The Promotion Pathway for Women in Information Technology

A new study led by Nishtha Langer, an assistant professor of business analytics at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, explores how gender affects the likelihood of career advancement in the information technology industry. The researchers analyzed archival promotion data, as well as demographic, human capital, and administrative data for 7,004 employees at a leading IT services firm for the years 2002–2007.

In what was somewhat of a surprise, the researchers found that women were more likely to be promoted than men. The authors suggest that women are more likely to be promoted than men because they are considered more helpful and trustworthy. Also, women are more likely to be promoted, according to the authors, because they will be more satisfied with a lower pay raise than men who get promoted.

The study also found that women realize less benefit from performance gains than men, less benefit from tenure within the firm, but more benefit from training than men. These results suggest that despite the disparity in returns to performance and experience improvements, women can rely on training to restore parity in promotions.

Dr. Langer is a graduate of the Delhi College of Engineering in India. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

The study, “Onward and Upward? An Empirical Investigation of Gender and Promotions in Information Technology Services,” was published on the website of the journal Information Systems Research. It may be accessed here.