Gender-based income disparity among self-employed professionals

摘要

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to test two possible explanations for persistent income disparity between male and female self-employed professionals. First, men are more likely than women to be motivated by the potential for high income to establish a professional practice. Second, men are more likely than women to adopt a thinking-over-feeling cognitive decision-making style. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a gender role/career motivation model to develop a set of hypotheses that explain observed gender-based income disparity among self-employed professionals. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression analysis with data drawn from a large-scale national survey of male and female veterinarians in private practice. Findings – Male veterinarians showed less empathy toward their clients and were more likely to use a thinking-over-feeling decision-making style than were female veterinarians. Also, practice income was greater for male veterinarians with high client empathy (CE) and feeling-over-thinking decision-making style than for male veterinarians with low CE and thinking-over-feeling decision-making style. However, there was no significant difference in practice income between female veterinarians with high CE and feeling-over-thinking decision-making style and female veterinarians with low CE and thinking-over-feeling decision-making style. Research limitations/implications – While this study was limited to American veterinarians, future research on income disparity should be expanded to include other self-employed professionals and/or other national settings. Originality/value – This study contributes to research on gender-based income disparity among self-employed professionals by examining underlying factors that potentially contribute to these differences such as motives for establishing the practice and the practice owner's decision-making style.