Women in senior management: is the glass ceiling still intact?

Abstract

This paper examines the barriers that hinder women’s progress to senior and board-level positions in organisations. It is based on qualitative data from interviews with individual senior women collected in five countries: Germany, Greece, Sweden, the UK and the USA. After considering the literature on issues such as gender stereotyping, perceptions of female management style, personal style, tokenism, networking, and childcare, the paper examines whether the situation has changed and whether there are any differences between countries. While barriers remain, particularly in areas such as tokenism, difficulties in networking, perceptions of senior women, and overall confidence of women in senior positions, improvements were identified in areas such as organisational culture, women’s ability to gain the right type of experience and issues around combining work and childcare. Some national differences emerged, although, overall, the experiences of the women in the countries studied were similar in terms of the barriers they had encountered and how they had tried to overcome them.

Keywords

• Tokenism, Glass Ceiling, Women

Kaynakça

1. Adler N J, Izraeli D N (1994), Competitive Frontiers: Women managers in a global economy, Blackwell, Oxford
2. Burke S, Collins K (2001), Gender differen- ces in leadership styles and manage- ment skills, Women in Management Review, Vol. 16, No. 5
3. Cooper Jackson J (2001), Women middle ma- nagers’ perception of the glass ceiling, Women in Management Review, Vol. 16, No. 1
4. Equality and Human Rights Commission (2008), Sex and Power 2008, EHRC, Manchester
5. European PWN Board Women Monitor 2006, Internet posting www.europe- anpwn.net/index.php?article_id=8
6. Hillman A J, Cannella A, Harris I C (2002), Women and racial minorities in the bo- ardroom: how do directors differ? Jour- nal of Management, 28
7. Höpfl H, Matilal S (2007), ‘The lady vanis- hes’: some thoughts on women and lea- dership, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20, No. 2
8. International Labour Organisation (ILO), Conclusions on breaking through the glass ceiling: Women in Management, December 1997

9. Linehan M, Scullion H, Walsh J S (2001), Bar- riers to women’s participation in inter- national management, European Business Review, Vol. 13, No. 1
10. Litzky B, Greenhaus, J (2007), The relations- hip between gender and aspirations to senior management, Career Develop- ment International, Vol. 12, Issue 7.
11. Marshall J (1995), Working at senior mana- gement and board levels: some of the is- sues for women, Women in Management Review, Vol. 10, Issue 3
12. O’Neil D A, Hopkins M M, Bilimoria D (2007), Women’s Careers at the Start of the 21st Century: Patterns and Parado- xes, Journal of Business Ethics, July 2007
13. Powell G N, Butterfield, A (2003), Gender, gender identity, and aspirations to top management, Women in Management Review, Vol. 18, Issue 1/2.
14. Rosener J B (1990), Ways women lead, Har- vard Business Review, November‐De- cember 1990
15. Sekaran U, Hall D T (1989), Asynchronism in dual-career and family linkages, in Arthur, M.B., Hall, D.T, Lawrence, B.S. (Eds),Handbook of Career Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cam- bridge, pp. 159-80
16. Seth S P, Swanson C L, Harrigan K R (1981), Women directors on corporate boards, Center for Research in Business and So- cial Policy, University of Texas at Dal- las
17. Sheridan A (2001), A view from the top: women on the boards of public compa- nies, Corporate Governance, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 8-15
18. Simpson R (1995), Is management education on the right track for women? Women in Management Review, Vol. 10, No. 6
19. Singh V, Vinnicombe S (2006), The Female FTSE Report 2006. Identifying the New Generation of Women Directors, Inter- national Centre for Women Business
20. Leaders, Cranfield School of Management, UK. www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/ research/centres/cdwbl/downlo- ads/FTSE2006full.pdf
21. Tung R L (2004), Female Expatriates: The Model Global Manager? Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2004
22. Van der Boon M (2003), Women in Interna- tional Management: an international perspective on women’s ways of lea- dership, Women in Management Re- view, Vol. 18, Issue 3, 2003
23. Vinnicombe S, Singh V (2002), Sex role ste- reotyping and requisites of successful top managers, Women in Management Review, Vol. 17, No. 3/4, 2002
24. Vinnicombe S, Singh V (2003), Locks and keys to the boardroom, Women in Ma- nagement Review, Vol. 18, No. 6, 2003