"Who's the boss?" : A reassessment of gender inequality in workplace authority in the Swedish public and private sector.

The aim of this study is to examine potential gender inequality in authority positions in the Swedish labour market. In addition, this thesis intends to explore whether there is a difference in gender inequality between the public and the private sector. The results show that women have poorer advancement opportunities compared to men. Men have significantly higher probabilities of holding managerial positions and this is valid in both sectors of the Swedish economy. The outcome cannot be explained by family-related factors, or by gender differences in work motivation. Moreover, despite public sector bureaucracy implying more extensive regulations with the intent to equalize recruitments and promotions on factors such as gender and ethnicity; women have greater chances of holding managerial positions in the private sector compared to the public sector. For men, the sector of employment is not related to differences in workplace authority. Women’s greater disadvantage in the public sector compared to the private is primarily due to the large concentration of female-dominated occupations in the former sector, which limit career opportunities substantially for women. In fact, when controlling for the share of women working in the profession there is no longer a significant advantage in terms of workplace authority for women in the private sector compared to the public sector. This thesis argues that public sector formalized regulations, as regards recruitment and promotion, are not able to attenuate the negative effects for women due to the substantial share of female-dominated occupations within this sector