ABSTRACT
Trained employees often have better promotion opportunities and higher wages than untrained employees, which makes unequal access to training a possible mechanism that can foster inequality between men and women. This chapter adds to the literature on differences between men and women in training participation. Whereas previous research has focused on either employee or organizational characteristics related to employees’ training opportunities, this study moves beyond previous literature by examining whether these characteristics have a differential influence on men and women’s participation in training. It does so while focusing on three different types of training: training given by a co-worker, training provided by a professional, and being enrolled on an educational program. Results show that women are less likely to be trained by a co-worker or to be enrolled on an educational program than men. However, no differences exist between men and women regarding training by a professional. For each type of training, women benefit more from being higher educated than men. Although on average employees receive less training when they grow older, the results of this study show that this negative relationship is less strong for women than for men. We do not find evidence that organizational characteristics affect men and women’s training participation in a differential manner.
