Gender composition at work and women's career satisfaction: An international study of 35 societies

Abstract Drawing from status characteristics theory, we develop a multilevel model to explain the relationships between gender composition (e.g., female‐female supervisor‐subordinate dyads, a female majority at the next higher level, and a female majority at the same job level) in the workplace and women's career satisfaction. We hypothesise that working with a female supervisor and a female majority at the same level will be negatively related to women's career satisfaction, while a female majority at the next higher level will be positively related to women's career satisfaction. Moreover, we propose that formal societal (gender‐equality) institutions and informal cultural (gender‐egalitarian) values, each has a moderating effect on the impact of gender compositions on women's career satisfaction. Our results from a multilevel analysis of 2291 women across 35 societies support the three hypothesised main effects. Whereas institutions that support gender equality weaken the positive effect of working with a female majority at the next higher level, they amplify the negative effect of a female majority at the same hierarchical level. Our findings highlight the complex and paradoxical nature of gender composition effects on women's career satisfaction. We discuss the theoretical contributions of our findings and their implications for the diversity management practices of multinational enterprises.

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Publication Details

Journal
Human Resource Management Journal
Published
2024-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12570
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Gender Diversity and Inequality
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
8.37
Controls
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Gender composition at work and women's career satisfaction: An international study of 35 societies

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Human Resource Management Journal
Gender Diversity and Inequality
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article

Gender composition at work and women's career satisfaction: An international study of 35 societies

Satoko Suzuki, Jaime Ruiz-Gutiérrez, Maya Baltazar Herrera, Marian Crowley‐Henry, Yongjuan Li, David A. Ralston, Brian Tjemkes, Tevfik Dalgić, Mario Marco Molteni, Alara Cansu Yaman, Fabian Jintae Froese, Vik Naidoo, Fidel León Darder, Olivier Furrer, Andre Pekerti, Abdullah A. Aldousari, Gabrielle Poeschl, Agne`s Ricard-Hibon, Martin Hemmert, María Teresa de la Garza Carranza, Vojko Potočan, Ian Palmer, Zoltán Buzády, Zuzana Tučková, Jane Terpstra-Tong, Luis E. Sigala Paparella, Pingping Fu, Maria Kangasniemi‐Haapala, Nikos Bozionelos, Len J. Treviño, Calvin Burns, Erna Szabo, Narasimhan Srinivasan, Yongqing Fang, Virginia Lasio Morello, Shabnam Seyed Mehdi
article en
9 citations

Abstract

Abstract Drawing from status characteristics theory, we develop a multilevel model to explain the relationships between gender composition (e.g., female‐female supervisor‐subordinate dyads, a female majority at the next higher level, and a female majority at the same job level) in the workplace and women's career satisfaction. We hypothesise that working with a female supervisor and a female majority at the same level will be negatively related to women's career satisfaction, while a female majority at the next higher level will be positively related to women's career satisfaction. Moreover, we propose that formal societal (gender‐equality) institutions and informal cultural (gender‐egalitarian) values, each has a moderating effect on the impact of gender compositions on women's career satisfaction. Our results from a multilevel analysis of 2291 women across 35 societies support the three hypothesised main effects. Whereas institutions that support gender equality weaken the positive effect of working with a female majority at the next higher level, they amplify the negative effect of a female majority at the same hierarchical level. Our findings highlight the complex and paradoxical nature of gender composition effects on women's career satisfaction. We discuss the theoretical contributions of our findings and their implications for the diversity management practices of multinational enterprises.

Human Resource Management JournalVol. 35(2)
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT), Hitotsubashi University (JP), Monash University Malaysia (MY), Asian Institute of Management (PH), Johannes Kepler University of Linz (AT), The University of Sydney (AU), University of Leeds (GB), University of Nottingham Ningbo China (CN), University of Connecticut (US), Université de Toulon (FR), University of Fribourg (CH), National University of Ireland, Maynooth (IE), Universitat de València (ES), Universidad de Los Andes (CO), The University of Texas at Dallas (US), Corvinus University of Budapest (HU), The University of Queensland (AU), Tomas Bata University in Zlín (CZ), University of Strathclyde (GB), Universidade do Porto (PT), University of Canberra (AU), Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado (VE), Korea University (KR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (EC), Aix-Marseille Université (FR), Kuwait University (KW), University of Maribor (SI), Tecnológico Nacional de México (MX), Finland University (FI), Technological Institute of Celaya (MX), ACT Government (AU), École de management de Lyon (FR), Florida Atlantic University (US), University of Göttingen (DE), RMIT University (AU), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Gender Diversity and Inequality
8.37
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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