Job and industry fit: the effects of age and gender matches on career progress outcomes

Using a sample of 232 MBA alumni, we tested the impact of respondent age, gender, and their interaction on career progress outcomes (managerial level, number of promotions, and salary) and whether age- and gender-type of contexts moderated these relationships. Women's salaries did not increase much with age, whereas men's salaries showed a marked increase with age. We also found a gender x job gender-type effect on salary, such that women earned somewhat higher salaries in masculine-typed jobs, while men earned considerably higher salaries in feminine-typed jobs. In addition, we observed a three-way interaction between gender, age, and age-type of industry indicating that younger men received more promotions in old-typed industries, while younger women received more promotions in young-typed ones. Results are discussed in light of cognitive matching approaches and status characteristics theory. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.