Ward, Patricia A.; Orazem, Peter; Schmidt, Steffen

Social Science Quarterly (March 1992): 31-45.

Women are underrepresented in elite positions in government, industry, and academia relative to their representation in the labor force. This paper uses characteristic education, occupation, and job experience credentials of current elites in U.S. institutions to approximate the proportion of women in the pool of potential elites. Women's representation in elite positions is broadly consistent with their representation in these elite pools, and their status in elite pools is not expected to increase substantially until early next century.