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Germany's Next Top Manager: Does Personality Explain the Gender Career Gap?

Author

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  • Fietze, Simon

    (University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg)

  • Holst, Elke

    (DIW Berlin)

  • Tobsch, Verena

    (E-x-AKT WIRTSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG)

Abstract

The higher the hierarchical level, the fewer women are represented in management positions. Many studies have focused on the influence of human capital and other "objective" factors on career opportunities to explain this phenomenon. We are now looking at the impact of self-reported personality traits on gender differences in career chances and compare women and men in management positions and other white-collar employees in Germany's private sector 2007. While bivariate results based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) show that there are significant gender differences in personality traits, multivariate estimations and the decomposition of the gender career gap clearly indicate that these differences cannot account for gender differences in career opportunities. The decomposition shows that only 8.6 percent of the inequality of career chances between women and can be explained by differences in personality. Nevertheless, personality traits might indeed play a role, albeit more indirectly: Some of the stronger career effects, such as long working hours, and labour market segregation, can also reflect differences in personality traits. These might have been influenced at an early stage by a gender-biased environment. Our results strongly stress the need for a gender-neutral environment outside and inside companies in order to enforce equal career opportunities for women and men.

Suggested Citation

  • Fietze, Simon & Holst, Elke & Tobsch, Verena, 2010. "Germany's Next Top Manager: Does Personality Explain the Gender Career Gap?," IZA Discussion Papers 5110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5110
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    Cited by:

    1. Müller, Julia & Schwieren, Christiane, 2012. "Can personality explain what is underlying women’s unwillingness to compete?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 448-460.
    2. Kaiser, Lutz C., 2014. "The Gender-Career Estimation Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 8185, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Ellguth, Peter & Kohaut, Susanne & Möller, Iris, 2017. "Wo schaffen es Frauen an die Spitze? Eine empirische Analyse mit Betriebsdaten [Where do women reach top positions? An empirical analysis with establishment data]," Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, Verlag Barbara Budrich, vol. 24(2), pages 196-217.
    4. Anne Busch-Heizmann & Elke Holst, 2017. "Do Women in Highly Qualified Positions Face Higher Work-To-Family Conflicts in Germany than Men?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1658, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2013. "Do psychosocial traits help explain gender segregation in young people's occupations?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 59-73.
    6. Lutz Kaiser, 2014. "The Gender-Career Estimation Gap," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 0300349, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    7. Brenzel, Hanna & Laible, Marie-Christine, 2016. "Does personality matter? : the impact of the big five on the migrant and gender wage gaps," IAB-Discussion Paper 201626, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    8. Keil, Alwin & Nielsen, Thea, 2012. "Accounting for farmers’ risk preferences in investigating land allocation decisions in marginal environments: a test of various elicitation measures in an application from Vietnam," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126054, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender; leadership; personality; career;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

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