Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics - Previously Affiliated

Women’s disadvantages in labor market outcomes are often attributed to the preponderance of male dominated networks in the workplace. This suggests that the presence of more women in positions of power would ameliorate gender differences in wages by providing women with the connections they need to succeed. However, there is little work evaluating these ideas, and the work that does so is unable to match individual workers to those in positions of power over them. This study considers these questions using a survey of several thousand small businesses, and examines how gender differences vary among establishments with male and female owners. We find no systematic differences between men and women owners in terms of gender wage inequality among their employees.