Women outperform men but 13% less likely to be promoted: Study

A study from MIT Sloan Associate Professor Danielle Li finds that female employees are less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts, despite outperforming them and being less likely to quit.

In the paper, ’Potential’ and the Gender Promotion Gap, Li found that even though female employees received higher performance ratings than male employees, they still received 8.3 per cent lower ratings for potential than men. Results showed that women were 14 per cent less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts. The annual promotion rate is 1.64 percentage points lower for women, corresponding to a 13 per cent lower likelihood.

Management-track of 30,000 employees at a large North American retail chain between February 2009 and October 2015 was studied. Women made up about 56 per cent of entry-level workers. Rising through the ranks, women made up 48 per cent of department managers, 35 per cent of store managers, and 14 per cent of district managers.

The research found out that relative to men with the same scores for potential, women outperformed their previous year’s score. Yet they were still given lower potential ratings heading into the next year.

“The result I found most depressing in the paper is the result in which women outperform their stated potential,” said Professor Danielle Li in an interview. “Women have to hit a higher threshold of future performance in order to justify the same potential score.”