Making the Male Manager: Can Non-Cognitive Skills Explain the Glass Ceiling?

Abstract: This project examines whether men and women’s non-cognitive skills —or personality characteristics— influence their respective occupational attainment. I take an interdisciplinary approach to inform my hypothesis by incorporating psychological and sociological theories on the production and reproduction of gender roles in order to understand why men and women may systematically differ along some personality dimensions. I use linear probability and probit models to measure the effect of the non-cognitive traits, locus of control, self-esteem, and risk tolerance on the probability of being a manager. In both models I find that an internal locus of control, high self-esteem, and high risk tolerance all increase the probability of being a manger, albeit by a small, but statistically significant amounts (p\u3c.05). I also find that men have greater returns to self-esteem than women do, suggesting that women’s lower occupational attainment is affected both by the traits they possess, and the way these skills are perceived and rewarded in the labor market