Women's career advancement - The relative contribution of human and social capital

This study assessed if human capital is more related to women's advancement to low levels (i.e., supervisory and junior management) and if social capital is more related to their advancement to high levels (i.e., middle and senior management) in Australian banks. The results do not support differential prediction hypotheses. Overall, human capital explained most of women's advancement at all levels in Australian banks. The contribution of social capital to that explanation was, generally, negligible. The study also included qualitative data. The qualitative results appeared to support the view that social capital is more important to women's advancement to high managerial levels than to low managerial levels. Of particular concern is that the women reported gender discrimination as the most frequent barrier to their advancement at all managerial levels. Implications for banks and for women's career management are discussed.