The Gender Gap in Workplace Authority: Variation across Types of Authority Positions

The finding that men are disproportionately represented in positions of workplace authority to an extent that cannot be explained by human capital attributes and location within the structure of the economy is well documented. Arguing that different authority positions are differentially gendered, this article tests a more refined hypothesis: that the gender gap in authority is larger in positions that are relatively seen as more suitable for men. We distinguish authority positions by the amount of authority and the gender-typed control over resources they involve, hypothesizing a larger gender gap in positions with larger proportions of supervisory, as opposed to nonsupervisory tasks, and in positions with control over organizational, as opposed to human, resources. Our findings, based on Dutch linked survey and administrative data from about 32,000 employees who have started their careers between 1999 and 2016, largely support these ideas. We find an overall larger gender gap in positions with largely supervisory tasks as opposed to positions with only some supervisory tasks. Additionally, the authority gender gap is the largest in largely supervisory positions with control over organizational resources and smallest in positions with control over human resources. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Workplace Authority

This article answers several related questions: does parenthood affect whether women hold positions of authority? Is there a parenthood effect on authority for men? Is the gender gap in authority explained by a more deleterious effect of parenthood on women’s in comparison to men’s representation in positions of authority? Past studies of the relationship between parenthood and workplace authority have been limited in their ability to assess a causal effect of parenthood because most have employed a static approach, measuring the presence of children and the type of job held concurrently, using cross-sectional data. Using retrospective life course data from four rounds of the Family Survey of the Dutch Population and distributed fixed-effects models, we study within-person changes in having supervisory authority among women and men in the years before, around, and after the birth of their first child. The findings show a moderate negative effect of motherhood on women’s representation in authority, which is entirely explained by a reduction in the number of hours worked. Fatherhood has no effect on men’s representation in authority. The gender gap in supervisory authority between women and men grows over time but is already very large years before the transition to first-time parenthood.

Automatons, sales-floor control and the constitution of authority

Workplace authority in contemporary contexts is increasingly being constituted through online automatons, internet platforms whose logic is diametrically opposed to the notion of hierarchical knowledge. They govern the organization of work and derive legitimacy from three principles: (1) the streaming of information into a network composed of all workers; (2) the transparency of the information and measurements they provide to workers; and (3) their automatic self-regulation, which obscures the role of management in their design. Via interviews and on-site observation in a large computer chain store, I examined how one automaton controls workers through a complex system of sales contests. To lure workers into active engagement with the automaton, management offers hefty prizes to contest winners and also strives to legitimate the automaton’s operation by presenting the contests as fair and just. Through the behavioural scripts inscribed into it, the automaton fosters belief in markets as efficient means of resource allocation and promotes self-interested behaviour and arm’s-length social ties. Smart artefacts like this automaton, which foster belief and generate authority through workers’ prescribed engagement with them, are, I argue, emerging as effective managerial tools in a variety of work contexts, part of a pattern of increasing automation of workplace authority.

CAPITAL WITHOUT WAGE-LABOUR: MARX’S MODES OF SUBSUMPTION REVISITED

This paper argues that capitalist social relations do not presuppose wage-labour. The paper defends a functional definition of the capitalist relations of production, in terms of what Marx calls the ’subsumption of labour by capital’. I argue that there are at least four modes of subsumption, one transitional to and one transitional from the capitalist mode of production. Unlike the capitalist mode of production, capitalist relations of production are compatible with the absence of a labour market, and even with the absence of workplace authority relations. The ambit of capitalist domination is therefore broader than typically thought.

Beyond Representation: Gender, Authority, and City Managers

For the last 50 years, the U.S. government has worked to address the sex pay gap in the workforce. Nevertheless, the pay gap remains persistent across sectors and organizational hierarchies. This study investigates the direct and indirect effects of sex and authority profile on the pay gap of city managers in the United States. The study uses ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis to predict the relationship between a city manager’s sex and authority profile variables as well as the relationship between authority profile variables and a city manager’s annual salary. Our OLS analysis shows that sex (being a male city manager) along with workplace authority variables are all positive and significant predictors of pay. The study also finds that, on average, female city managers earn 73% of what male city managers earn. They also manage 60% of the number of employees and oversee 62% of the annual budget compared with male city managers.

The Effects of Gendered Occupational Roles on Men’s and Women’s Workplace Authority: Evidence from Microfinance

The gendering of occupational roles affects a variety of outcomes for workers and organizations. We examine how the gender of an initial role occupant influences the authority enjoyed by individuals who subsequently fill that role. We use data from a microfinance bank in Central America to examine how working initially with a male or female loan manager shapes borrowers’ compliance with future managers’ directives. First, we show that borrowers originally paired with female managers continue to be less compliant with subsequent managers, regardless of subsequent managers’ gender. Next, we demonstrate how compliance is shaped by the gender-typing of the role and the gender of the individual who fills that role. We find that men enjoy significantly greater compliance in male-typed roles, but male and female managers experience similar levels of compliance in female-typed roles. Further analyses reveal that these gendered patterns become especially pronounced after managers demonstrate their authority by disciplining borrowers. Overall, we show how quickly gendered expectations become inscribed into occupational roles, and we identify their lasting organizational consequences. More broadly, we suggest authority mechanisms that may contribute to the “stalled” gender revolution in the workplace.