Gender and economic performance: Evidence from the Spanish hotel industry

Recent research suggests that the stereotype of underperformance attributed to female management may not be the result so much of poorer management skills as to using unsuitable comparative performance measures, as well as not taking into account structural characteristics that may be detrimental to the financial performance of companies managed by women. Gender differences with regards to conditions and business goals can result in female underperformance when performance measures relate to firm size, such as total sales, assets, or profits. When appropriate measures of relative performance are used, women and men are likely to prove equally effective business managers. Using longitudinal panel data on a large sample of Spanish hotel firms, there are few differences found when growth and profitability are compared by gender within a bivariate framework. What's more, when a regression model designed to control other performance determining factors is estimated, the results show better management by women than by men. As such, the research provides evidence that stereotypes of women as poor performers must be abolished, and the glass ceiling preventing entry of women into management positions shattered.