Female Leadership in Gaming: Where Are They & Where Are They Missing?

Women account for over half the gaming workforce, but there is still a gap in leadership. Men continue to dominate casino executive and board positions and this is not representative of the front-line workforce. This presentation uses a database of 10, 950 management positions in 972 United States casinos to evaluate the facts, not perceptions. The database consists of 567 commercial and 405 Native American casinos, which are evaluated separately and in combination. Results show women hold 35.5% of manager and above positions when evaluated overall, but there is a significant difference when evaluated by type of operations. Commercial casinos averaged 33.6% female representation in management while Native American casinos averaged 37.8%. When evaluating across different levels of management positions in both commercial and Native American casinos, the higher the position, the less women represented. This decline is accentuated in commercial casinos properties. Native American casinos, in general, have a slightly higher percentage of females at each management level but only the top executive level indicates a significant difference between commercial and Native American casinos. These results suggest a potential glass ceiling in both commercial and Native American casinos