Revisiting women managers and organisational acceptance
- Authors: Wood, Glenice
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gender in Management Vol. 24, no. 8 (2009), p. 615-631
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revisit earlier predictions by Judi Marshall in 1991 to explore whether similar issues were evident in a sample of contemporary female managers. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data from six Australian female managers who had participated in a longitudinal study over a period of ten years were examined. Career advancement aspirations and outcomes were compared with those of male managers, and reflections on the managerial role, and organisational practices were sought. Findings: Examples of organisational resilience "to involve women in organisations on equal terms" were evident in all the six female managers in the study. In addition, even when levels of success were achieved, it could be questioned whether these women could be seen as "definers of meaning (or culture)". Practical implications: Organisational culture appears to continue to create difficulties for contemporary women in management. A system of accountability is strongly recommended, based on a similar reporting programme adopted by the Equal Opportunity for Woment in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) to measure the equal opportunity programmes on offer in the workplaces of organisations with 100 or more employees. Originality/value: The paper is highly original as it seeks to compare predictions made by an eminent UK scholar in the field of women in management in 1991 with the experiences of a small sample of contemporary Australian female managers over a ten-year period in their management roles. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Description: 2003007354
Gender stereotypical attitudes : Past, present and future influences on women's career advancement
- Authors: Wood, Glenice
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Equal Opportunities International Vol. 27, no. 7 (2008), p. 613-628
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The purpose of this paper is to describe a longitudinal study which followed up middle managers who had participated in a survey on attitudes to promotion eight years earlier. The aim was to contact a sample of these individuals to ascertain their current views on women's career advancement in management.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003006152
“Facing the wall” – “equal” opportunity for women in management?
- Authors: Wood, Glenice , Newton, Janice
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Equal Opportunities International Vol. 25, no. 1 (2006), p. 8-24
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Purpose – To explore the failure of equal opportunity policies to counteract the barrier of children for women in management by considering male and female managers’ views on work culture, family division of labour and childlessness. Design/methodology/approach – Thirty Australian managers (19 male, 11 female) were interviewed as a follow up to a larger study in 1996, in order to extend inquiries around the issues of children, childlessness and senior management aspirations. Findings – Managers acknowledge the impediment that children are to a woman’s career path. They also have an awareness of patterns of delayed childbearing and potential childlessness. This awareness is confirmed through first hand experience in the families and at work. Managers also use a language of sacrifice and loss regarding their own or others’ failure to partner and procreate, as well as some reference to freedom and lifestyle. Furthermore there are diverging discourses on company loyalty and company greed given in relation to competing family loyalties and obligations. Finally, acknowledgement of gendered inequality (and some blindness to it) is indicated by both male and female managers. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a small sample from one country, the findings do imply that it is unwise to assume that women committed to a career do not want children. The option of having both is not made easy. Practical implications – Family policy for senior management should continue to be considered. Originality/value – Recognition of the complexity and diversity of attitudes to children, family and work contributes to a critique of overdrawn notions of types of women (Hakim, 2001).