The gender logic of executive compensation

Studies examining women's upward mobility to the top executive positions in U.S. corporations find strong industry effects. Some industries seem to be more open to women than others. In this paper, we seek to derive an explanation for industry differences in representation of women among top executives. We theorize that industries have gender logics that facilitate women managers' access to top executive positions. In short, we propose that industries based in a logic of care and engaged in interactive service work or in the social reproduction of everyday life will be more open to women. We use data from S&P's Execucomp dataset to conduct an analysis of industry averages of women representation among top executives and find evidence for these propositions. In additional analysis, we also find that an industry's gender logic influences average industry executive compensation. We also find, however, that industries based in a profit of logic also facilitate women executive attainment.