Wages and unequal access to organizational power: An empirical test of gender discrimination

This study of Swedish workers investigates gender wage inequality, specific ally, whether earnings are affected by the gender composition of establishm ents' managerial and supervisory staff. Theoretical arguments focus on mana gers' propensity to create and maintain or to undermine institutionalized g ender bias and employees' capacity to mobilize resources and establish clai ms in the wage distribution process, mainly through social networks. Result s show that gender-differentiated access to organizational power structures is essential in explaining women's relatively low wages. Women who work in establishments in which relatively many of the managers are men have lower wages than women with similar qualifications and job demands in establishm ents with more women in the power structure.*