Chances of Leadership - 1993

The Significance of Class Background and Gender in Becoming a Top Manager of an Enterprise

Abstract

An important theoretical dispute was conducted between feminist sociologists, representing the relevance of gender inequalities, and researchers of the traditional stratification theory in the mid-80s. One of the main issues of the dispute was whether gender, or class background was more important as a dimension of the social structure. In my paper I wish to contribute to getting closer to answering to this question. During the course of my empirical analysis I am studying only a very small segment of the dispute: namely which dimension - the class dimension being measured by class origin - was more important from the angle of chances towards acquiring top management jobs in enterprises in Hungary in 1993.
In the first part of the writing I present some works from the rich literature on the topic, which are linked to my empirical research. Next I outline my research. I have tested my hypothesis by applying logistic regression on the samples of a case-control study, referring to the absolute and relative significance of gender and class background (compared to each other) in respect of chances of top management jobs in enterprises.