The Effect of the Proportion of Women on Salaries: The Case of College Administrators

Abstract

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the College and University Personnel Association in making available the data that were used in these analyses. The conclusions and interpretations are those of the authors alone, and the association is not responsible for nor does it necessarily *endorse the conclusions of this study. We would also like to thank Gerald R. Salancik, Associate Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, and the three anonymous ASO reviewers for the substantial contribution they made in helping us clarify the arguments. The comments of James Baron, Rosabeth Kanter, and Alison Konrad on an earlier version of this manuscript are also gratefully acknowledged. The entry of women into organizations and occupations previously closed to them changes the demographic composition of organizations in ways that can affect the monetary and psychic rewards available to both men and women. This article examines the effect of the proportion of women administrators on the salaries of both men and women in administrative positions in colleges and universities. Four theoretical perspectives that make predictions about the effect of the proportion of women are identified: economic competition and crowding, demographic group power, group interaction, and institutionalization. The results indicate that there is an inverse relationship between the proportion of women and the salaries of both men and women. This relationship holds both cross sectionally and longitudinally, and the effect is not completely linear. These results are inconsistent with both the demographicgroup-power and group-interaction perspectives and provide some support for both the economic competition and institutionalization approaches.