The Gender-Career Estimation Gap

The Gender-Career Estimation Gap The paper discusses gender differences with regard to the selfand reciprocal estimation of career expectations. Firstly, the theoretical background and the literature are identified. Within this frame, the instance of self-under-estimated career prospects of female workers and statistical discrimination in the labor market are described. Both aspects are jointly assessed as a self-fulfilling prophecy-phenomenon redounded to women’s disadvantage on the labor market. Secondly, the empirical part analysis the respective selfand reciprocal estimation of female and male career prospects for public sector workers in Germany. The results display obvious discrepancies between selfand reciprocally estimated career expectations that constitute a gender-career estimation gap. As the German public sector contains specific devices to equalising career chances of male and female employees, the findings even underpin the insistency of under-estimated career prospects of female workers despite the existing public sector regime of equality. Finally, approaches of how to equalize male and female career chances are critically reviewed. JEL Classification: J16, J24, J4, J71, J78