CORPORATE FLIGHT OF WOMEN MANAGERS: MOVING FROM FICTION TO FACT

A large scale survey of 391 women and 263 men managers produced no evidence for four common contentions about the attribution of women managers from organizations: (1) large numbers of women are“dropping out”, (2) women managers leave organizations primarily due to maternity and work‐family conflict, (3) more female than male managers are leaving organizations, and (4) managers who are mothers are less committed to their careers and to organizations. It appears that poor research methodology and failure to adopt a multivariate perspective have resulted in existing knowledge based more on fiction than fact.