Articles

Implicit Quota on Women in Top Management

Does having a woman in a top management position for a company make it easier or harder for a other women to attain a top management position in that same company?

We apply our method to the underrepresentation of women in the top management of S&P 1,500 firms. Although extant research suggests that the presence of women in top management could be self‐reinforcing, we theorize and provide strong evidence that women face an implicit quota, whereby a firm’s leadership makes an effort to have a small number of women in top management, but makes less effort to have, or even resists having, larger numbers of women. In consequence, the presence of a woman on a top management team reduces the likelihood that another woman occupies a position on that team.

Cristian L. Dezső & David Gaddis Ross

Read Is There an Implicit Quota on Women in Top Management? A Large‐Sample Statistical Analysis in the Strategic Management Journal.