The Male/Female Salary Differential for School Administrators: Implications for Career Patterns and Placement of Women

Abstract

The documented earnings gap between male and female educational administrators has been largely ignored in the literature, possibly because of the difficulty in verifying the reasons for it as well as resistance to addressing and attempting to solve a complex and sensitive problem. The researcher examines the typical explanations for general male/female salary differentials and questions their relevance for educational administrators. The researcher also applies a model used to detect gender bias in compensation to a sample of school administrators' salaries, revealing that gender accounts for a small but statistically significant portion of salary variance. The male/female administrator salary differential may be only marginally related to gender itself and more closely related to position segregation and professional experience profile. Finally, the researcher discusses the implications of salary differential for the career patterns and placement of female administrators.

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