Gender and motivation to manage in hierarchic organizations: A meta-analysis

Research is reviewed that compares women's and men's motivation to manage as assessed by the Miner Sentence Completion Scale, a projective measure designed to reveal respondents' motivation to meet the role requirements that traditionally characterized managerial positions in hierarchic organizations. An analysis of the predominantly masculine definition of this type of managerial role provides the theoretical context for a quantitative integration of 51 data sets covering a period of over 30 years and consisting mainly of samples of business students. Although men scored higher in motivation to manage than women, these sex differences were relatively small. On five of the subscales of the instrument, men scored higher than women; on two subscales, women scored higher. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to several aspects of women's participation in managerial roles, including prejudice against female managers and the possible evolution of managerial roles toward more androgynous role definitions.