Gender Differences in Access to and Exercise of Power

Abstract

This chapter examines two related aspects: gender differences in access to and in the exercise of power. Access to power is considered as advantages and opportunities in the backgrounds of the women and men in the sample, defined in terms of the educational level of parents and supervisory functions in their occupational roles. The exercise of power is interpreted as the impact office-holders feel they have in carrying out their functions. In general the findings indicate that women need more advantageous background conditions than men in order to enter the power elite. Once there, however, there are fewer differences between women and men in respect of their perceptions of the impact they have in carrying out their functions. In some cases it seems that men need to be in a better situation than women in order to feel that they exert power. This seemed to apply across the different countries in the sample.