Abstract
Contrary to what is generally assumed, the gender wage gap and the glass ceiling may not necessarily be positively related. An exploratory analysis of aggregate public service personnel data for Uganda shows that the gender wage gap is small at the middle level of management, whereas it is twice as high at the top. At the same time, the share of women in top positions appears to be twice as high as at the middle ranks. Hence, it seems that in the context of a very patriarchal culture, women ‘have to pay’ for being promoted to the top rather than that there is a linearly thickening glass ceiling that would drive a widening gender wage gap. The exploratory data analysis suggests that the glass ceiling effect may have an equally vicious partner in the shape of a glass ceiling trade-off.
Highlights
The literature on occupational segmentation, the glass ceiling, and gender wage gaps assumes a close and positive relationship between these three phenomena of gender inequality in the labour market, across the globe (Anker, 1998; Wirth, 2001)
Hiau Joo Kee (2006) reports a glass ceiling effect in Australia: ‘A striking result is the sharp acceleration of the gender gap as we move towards the upper tail of the conditional wage distribution
This finding suggests that there is a glass ceiling in the private sector’ (Hiau Joo Kee, 2006:420 & 423). He adds that, controlling for demographic and education variables, the gender wage gap rises to the top of the wage distribution, concluding that ‘the glass ceiling is due to differences in
Summary
The literature on occupational segmentation, the glass ceiling, and gender wage gaps assumes a close and positive relationship between these three phenomena of gender inequality in the labour market, across the globe (Anker, 1998; Wirth, 2001). Linda Wirth (2001), for example, argues in her insightful cross-country overview of the glass ceiling that the glass gets thicker towards the top and that women’s disadvantage in wages is a major result of this vertical segmentation This view is known as the ‘glass ceiling effect’ on the gender wage gap at the top of the wage distribution. The data are from the year 2004, and the Uganda-specific literature used in the analysis concerns the period around this year, namely 2002-2007 Taking this context into account, the case study provides an insight into correlations between the glass ceiling and the gender wage gap at the organisational level in the public sector. The case study serves to explore whether the gender wage gap at the top should, as the literature indicates, be attributed to the glass ceiling, or whether there may be another mechanism behind large gender differences in pay at the top
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