Women's career development: recent international research
AbstractPurpose – This introduction positions the six papers in the special issue providing a partial review of the needs for continued research on women in management and selected findings.Design/methodology/approach– Provides a review and summary of each of the six papers.Findings– These papers suggest that some progress is being made in supporting women's development and advancement. This is also reflected in increasing interest in women in management research in both developed and developing countries.Orginality/value – This collection presents recent international research findings that examine factors supporting women's career developmen with the hope of spurring further research.Keywords:Women, Careers, LeadershipPaper type: Conceptual paper
Preparation of this special issue was supported in part by the Schulich School of Business, York University.
This is an exciting time for women in management research. An increasing number of academics are now considering women in management questions and workforce diversity issues more generally. More organizations are undertaking initiatives designed to support women's career success and advancement as the war for talent escalates. And there is increasing debate among women themselves as to whether, why, and how work and family should be integrated. This ferment is also reflected in the women's movement as writers weigh the gains women have made over the past 40 years, the goals of the feminist movement and the state of feminism today. It is likely that this array, and clash, of ideas and ideologies will bring about new perspectives and priorities as women continue to pursue their differing journeys, and academics report events over the next few decades.
This collection presents recent research findings of women in management scholars from several different countries. It is clear that while professional and managerial women have made gains their progress has been slow and uneven(see Davidson and Burke, 2004, for data from a number of countries). Although women are entering the workforce with increased levels of education and skill,and more women are acquiring the work experiences necessary for career progress,they get “stuck” with few achieving ranks of senior management. For example relatively few women sit on boards of directors of private sector organizations (Burke and Mattis, 2000). Recent statistics put these figures at 13 per cent in the USA, 11 per cent in Canada and Australia, 5 per cent in the UK and Spain, and 0.2 per cent in Japan.
We know a lot about the barriers managerial and professional women face in their careers. Foremost among them are the biases and prejudices of their male superiors and colleagues, the “old boy” network that excludes them from critical information and access, and having the major responsibility for home and family functioning (see Burke and Mattis, 2005, for a fuller discussion of these and others).
Unfortunately I cannot remember where I read it, but someone projected that it would take about 400 years given the current pace of change before women and men were equally represented at senior ranks of management and on corporate boards of directors. We are not suggesting that half the CEOs and board members be women; though Norway has passed legislation requiring corporate boards have half their members women. We do believe, however, that women interested in advancing their careers be treated the same way as their male colleagues and have the same opportunities for career progress. Hopefully collections such as this will continue to place women's career advancement on the “front burner” and shorten the 400 year time frame.
Our authors reflect the experiences of women in four countries: Australia,Israel, Turkey and the USA. These countries reflect different historical traditions, cultures, values and stages of economic development. The contributions include both conceptual papers (Cacchiara, Jogulu) and empirical papers (Hopkins, Koyuncu, Pines and Schneer).
Uma Jogulu and Glen Wood examined ways that various leadership theories have influenced the profile of women in managerial and leadership roles. Although the early writing on leadership typically excluded women, research and writing over the past decade has shown few gender differences in leadership styles and effectiveness. Women's successful performance in leadership roles will likely reduce some of the obstacles to their development and advancement as organizations struggle in the war for talent.
Margaret Hopkins and her colleagues studied images of effective leadership and of successful career advancement in the health care field. Effective leadership was described in stereotypically feminine terms - more other oriented, while career advancement was described in stereotypically masculine terms – more self oriented. They discuss several implications of these differences for women's development and advancement.
Faye Cacchiara and her colleagues, using data from multiple US sources,conclude that though improving, the representation of women of color in higher status organizational positions has improved relatively slowly over the past few decades despite supportive legislation. To better understand this situation,they correctly call for more research on the work and career experiences of women of color, particularly Latinas. Though increasing in size, the latter group has not received much attention to date.
Joy Schneer and Frieda Reitman considered the effects of employment gaps on both income and career satisfaction in two cohorts of male and female MBA graduates working full-time, one from the late 1980s the other from the early 1990s. Career gaps had a negative impact on income for males and females, the effect being greater for males. Career gaps however had no effect on career satisfaction. Reasons for career gaps were different in the two time periods causing them to speculate that career gaps today may constitute less of a penalty for both males and females than earlier. If true, this would also work to women's advantage since women historically have had more career gaps than men have had.
Mustafa Koyuncu and his colleagues considered potential antecedents and consequences of work engagement among women managers in the banking sector in Turkey. Work life experiences were strong predictors of levels of work engagement, and engaged women were both more work satisfied and healthier psychologically. Organizations have some leverage in increasing levels of work engagement should they choose.
Ayala Pines and Dafna Schwartz compared women and men small business owners in Israel. Gender similarities were far greater than were differences. Women and men small business owners indicated similar personal demographic characteristics, work motivations, and businesses. I interpret the absence of differences as signs of progress.
Ronald J. BurkeYork University, Canada
About the authorRonald J. Burke is currently Professor of Organizational Behavior, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto,Canada. His research interests include work and health, advancing women into management, and career development processes in organizations. He frequently consults to organizations on a variety of human resource management issues. Ronald J. Burke can be contacted at rburke@schulich.yorku.ca
