Sexual Orientation, Workplace Authority and Occupational Segregation: Evidence from Germany

An extensive body of research has documented the relationship between sexual orientation and income, but only a few studies have examined the effects of sexual orientation on workplace authority. This article investigates the probability of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people having (high-level) workplace authority and the effects of occupational gender segregation. It analyses four waves of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel study (N=37,288 heterosexual and N=739 LGB observations). The results show that gay and bisexual men do not differ from heterosexual men in their probability of having workplace authority, but they have a lower probability of attaining high-level authority. Lesbian and bisexual women have a higher probability than heterosexual women of having workplace authority, but no advantages in attaining high-level authority. These insights into occupational segregation suggest that gay and bisexual men experience similar levels of disadvantages across occupations, whereas lesbian and bisexual women have an advantage in female-dominated occupations.