Women in power and gender wage inequality: the case of small businesses

Abstract

Gender inequality in the workplace is often attributed to the preponderance of men in positions of power. However, there is little empirical work investigating whether gender inequality is mitigated by having women in positions of power, and the work that does so is unable to match individual workers to those in positions of power over them. This study uses a survey of 2,000 small businesses to examine how gender differences in wages vary among establishments with male and female owners. We find no systematic differences between the levels of gender wage inequality in female owned small business and male owned small businesses.

Citation

Penner, A.M. and Toro-Tulla, H.J. (2010), "Women in power and gender wage inequality: the case of small businesses", Williams, C.L. and Dellinger, K. (Ed.) Gender and Sexuality in the Workplace (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-2833(2010)0000020007