GENDER, EARNINGS, AND PROPORTIONS OF WOMEN

Abstract

This article examines gender discrimination in earnings and promotions in a sample of 451 computer professionals employed by 14 organizations in a western Canadian city. The data suggest that women computer professionals do less well than their male counterparts in terms of income and job status; the differences are largely attributable to differences in work experience. Strength apparently does not lie in numbers, however. Organizations that hire relatively more women computer professionals seem to choose those who are less well educated and less experienced than their male employees; they reward them correspondingly less well. The authors argue that the different proportions of women are the result of predictable strategies of recruitment aimed at limiting women's access to positions of authority.