Women’s Career Advancement: The Relative Contribution of Human and Social Capital

Abstract

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 lo..