According to InsideCounsel, no less than three quarters of the 83 cases of corporate fraud between the years 2002 and 2009 examined in the study were committed by men. Women’s involvement in such fraud cases, where it did arise, also revealed a reticence to be the instigators or ringleaders.
Salary inequities
The study also highlights the discrepancies between the earnings of male and female fraudsters. Over half of women found to be committing corporate fraud earned little or no money, whereas the men involved in the same such dealings earned somewhere between $500,000 and $999,000, with as much as 33 per cent earning over $1 million.
Women restricted
Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Penn State University, Darrell Steffensmeier, commented on the research: 'Women are less likely to be recruited as co-conspirators in male-orchestrated schemes and less likely to be able to recruit co-offenders should they wish to initiate a corporate fraud,’ he said. ‘The glass ceiling effect for involvement in corporate corruption is likely as great or greater than the ceiling that keeps women from climbing the corporate ladder.’
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