Lack of ambition or lack of support? Diverging career experiences of men and women explain the persistence of gender bias

In this study we explore possible causes for the differential career success of women
in academia. We do this by testing the content of organizational narratives about
plausible reasons why women are less likely than men to advance in their academic
careers, against the self‐reported experiences and career choices of women and men
in the organization. We compared content‐coded narratives (N = 84) with quantitative self‐report (N = 661) data. Both data sets were collected around the same time,
taking care that different members of the organization contributed to each of these
two data sources. First, we report the qualitative data (Study 1). These revealed the
organizational narrative about gender differences in academic careers. On the one
hand, people in the university acknowledged the sexist treatment of women, but on
the other hand, they failed to note that this “chilly climate” might adversely impact
the careers of women in the organization. We report the quantitative data in Study
2. This revealed no support for the validity of this narrative, which maintains the
pervasive belief that women are less interested in, and prefer to “opt out” from, an
academic career. Notably, we found no actual differences between female and male
academics in their self‐reported motivations. However, women did report having
made more difficult life choices and having received less support from the
organization for their careers. Together, these findings reveal blind spots in
organizational narratives and point to additional measures that can be taken to
ensure equal career opportunities for all employees