men and women executives when they first took their jobs in the early 1970's and ten years later. It was found that: "according to the study, the men and women started out with equal job responsibilities at nearly equal salaries - an average of $14,355 and $14,068 respectively. A decade later, the men had outpaced the women by 20 percent, with salaries of $49,356 versus $40,022."3
In addition to this wage discrepancy, there has been a general trend in which women have been denied access to the upper management positions in American business. The civil rights movement of the 1960's paved the way for women to gain a stronghold in entry level and middle management positions. Despite these gains, however, it has been noted that "the barrier against women at the senior level is holding firm, especially in senior line jobs, where the power in corporate America really lies.4 In this regard, a recent survey of the top-ranking businesses in America indicated that "whereas about 50 percent of today's entry-level managers are women, the figure diminishes by half at middle-management levels and to a tiny 2 percent at the highest levels.5 Some writers on this topic have pointed out that there is an "invisible barrier" for women in middle management positions who are seeking promotions into upper management positions.6 Other writers have claimed that women managers tend to get stuck in a "velvet ghetto," which is characterized by "jobs that pay well but don't often lead to the top.7 In either case, it is clear that women are being kept at a basically lower level than men in terms of both money and power. This is particularly true at the level of upper management, where the most important company decisions are being made.
The basic reasons for this lack of women in upper management were brought out in a recent Avon Report Survey of 450 women entrepreneurs. The women were asked to list the "professional and personal obstacles" which ...