Wages and Unequal Access to Organizational Power: An Empirical Test of Gender Discrimination

Abstract

This study of Swedish workers investigates gender wage inequality, specifically, whether earnings are affected by the gender composition of establishments' managerial and supervisory staff. Theoretical arguments focus on managers' propensity to create and maintain or to undermine institutionalized gender bias and employees' capacity to mobilize resources and establish claims in the wage distribution process, mainly through social networks. Results show that gender-differentiated access to organizational power structures is essential in explaining women's relatively low wages. Women who work in establishments in which relatively many of the managers are men have lower wages than women with similar qualifications and job demands in establishments with more women in the power structure.