FAMILY-STRUCTURE, GLASS CEILING, AND TRADITIONAL EXPLANATIONS FOR THEDIFFERENTIAL RATE OF TURNOVER OF FEMALE AND MALE MANAGERS

This longitudinal study investigated differential turnover rates betwe en male and female managers employed by 20 Fortune 500 corporations. D ata were first collected from the sample in 1989. By 1991, 26% of the female managers had left their 1989 employers compared with 14% of the male managers. Contrary to the stereotype articulated by Schwartz (19 89) and perpetuated in the popular press, female managers' intentions to leave were not predicted by their family structure (dual-earner sta tus or number of children), but instead by perceptions of lack of care er opportunity in their current company and other traditional work-rel ated predictors of turnover, such as job dissatisfaction and disloyalt y to the current company. Although the study does not rule out the pos sibility that in other contexts, female managers may leave their organ izations for work and family reasons, in this sample, females were lea ving their organizations in higher proportions than males, and they we re doing so for career-related concerns. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.