nagement positions? To establish the relationship of gender to hiring practices, one subsection of an industry with varying levels of managerial positions and hiring practices was chosen (the insurance industry). It was found that this small subsection was fairly representative of other industries with large management level staffing requirements, and provided enough data to extrapolate additional material (See Kennedy, 1980; Walby, 1986).
The root of the problem of gender inequality in hiring is not by any means new to the corporate world. In fact, for decades women have been fighting for greater equality and the opportunity to compete for upper level positions. However, although the situation is perceived as improving, there still exists a great deal of inequality and lack of opportunity within the modern corporate world (Walby, 1986).
The process of job selection within mid to upper management levels has never been qualitative. Instead, note many scholars, the general theory of the labor process involving the discriminatory hiring practices between genders has been subjective and whimsical, resulting in no clear definition of the actual opportunities available to women, and their resultant predisposition to particular job levels (Bradley in Knights and Wilmott, eds., 1986, pp. 54 60).
The dichotomy that exists in hiring practices is not simply a national problem, but has clear international ramifications. In Western Europe, in particular, the gender quotient in hiring practices in management level positions favors men over women more than two to one. In addition, the pay scale
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