Summary - You snooze, you lose ...
Attrition of woman and men in management positions
Original title: Opgestaan, plaats vergaan ...
More and more women in the Netherlands are in top executive positions, but the increase is proceeding slowly, especially in the private sector. This begs the question of why. A lot of research has been carried out on the slow intake of women into senior and top executive positions. However, little is known about whether the attrition of women from these roles might offer a possible explanation for this slow progress. If women leave management and senior executive roles more often than men, this puts a brake on the growth in the number of women at the top of organisations.
In this study we investigate whether women working in management roles change to lower-level roles more often than their male counterparts. We also look at the roles in which women end up after such a change and which factors explain the attrition of managers and executives. The study was carried out using the Labour Supply Panel, a database which enables the position of employees in the Netherlands to be tracked over an extended period.