Being promoted to management roles makes women less satisfied with their job, according to research.

Analysis of a survey of 13,000 UK employees, the first long-term study to track a large group of promoted staff, found that even in workplaces that offered greater flexibility, better pay and promotion opportunities, women were less satisfied with their jobs after they had accepted a higher management post.

Dr Daniela Lup of Middlesex University, who carried out the study, said that, by contrast, men’s job satisfaction rose when they were promoted into management.

“Results indicate that promotions to management are accompanied by an increase in job satisfaction for men but not for women,” Lup claims in an article published in the journal Work, Employment and Society, run by the British Sociological Association.

Lup said her study showed that this gender gap was not always down to overt discriminatory factors. Rather it reflected subtle forms of discrimination that arise from widespread beliefs, held by both men and women, that women are less able managers. This stereotype, when held by the staff of women managers, will diminish their authority in front of subordinates, Lup claimed.

“Given that managers’ performance and, implicitly, their job satisfaction depends on the quality of their interaction with subordinates, if some perceive women as less competent managers, they are less likely to accept women’s authority and less likely to support their manager,” Lup said.

Lup said that if the glass ceiling is to be shattered, organisations should not only focus on removing overt barriers that prevent women from climbing the managerial ladder, but also pay closer attention to the experiences that women have when they are in positions of authority.