Career Implications of Having a Female-Friendly Supervisor

The authors study how variations in supervisors’ attitudes toward working with females generate gender differences in workers’ observed career outcomes. The employment records of athletic directors and head coaches in a set of NCAA Division I programs provide longitudinal matched employer–worker data. Supervisors are observed at multiple establishments, which allows the authors to construct a measure of revealed type and to examine its role for the performance and turnover of lower-level employees. The authors observe that the careers of male and female workers progress differently depending on supervisor type in a way that is consistent with a type-based mentoring model. The results suggest that more focus should be placed on managerial attitudes revealed through actions in addition to observable attributes such as gender.