Careers in Finland - Does Gender Matter? A Study on White-collar Employees in Manufacturing 1981-2006

This report analyses the careers of men and women in Finnish manufacturing in 19812006. The focus is on three main issues : 1) gender differences in jobs and hierarchical positions in the beginning of the career, 2) gender differences in career development, 3) gender differences in starting wages and wage premiums to changes in hierarchical position. The study uses wage data for white-collar employees from the registers of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). The results show that white-collar women typically start their careers from less demanding jobs than men. However, the differences have declined in the past 25 years. The results also show that there are gender differences in career development : men get promoted more often than women, but are demoted less often. Thus the differences in career development tend to amplify the gender differences already apparent in the beginning of the career. Concerning wages, the results show that white-collar men earn on average more than women already in the beginning of the career, but this difference in starting wages has declined markedly during the past 25 years. On the other hand, there are no clear-cut gender differences in the wage changes in hierarchical position. Wage increases attached to promotions are roughly of the same size for men and women, but women tend to experience larger wage reductions when demoted.