Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v24i3.1432
To Be or Not to Be a Woman? - Highly Educated Women's Perceptions of Gender Equality in the Workplace
Nina Pološki Vokić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7600-7928
; Ekonomski fakultet u Zagrebu
Dubravka Sinčić Ćorić
orcid.org/0000-0002-1834-5491
; Ekonomski fakultet u Zagrebu
Alka Obadić
orcid.org/0000-0002-8915-8853
; Ekonomski fakultet u Zagrebu
Abstract
The starting point of the paper is that highly educated women suffer less inequality in the workplace. To test it, both secondary and primary researches were conducted. Secondary data refer to the field of education, participation in knowledge-intensive activities, hierarchical status, and pay gap of highly educated women compared to men in selected European countries, while primary data reveal perceptions of highly educated women on women’s contextual career factors and personal critical incidents’ experiences concerning equality. The primary research was conducted on a sample of 675 highly educated women in Croatia. Results are tested for statistical differences according to respondents’ demographics and compared with highly educated men’s perceptions (n = 177).
The secondary data reveal that gender segregation is less present among highly educated women. In general, the primary data imply that highly educated women do not perceive contextual factors to negatively influence their careers, even though they had some negative gender-related experiences. Paper concludes with equality initiatives recommendations based on research results, and interviews conducted with HRM and general directors from MNCs with best equality practices.
Keywords
gender segregation; gender equality; highly educated women; perceptions; EU; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
190470
URI
Publication date:
8.12.2017.
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