Persistent inequality, but not a glass ceiling: On gender and workplace authority

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2021.43

Keywords:

Workplace authority, gender gap, glass ceiling, gender inequality, Erik Wright

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study gender inequality in workplace authority in Spain, taking Erik Wright's contributions as a starting point. I describe the magnitude, shape and temporal variation of inequality in Spain and I test the "glass ceiling" hypothesis, i.e., the hypothesis that women face a more intense disadvantage at highger levels of the authority hierarchy than at the bottom. I use data from the "Survey on Class Structure, Class Consciousness and Class Biography" (1991), the "Socio-demographic Survey" (1991), the "Survey on Quality of Life at Work" (1999-2004) and serveral annual subsamples of the "Labour Force Survey" (2006-2013). It is concluded that in Spain men and women have unequal probabilities of holdiing authority positions at the workplace, but evidence does not support the "glass ceiling" hypothesis.

Author Biography

Miguel Caínzos , Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Doctor en filosofía y profesor de sociología en la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Ha escrito diversos trabajos sobre teoría sociológica, estratificación social, comportamiento electoral y participación política. En algunos de ellos, ya muy lejanos, intentó hacer un análisis crítico y desarrollo de la teoría de las clases de Erik Wright (Explotación, dominación y estructura de clase. Política y Sociedad, 5: 89-105, 1989; Productive Assets, Economic Practices, and Relational Interests. XIII ISA World Congress of Sociology. RC28: Social Stratification. Bielefeld, 1994; El concepto de estructura de clases. En J. Carabaña (Ed.), Desigualdad y clases sociales. Un seminario en torno a Erik O. Wright. Madrid: Ediciones Visor y Fundación Argentari, 1995; Razones y recetas para construir un esquema de clases. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 75: 109-143,1996).

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Published

2021-04-14

How to Cite

Caínzos, M. (2021). Persistent inequality, but not a glass ceiling: On gender and workplace authority. Spanish Journal of Sociology, 30(2), a43. https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2021.43