Aspirations to top management over five decades: a shifting role of gender?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine linkages of gender and gender-related variables to aspirations to top management over a period spanning five decades.

Design/methodology/approach

During each of the past five decades, samples from two early-career populations (n = 2131), undergraduate business students and part-time (evening) MBAs, completed an aspirations to top management measure and described themselves on an instrument that assessed self-ascribed masculinity and femininity.

Findings

Aspirations to top management were predicted by respondent gender for undergraduates, with women’s aspirations lower than those of men, and by masculinity for both populations. Suggesting a shifting role of gender, undergraduate women’s aspirations to top management declined during the 21st century, whereas undergraduate men’s aspirations did not.

Practical implications

Any decline in early-career women’s aspirations to top management over a sustained period may contribute in the long run to perpetuating the under-representation of women in top management.

Originality/value

The finding of a striking decline in women’s aspirations to top management during the 21st century in an early-career population is an original contribution to the gender in management literature.

Citation

Powell, G.N. and Butterfield, D.A. (2022), "Aspirations to top management over five decades: a shifting role of gender?", Gender in Management, Vol. 37 No. 8, pp. 953-968. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-10-2021-0330