| An extension of Blau's (1970) theory of structural differentiation in organizations is tested employing a national sample of 476 institutions of higher education. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between increasing organizational size and status differentiation as a type of structural differentiation. Using data derived from college catalogs and college guides for the years 1958 and 1983, gender differentiation among departmental faculty is assessed in five social science departments: Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. It is hypothesized that increasing student enrollment leads to increasing gender differentiation, especially at the entry rank(s). As expected, academic departments are more differentiated by gender and this increased differentiation is most evident in the lower ranks. Contrary to Blau's (1970) theory, however, standard OLS techniques indicate increasing size is not a determinant of gender differentiation. |
