Women in the Swedish labor market have lower wage than men on average. There are multiple reasons for this gender wage differential. Among other things, processes at the organizational level have been stressed. Some researchers argue that the gender of the manager has an effect on wages and that this effect might differ for men and women. Prior studies have analyzed the potential effect of manager gender on wages, but few empirical studies have scrutinized the question. The studies that exist use the proportion of female versus male managers in the organization as a measure of the effect of manager gender on wages. This paper however offers a direct test of the association of the gender of the immediate manager with men’s and women’s wages. Specifically, two hypotheses were tested: that (i) a female manager is negatively associated with women’s wages (ii) a female manager is negatively associated with men’s wages. To address the hypotheses, the analysis provides OLS regressions (for men and women separately) using survey data from European Social Survey (ESS) 2004 and 2010. The analysis includes theoretically and empirically relevant variables clustered in block of human capital, organizational and individual level variables. The results show that men’s wages are negatively influenced by having a female manager once human capital was adjusted for. There is no evidence that women’s wages are affected by having a female manager, since the share of women in the occupation and in the firm fully explains the negative association between female manager and wages for women. For female respondents, organizational factors seem to be of greater importance for wage determination than the gender of the immediate manager.

The aim of our study was to investigate how women in management positions experience the relationship between parenthood and their careers. We also wanted to study how these women experienced expectations from society on parenting in relation to their careers. The study's empirical data is based on semi-structured interviews with eight women in management positions. We analyzed the data from a gender perspective with the help of authors Connell's and Pearse's (2015) concepts of gender domain, gender regime, gender order and gender roles. We also used Elvin-Nowak's and Thomsson's (2001) discourses maintain separate spheres and availability and immunization. Magnusson's (2006) concepts of limitations and delimitations as well as West´s and Zimmerman's (1987) concept doing gender were also applied to the data analysis. The results from our study showed that female managers could be divided into two groups. One group where parenthood was valued higher than professional life and where the female managers had longer parental leave and more days of child care than their partners. The second group valued professional life higher than parenthood and the female managers in this group had shorter parental leave and fewer days of child care than their partners. However, all study participants, no matter the group, felt that parenting and professional life interacted with each other and that one sphere affected the other. Thus, the study participants could not at the same time be as involved in parenting as in their professional life or vice versa. Participants who chose to take greater responsibility for child care did not experience any views from society whilst participants who took less responsibility for child care did. The views were based on the expectations from society on motherhood in relation to a management position.

Background: Studies that have been made in male-dominated organisations shows that only few women have succeeded in advancing to the higher positions in all businesses. Statistics shows that merely 4 % of the managers in all building companies are female. The manager role has earlier always been classified as most suitable for men resulting in barriers for women who strive for management positions. This problem is now very renowned and is called the glass ceiling. To improve the current situation, both the organization's structure and culture, have to be modernized for more women to succeed and get the courage to get into the industry. More women in the construction industry would enrich many companies and widely expand its competence. Purpose: The thesis of this paper is to provide an understanding of how the factors structure, culture, family, networking and leadership contributes to the few female managers in the production part of the construction industry. We are going to explore how women managers, based on their own experiences, believe that these barriers can be reduced. Delivery: To fulfill our purpose we have chosen to do a qualitative study with a deductive approach. We have conducted four interviews with female managers or previous female managers at different construction companies. Results: We have established that both women themselves and the companies can increase women's chances to advance in the construction industry. Women can more easily reach a management position in the construction industry by adapting to the male culture, achieving a balance between family and work and gain networking contacts. Companies in the construction industry can increase the proportion of female managers by focusing on recruitment, organizational structure, work climate, mentoring, and by taking into account the woman's family. We also found that it is important to keep the women who already work in the industry to attract more women to enter there. It is important to have female role models in companies that can guide and be good examples for new employees. Increasing the proportion of women in the construction industry requires that the interest in structural engineering is increasing in young girls. By this there will be more female applicants for structural engineering courses in the university. To reduce problems and create opportunities for women to work in the construction industry more women would be able to advance in the business. It also would lead to the glass ceiling becoming much thinner and that it could be broken completely in the future. / Bakgrund: Studier genomförda på mansdominerade företag visar att det finns ytterst få kvinnor som lyckats avancera till de högre positionerna inom samtliga företag. Statistik visar att endast 4 % av cheferna i alla byggföretag i Sverige är kvinnor. Chefskapet har tidigare alltid klassats som mest lämpligt för män vilket har lett till att kvinnor som strävar efter chefspositioner hindras från att ta sig upp i hierarkin. Detta problem är idag mycket omtalat och kallas för glastaket. För att förbättra dagens situation måste både organisationens struktur och kultur moderniseras för att fler kvinnor ska lyckas och våga ta sig in i branschen. Fler kvinnor i byggbranschen skulle berika många företag och i stor utsträckning utöka dess kompetens. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa en förståelse kring hur faktorerna struktur, kultur, familjesituation, nätverk samt ledarskap bidrar till fåtalet kvinnliga chefer i den producerande delen av byggbranschen. Vi ska även undersöka hur kvinnliga chefer, utifrån egna erfarenheter, anser att dessa hinder kan reduceras. Genomförande: För att uppfylla vårt syfte har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ studie med en deduktiv ansats. Vi har genomfört fyra stycken besöksintervjuer, tre med kvinnliga chefer och en med en tidigare chef på fyra olika byggföretag. Resultat: Vi har konstaterat att både kvinnor själva och företagen kan öka kvinnors chans att avancera inom byggbranschen. Kvinnor kan lättare nå en chefsposition i byggbranschen genom att anpassa sig till den manliga kulturen, uppnå balans mellan familj och arbete och skaffa nätverkskontakter. Företagen i byggbranschen kan öka andelen kvinnliga chefer genom att fokusera på rekrytering, organisationsstruktur, arbetsklimat, mentorskap och genom att ta hänsyn till kvinnans familjesituation. Vi har även kommit fram till att det är viktigt att behålla de kvinnor som redan finns i branschen idag för att intressera fler kvinnor att söka sig dit. Det är viktigt att det finns kvinnliga förebilder i företagen som kan vägleda och vara goda exempel för nyanställda. För att öka andelen kvinnor i byggbranschen krävs det att intresset för byggteknik ökar hos unga tjejer för att sedan få fler kvinnliga sökande till byggtekniska utbildningar. Att reducera problemen och skapa möjligheter för kvinnor att arbeta i byggbranschen skulle göra att fler kvinnor kan avancera inom företagen. Detta skulle även leda till att glastaket blir betydligt tunnare och i framtiden skulle kunna brytas helt.

This Master thesis investigates how cultural processes exclude, or might include, women from the corporate culture as well as how the cultural processes could impact the women’s abilities to career advancement within an organization that operates in the financial and IT industries. Previous studies have provided knowledge about culture and gender relations within the financial (Rutherford, 2001; Renemark, 2007) and IT-sectors (Davies and Mathieu, 2005: 12-22) respectively, but there is a lack of studies of financial service organizations in Sweden that operates in both these industries. These industries are described in earlier studies as having an uneven female representation at managerial levels (Nordling and Samuelsson, 2014; Rutherford, 2001) and organizational cultures that marginalizes women (Renemark, 2007; Davies and Mathieu, 2005: 12-22; Rutherford, 2001). Thereof is the corporate culture’s effect on women and female managers in particular, important to understand in an organizational constellation that strives to increase the number of female managers such as the case company in this study. This study utilizes a theoretical framework defined by Rutherford (2001) comprising nine cultural constituents that are interpreted as including several cultural processes. These cultural constituents are organizational background, Physical artefacts, Management style, the Long hours culture, Work ideology, Informal ways of socializing, Language and communication, Sexuality, and Gender awareness. The nine cultural constituents and the respective processes could have excluding effects, or possible including effects, on female managers position in the corporate culture and impact their further career advancement. In this study is the framework used to investigate the situation for female managers as well as the situation for the female employees as perceived at the managerial level. A case study methodology is used and the including data collection methods are; semi-structured interviews, secondary data, and a field study. Nine semi-structured interviews with managers that directly report to the executive team members constitute the main data gathering method. The findings show the existence of cultural processes related to all nine constituents at the case organization and how these processes impact women. These cultural processes exclude or include women from the corporate culture and impact female career advancement negatively or positively. The identified excluding cultural processes could constitute managerial implications for gender equality work. In addition, the findings provide knowledge of how the generic framework defined by Rutherford (2001) could be applied in the present corporate environment of an actor that operates in the Swedish IT and financial industries. Further, two adjustments of the framework are proposed. The constant connectivity provided by today’s technology proposes a more interlinked relationship between the long hour culture and the work ideology than earlier defined. Further, an extension of the cultural constituent Informal ways of socializing is proposed to incorporate several hierarchical levels to be applicable for young and less hierarchical actors.

Denna uppsats avser att fokusera på kvinnor i mansdominerade branscher, i synnerhet inom byggbranschen för att göra en avgränsning. Vi vill se vilka upplevelser kvinnor i en mansdominerad bransch har kring ledarskap bland män. Detta på grund av att arbetsdelningen som existerar på arbetsmarknaden många gånger har bidragit till svårigheter för kvinnor att avancera sig till chefspositioner i arbetslivet. Både under proceduren till att nå en chefsposition men även under den tilldelade tjänsten som chef, stöter kvinnliga chefer på svårigheter i sin roll. Vi har av avsikt att belysa eventuella hinder som uppstår för kvinnliga chefer på mansdominerade yrken på grund av deras kön. Detta genom att testa våra utvalda teoretiska perspektiv och begrepp och för att se om det råder ojämlikhet på grund av kön, homosocialitet, glastak samt glashiss. Kvalitativa intervjuer utfördes och utifrån våra fyra intervjupersoners uttalanden fick vi fram ett resultat som gav oss svar på våra frågeställningar kring kvinnliga chefer i ett mansdominerat yrke. Resultatet tyder på att majoriteten av våra intervjupersoner än idag upplever mer särbehandling och hinder än möjligheter på den mansdominerade branschen de befinner sig i, på grund av att de är kvinnor. Dock upplevs känslor av att det är mer jämställt numera, i jämförelse med tidigare decennier. Därmed har vi utifrån våra intervjupersoner kunnat konstatera att problematiken i våra utvalda teoretiska perspektiv förekommer ännu i dagens samhälle och i Sverige som betraktas som ett civiliserat samhälle. Problematik i form av hinder, särbehandling samt orättvisan mellan olika kön där kvinnor är underordnade män.   Nyckelord: Könsroller, genussystem, glastak, glashiss, glasklippa, kvinnlig ledare/chef, mansdominerat yrke, särbehandling, segregerad arbetsmarknad, upplevelse. / This essay refers to have its focus on women in male-dominated industries, especially within the construction industry to make a differentiation. We want to see what kind of experience women in a male-dominated industry have around leadership among men. Therefore, the separation existing in the work environment has brought difficulties for the women to advance to manager rolls in their work-life. Women encounter difficulties in their role as a manager also during the procedure to reach an executive position. We have the motive to clear obstacles that eventually come up for female managers in male-dominated professions due to their gender. By testing through our selected ideal point of view and term, to see if it counsels the inequality that exists between the two genders and homosociality, also when it comes to the glass ceiling. When evaluating numbers of interviews that were set up with four different people, their responses guided answers to questions regarding female managers in a male-dominated industry.  The results indicate that the majority of our numbers still experience more privileges and barriers than opportunities in the male-dominated industry that they occupy themselves in, because of their gender as females. However, feelings are felt that it is more equated nowadays compared to previous decades. We are able to conclude from our interviewers that the issue in our ideal point of view still exists in today's world, even in Sweden's civilized society, Through different obstacles, special treatments, and injustice between different sexes, women end up being subordinate to men. Key Words: Gender roles, gender system, glassceiling, glass elevator, glass cliff, female manager, man dominated, special treatment, segregated labor market, experience.

In Sweden, the statistics show how women are underrepresented in organisational hierarchies; as managers, executive managers, CEOs and board of directors. Qualitative research reveals that women in management positions perceive the working life in Sweden as unequal and how men and women have different terms for making a career. Previous career studies told from women's narratives with a gender perspective caught our interest to examine how women reason and relate to their careers in 2019. The purpose of this study is to examine what emerges in stories about career and gender by women with management experience. We seek to understand how women relate to their career stories and how dilemmas are handled and how strategies are being used. We applied a narrative research design to obtain women's own stories about their careers. Ten narrative interviews were conducted with women with management experience within different companies and across several industries. The findings reveal how women in their career find themselves in minority positions in an environment imprinted by men's homosociality, including a language and toughness, that is difficult to relate to for the women. The minority position gives grounds to multiple approaches for women. The narratives show the urge to prove oneself, to legitimise one's position and to make oneself visible by showing will-power and determination. We found three strategies that women use in order to sustain self-esteem while coping with gender structures. We have named these strategies the individualistic strategy, the positive strategy and the explicit structure strategy. The individualistic strategy makes gender invisible by focusing on individual characteristics and traits. The positive strategy focuses on the advantages of being a woman and, the explicit structure strategy relates the meaning of gender to structures rather than to oneself. A central finding in our material is how the women switch between coping strategies. Switching between the individualistic strategy and the explicit structure strategy unveils two different themes. The first I don't want to generalise, but, illustrates how women relate gender to structures while they at the same time do not want to generalise between the genders. The second switch the Trojan horse explains how women are aware of gender structures and conform to men to sustain control and thereby sustain their self-esteem. Finally, to switch between stressing the benefits of being a woman and the burden of being a woman, we interpret as efforts to unburden the weight of gender structures. These switches between strategies give rise to contradictive reasoning, which we find entirely understandable as a means for women to make sense of their own reality. / I Sverige visar statistik hur kvinnor är underrepresenterade i organisationshierarkier; som chefer, VD, i ledninggrupper och styrelser. Kvalitativ forskning visar att kvinnor på chefspositioner upplever arbetslivet i Sverige som ojämnställt och att män och kvinnor har olika villkor att göra karriär. Tidigare karriärsstudier med ett genusperspektiv, berättade från kvinnors narrativ fångade vårt intresse att undersöka hur kvinnor resonerar kring och förhåller sig till sin karriär 2019. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad som framkommer i berättelser om karriär och kön av kvinnor med chefserfarenhet. Vi ämnade förstå hur kvinnor förhåller sig till sina berättelser och hur dilemman hanteras och hur strategier används. Vi tillämpade en narrativ forskningsdesign för att erhålla kvinnors egna berättelser om sin karriär. Tio narrativa intervjuer genomfördes med kvinnor med chefserfarenhet inom olika företag och branscher. Resultaten avslöjar hur kvinnor i sin karriär befinner sig i minoritetsposition i en miljö som präglas av mäns homosocialitet, inklusive ett språk och tuffhet som är svårt att relatera till för kvinnorna. Minoritetspositionen ger upphov till flera förhållningssätt bland kvinnorna. Berättelserna skildrar behovet att behöva bevisa sig själv, att legitimera sin ställning och att göra sig synlig genom att visa viljestyrka och beslutsamhet. Vi hittade tre strategier som kvinnor använder för att upprätthålla sin självkänsla medan de hanterar könsstrukturer. Vi har namngett dessa strategier: den individualistiska strategin, den positiva strategin och den explicita strukturstrategin. Den individualistiska strategin gör kön osynligt genom att fokusera på individuella egenskaper och förmågor. Den positiva strategin fokuserar på fördelarna med att vara kvinna och den explicita strukturstrategin relaterar betydelsen av kön till strukturer snarare än till individen. Ett centralt resultat i vårt material är hur kvinnorna växlar mellan strategierna. Växling mellan den individualistiska strategin och den explicita strukturstrategin avslöjar två olika teman. Den första jag inte vill generalisera, men, illustrerar hur kvinnor relaterar kön till strukturer medan de samtidigt inte vill generalisera mellan könen. Den andra växlingen den trojanska hästen förklarar hur kvinnor är medvetna om könsstrukturer och efterliknar män för att upprätthålla kontrollen och därigenom självkänslan. Slutligen, växlingen mellan att betona fördelarna med att vara kvinna och belastningen av att vara kvinna, tolkar vi som en stävan mot att avlasta bördan av könsstrukturer. Dessa växlingar mellan strategier ger upphov till motsägelsefulla resonemang som vi finner helt förståeliga som ett medel för kvinnor att begripa sin verklighet.