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The Family Gap in Career Progression

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  • Kunze, Astrid

    (Norwegian School of Economics)

Abstract

This study investigates whether and when during the life cycle women fall behind in terms of career progression because of children. We use 1987-1997 Norwegian panel data that contain information on individuals' position in their career hierarchy as well as a direct measure of their promotions. We measure overall promotions as increases in rank within the same establishment as well as in combination with an establishment change. Women with children are 1.6 percentage points less likely promoted than women without children; this is what we refer to as the family gap in climbing the career. We find that mothers tend to enter on lower ranks than non-mothers. 37 percent of the gap can be explained by rank fixed effects and human capital characteristics. A large part remains unexplained. Graphical analyses show that part of the difference already evolves during the early career. Part of this seems related to the relatively low starting ranks.

Suggested Citation

  • Kunze, Astrid, 2014. "The Family Gap in Career Progression," IZA Discussion Papers 8478, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8478
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    2. Benoit Dostie & Mohsen Javdani, 2020. "Not for the Profit, But for the Training? Gender Differences in Training in the For‐Profit and Non‐Profit Sectors," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(3), pages 644-689, September.
    3. Anica Rose, 2017. "Subjective Appraisals of Employee Potential: Do Gender and Managerial Level Matter?," Working Papers Dissertations 22, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    4. Natee Amornsiripanitch & Paul Gompers & George Hu & Will Levinson & Vladimir Mukharlyamov, 2022. "Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs Via a Non-Wage Measure," NBER Working Papers 30179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Javdani, Mohsen, 2019. "Visible Minorities and Job Mobility: Evidence from a Workplace Panel Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 12736, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    promotion; women; family gap; human capital; organizational hierarchy; decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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