Chapter 6
How to Study Gender Inequality in Organizations?
Inequality, like corruption and violence, can hardly be provoked by researchers, and they are seldom invited to witness it. A great many innovative approaches have been tried, several of which I review in this chapter. Because of space limitations, I have chosen one study to illustrate each approach that I review. I made no attempt to cover everything but selected what in my opinion was worthy of presenting and my division into types of studies has a purely structuring function. Indeed, the types I identify often overlap. Furthermore, common sense suggests that the application of several approaches always produces richer material, whether it happens under the fancy (and usually incorrectly applied) label of ‘triangulation’ or under some other label.
The studies presented in this chapter can be seen as exemplary but not in the sense of being perfect. They were chosen to illustrate a type of approach or a technique and I feel justified in noting difficulties and problems connected to each. My general aim is to inform and guide researchers who are interested in studying gender inequality in organizations.
1. . . . experimentally
Joanne Martin has conducted a series of experiments in which subjects were shown videos or slides of working people followed by information about the pay schemes under which they were employed; the subjects ...
