WOMEN IN UPPER-LEVEL AND MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF SALARY AND STATUS, JOB-RELATED BEHAVIORS, AND OTHER FACTORS IN COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF MALE COUNTERPARTS

In this study, a group of 34 women in upper- and middle-level management, most of them the sole woman at their level, were compared with a group of 34 men matched to them only by job position or job title. Originally 61 women were personally contacted; 49 provided data. Of these, 44 were matched to males, 34 of whom provided data. All responded by mail to a lengthy questionnaire constructed by the author. The female managers were lower in power and status than the males, on the basis of lower salaries (p \u3c .05) and less involvement with large budgets (p \u3c .05). Managers more often trained and supervised employees of their own sex. Female managers had longer average tenure with their organizations but less managerial experience. They were paid significantly less than equally experienced males only when job tenure for both was less than five years. Income for females was positively correlated with previous policy-making experience. Female managers were less involved in informal interactions with colleagues, such as lunching and socializing, and more of them were single (11 women, 1 man). Somewhat lower levels of risk-taking behaviors and perceptions were regularly reported by female managers. Both sexes showed high levels of internal attributions for success and failure, but females made significantly fewer external attributions for failure and were less likely to credit success to their knowledge. They regularly reported higher levels of self-confidence, much more often reported an occasion of tearfulness on the job and, on a number of measures, reported a striking absence of angry feelings. Gender and outgroup effects (e.g., lower salaries, exclusion from informal networks) may interact with some female managers\u27 attitudes (e.g., a hesitancy to take risks, excessive self-blame) to produce a spiraling sense of powerlessness. Further research could clarify aspects of this spiral; interventions should focus on interrupting or reversing it