Roxana Barbulescu

Do Women Choose Different Jobs from Men? Mechanisms of Application Segregation in the Market for Managerial Workers

This paper examines differences in the jobs for which men and women apply in order to better understand gender segregation in managerial jobs. We develop and test an integrative theory of why women might apply to different jobs than men. We note that constraints based on gender role socialization may affect three determinants of job applications: how individuals evaluate the rewards provided by different jobs, whether they identify with those jobs, and whether they believe that their applications will be successful. We then develop hypotheses about the role of each of these decision factors in mediating gender differences in job applications. We test these hypotheses using the first direct comparison of how similarly qualified men and women apply to jobs, based on data on the job searches of MBA students. Our findings indicate that women are less likely than men to apply to finance and consulting jobs and are more likely to apply to general management positions. These differences are partly explained by women’s preference for jobs with better anticipated work–life balance, their lower identification with stereotypically masculine jobs, and their lower expectations of job offer success in such stereotypically masculine jobs. We find no evidence that women are less likely to receive job offers in any of the fields studied. These results point to some of the ways in which gender differences can become entrenched through the long-term expectations and assumptions that job candidates carry with them into the application process.

The Strength of Many Kinds of Ties: Unpacking the Role of Social Contacts Across Stages of the Job Search Process

The topic of job mobility has received increasing attention in recent years. Yet, surprising in light of the wealth of research on social networks and job attainment, we do not have a unified model of the impact of different kinds of social contacts on job search success. In this paper I show that contacts are differently beneficial for job seekers depending on the stage of the job search process that job seekers are engaged in. Specifically, three stages of the job search process can be distinguished in which social contacts fulfill different roles for the job seekers: deciding the types of jobs for which to apply, submitting job applications, and preparing for interviews. I propose that contacts who are spread across different occupations are conducive to applying to more types of jobs, yet it is contacts who are more focused across occupations that are beneficial for being invited to more interviews-relative to the number of job types applied for-and for converting the interviews into offers. In addition, contacts with lower relationship depth with the job seeker are more helpful for getting invited to interviews, whereas contacts who have more frequent interactions with the job seeker are more helpful for converting interviews into offers. Analyses using a unique longitudinal data set on the job searches of 226 participants in an MBA program offer robust evidence in support of the hypotheses. The results suggest that external mobility is best enabled when job seekers engage with-and learn from-different kinds of contacts across stages of the job search process.