The editors of this book, two management scholars from the University of Melbourne, collected eight different research studies on women managers in Asia. Each case study is based on a different developed or developing Asian country or region; they are China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The aim of this edited book is to examine the factors helping women's access to labour market, the major barriers preventing women from entering into managerial positions, and the future prospects with respect to women in management in Asia.
The editors, Yukongdi and Benson, outline the theoretical approach of the gender‐organisation‐system in the introduction of the book to explain the complex and multi‐faceted nature of research on women in management. The gender‐organisation‐system approach describes the simultaneous, continuous “interaction between the person, the organization, and social system” (p. 4). The three factors not only “affect one another” but also they “change at different paces in response to changes in the environment” (p. 5). Therefore, women in different countries round the world, have a different pace of progress into managerial positions. This approach gives readers a clear picture of interactive factors relevant to the rest of the book.
One of most significant factors affecting women's increased employment is economic growth and competition. With the advent of globalisation, most countries face severe competition in the world economy and need to be prepared to marshal their human resources to full capacity. Therefore, countries pursuing highly skilled labour have to consider the use of capable female workers. For this reason, the proportion of women in the workforce has risen steadily over the past decades worldwide and this is also the case in many of the Asian countries. Yukongdi and Benson state that in 2000, 64 per cent of women in Asia were economically involved in employment. However, compared to men in management, there was a smaller proportion of women managers in all of the eight societies in this book. Most women were working in the lower levels of organisations. Yuasa explains in his chapter on Japanese women workers that according to a national survey in 2002, the proportions of female junior, middle, and senior managers among their male counterparts were only 9.6, 4.5, and 2.4 per cent, respectively.
So change at higher levels is happening only very slowly. However, alongside economic reasons, factors such as equal opportunity legislation and increased access to education have helped women advance into managerial positions. These opportunities are discussed in all eight Asian case studies in the book. For example, 44 per cent of students in a higher education were females in 2003 in China (Cooke) and more female than male students were enrolled in government‐funded tertiary education institutes in Hong Kong in 2002 (Ng and Chakrabarty). However, Kang and Rowley, and Yukongdi point out differences amongst the college/university majors which female and male students study. More male students are found in science and engineering majors which are directly related to employment and further job training.
Furthermore, legal support for women's employment tends to have limitations, as in the case of Japanese Equal Employment Opportunities Law (EEOL). In Japan EEOL introduced the system called “double‐track personnel management” due to the lack of penalty for breaches of the legislation. In that system, workers had a choice between a “career track with opportunities for promotion and company transfer” and a “non‐career track with limited chance of promotion, but with no requirement to move” (Yuasa, p. 59). In 2002, less than 4 per cent of women were found in a “career track” and the proportion of companies using the system has increased despite the introduction of new legislation.
One of major factors preventing women from developing equal careers discussed in the book is women's lack of self‐motivation. Some women are reluctant to be exposed by promotion (Kang and Rowley). They fear that the requirements from higher level jobs like long working hours or frequent travel will break up their family life and they are also afraid of responsibility and leading roles. They prefer to stay in positions where they will encounter less hostility and will be less likely to be transferred. Chou, Fosh, and Foster were surprised by their finding of Taiwanese interviewees' low level of ambition for their careers.
Women's strong engagement to family is further supported by women's gender role in these countries. A larger proportion of women in Asia still believe taking care of housework is their primary task. Men are considered as breadwinners and heads of households. Even working women have to take care of their house after work. This gender role responsibility makes women feel a stress or a conflict between work and family. The burden of work and family is closely related to the trend of an increasing number of single women managers. For example, the study by Ng and Chakrabarty showed the rate of women managers who had never married was double the rate of never married male counterparts in Hong Kong.
This finding suggests that a stark choice of either marriage and family or a career faces many women. Workplaces assume that most women will choose family. In Japan, employment statistics do illustrate women's shorter length of service which is caused by taking a career break for child‐rearing. The expectation that women will leave because of “marriage retirement” means that organisations often steer them into non‐career track positions.
Another key challenge faced by women managers in Asia is the traditional, religious views toward women managers. As described by Yokongdi and Benson, the Asian economies covered in the book have been affected by deeply rooted Confucian traditions, with the exception of India. Confucianism emphasises obligation and respect to higher positions in the hierarchy of society. Women's role in a Confucian society is depicted by their three obediences; they must follow their fathers as daughters, their husbands as wives, and their sons as mothers (Lebra, 1998). In a similar vein, Yukongdi explains traditional view of Thai women's submission to men since Buddhism gives power to men as monks. In practice, both the Indian study (Budhwar, Saini, and Bhatnagar) and the Korean study (Kang and Rowley) mention that male workers did not like women as their supervisors.
Within work organizations, one issue women managers face is gender or sex segregation at work. Hofstede and Hofstede (2005) has pointed out that management and leadership are related to national societies and their cultural practices and beliefs. All eight societies in the book are more collectivist societies. An employer is likely to hire a person who belongs to an in‐group and the distinction between in‐groups and out‐groups is clear in a collectivist society. Besides, organisations' cultures are closely related to male characteristics like formality, competition, and achievement, and management positions are also considered as male domains. Although women reach managerial levels, they still have significant hurdles to overcome in their career progression. Women are often excluded from the “old‐boy network” (p. 26) and “mentoring” functions (p. 145) which are invaluable in helping acculturate employees to the corporate climate and politics. In turn, low ranking and unstable jobs do not guarantee training in general management skills and abilities important for higher positions. Therefore, women managers in Asia are suffering from double jeopardy.
In addition, there is job segmentation by gender in the workforce. The Korean study describes the differences in places where men and women are allocated at work. Women are in supporting departments and have less chance of job rotation. In contrast, men are usually placed at the centre of organisational decision‐making departments and obtain experience in various fields which gives an advantage for promotion to higher positions in management (Kang and Rowley). Yuasa also identifies Japanese gender‐biased task allocation in which, although men and women are placed to the same departments, there exist job differences between women and men from the beginning of their careers.
This book helps readers are able to see both the similarities and the differences which women managers face in Asian countries. Although there have been noticeable changes with respect to people's perceptions and organisational and social systems in Asia, there are still more barriers than opportunities are for women in accessing the labour market and entering managerial positions. The most effective barriers are often the less visible ones. The women in management studied in this book are hindered more by social and cultural factors embedded in the worldview of Asian countries. However, as Yukongdi and Benson emphasized, “barriers interrelate and reinforce both existence and legitimacy of the other barriers” (p. 144).
One good sign for women managers in Asia is that the industrial sectors they are employed in are likely to grow in the future and give them more opportunities. In India, women managers can be found mainly in human resource, IT, and servicing sectors (Budhwar, Saini, and Bhatnagar) and the Hong Kong study showed more women managers in community, social and personal services (Ng and Chakrabarty). With this trend, women managers need to recognise and exploit any qualities and advantages they may have as managers such as the ability to delegate, interactive leadership styles, and prepare themselves to be more effective managers in a competitive labour market. Increased numbers of women working in senior management are the most effective way to combat the stereotypes and prejudice. Furthermore, Benson and Yukongdi urge in a closing section that the range of governmental and organizational support mechanisms giving more opportunities to women in management need to increase.
This book is noteworthy, as the editors mention, since many studies on women management to date have been conducted by developed countries like the UK or the USA; therefore, there is not much information on the female workforce in Asia. Each study within this book also provides a good quality of census data and statistical information, and comprehensive discussion on current and future opportunities and barriers women in the workforce face in each country. This book is recommended not only to those who are interested in women in Asian management, but also to anyone with interests in Asian labour markets and cross‐cultural comparisons of women's progression in the workplace.
