Report: Few women in management
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
BILL RADKE: At a Congressional hearing today, the Government Accountability Office will issue a survey that finds little progress in women moving into management positions. Marketplace’s John Dimsdale joins us from Washington. Good morning, John.
JOHN DIMSDALE: Good morning, Bill.
RADKE: What does the latest picture show?
DIMSDALE: Well 10 years ago, 39 percent of managers were women. Seven years later, there was only a 1 percent improvement to 40 percent. This study does give us a better picture of how women get promoted in different industries. In three industries, there are actually a higher percentage of women bosses than women in the rank and file workforce. Those are construction, public administration and transportation.
RADKE: How about salaries? Are women managers shrinking the pay gap?
DIMSDALE: There is some progress. Overall, female full-time managers earn 81 cents for every dollar paid to comparable male colleague. That’s a two cent per dollar improvement. In some industries now, women fared better than others. In government jobs, for example, women managers earned 87 cents on the dollar earned by men. But in banking, it was only 78 cents.
RADKE: Does this study look at why there’s so much inequality in management and pay?
DIMSDALE: There was one telling statistic — 63 percent of female managers are childless compared to only 57 percent of males. And the more children a woman manager has, the more they fall behind the pay of their male counterparts. That seems to suggest that parenthood, having a family, falls more heavily on the careers of women. And women managers are also much less likely to be married than male bosses.
RADKE: Very interesting. Marketplace’s John Dimsdale, thank you.
DIMSDALE: You’re welcome.
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