Which Are the Benefits of Having more Female Leaders? Evidence from the Use of Part-Time Work in Italy

Francesco Devicienti (), Elena Grinza, Alessandro Manello and Davide Vannoni

No 489, Carlo Alberto Notebooks from Collegio Carlo Alberto

Abstract: Using three waves of a uniquely rich survey on Italian private firms, we explore the impact of female managers on the use of part-time work. Building on a literature arguing that female leaders are more sensitive to their employees’ needs and more self-transcendent than their male counterparts, we assess whether such attitudes manifest themselves also in relation to working time arrangements. Results indicate that female managers are indeed more responsive to their employees’ needs: they heavily limit the employment of involuntary part-time work, correspondingly increasing full-time employment, and concede more part-time arrangements to employees asking for them. All in all, our results show that there are some hitherto unexplored benefits from increasing the number of female leaders: on the one hand, they strongly contain the widespread phenomenon of involuntary part time employment and, on the other hand, they enhance the work-life balance of workers engaged in child care or elderly care activities.

Keywords: Female managers; part-time work; involuntary part-time work; work-life balance; meeting employees’ needs; self-transcendence. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J41 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages 27
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Which Are the Benefits of Having More Female Leaders? Evidence from the Use of Part-Time Work in Italy (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wpaper:489

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