Gender Inequality in Hiring for Top Management Jobs

Bending the Pipeline? Executive Search and Gender Inequality in Hiring for Top Management Jobs

Gender Sorting and the Glass Ceiling in High-Tech Firms

Network Recruitment and the Glass Ceiling: Evidence from Two Firms

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