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Breaking the Glass Ceiling

Author

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  • Bertrand, Marianne
  • Black, Sandra
  • Lleras-Muney, Adriana
  • Jensen, Sissel

Abstract

In late 2003, Norway passed a law mandating 40 percent of each gender on the board of publicly limited liability companies. The primary objective of this reform was to increase representation of women in top positions in the corporate sector and decrease gender disparity in earning within that sector. We document that the newly (post-reform) appointed female board members were observably more qualified than their female predecessors, and that the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially. While the reform may have improved representation of female employees at the very top of the earnings distribution(top 5 highest earners)within firms that were mandated to increase female participation on their board, there is no evidence that these gains at the very top trickled-down. Moreover the reform had no obvious impact on highly qualified women whose qualifications mirror those of the board members but who were not appointed to boards. We observe no statistically significant change in the gender wage gaps or in the female representation in top positions, although standard errors are large enough that we cannot rule economically meaningful gains. Finally, there is little evidence that the reform affected the decisions of women more generally;it was not accompanied by any change in female enrollment in business education programs, or a convergence in earnings trajectories between recent male and female graduates of such programs. While young women preparing for a career in business report being aware of the reform and expect their earnings and promotion chances to benefit from it, the reform did not affect their fertility and marital plans. Overall, in the short run the reform had very little discernable impact on women in business beyond its direct effect on the newly appointed female board members.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand, Marianne & Black, Sandra & Lleras-Muney, Adriana & Jensen, Sissel, 2015. "Breaking the Glass Ceiling," CEPR Discussion Papers 10467, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10467
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Suzanne Bijkerk & Silvia Dominguez-Martinez & Jurjen Kamphorst & Otto Swank, 2018. "Labor Market Quotas," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 18-036/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Amin,Mohammad & Islam,Asif Mohammed, 2022. "The Impact of Paid Maternity Leave on Women’s Employment : Evidence Using Firm-LevelSurvey Data from Developing Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10188, The World Bank.
    4. Minelgaite Inga & Sund Berit & Stankeviciene Jelena, 2020. "Understanding the Nordic Gender Diversity Paradox," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 10(1), pages 40-57, June.
    5. Chen, Fu Chen & Indiran, Logaiswari Indiran & Abdul Kohar, Umar Haiyat Abdul Kohar, 2023. "Disruptive Innovation (DI) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO): A synthetic literature review," MPRA Paper 119321, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 26 Oct 2023.
    6. Giulia La Mattina & Gabriel Picone & Alban Ahoure & Jose Carlos Kimou, 2017. "Female leaders and gender gaps within the firm: Evidence from three sub-Saharan African countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 063, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Affirmative action; Boards; Gender gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

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