WOMEN MANAGERS AND CAREER PROGRESSION: THE BRITISH EXPERIENCE

Women in the UK do not achieve promotion into management as readily as men. Their careers are slower even at early career stages. This appears to be due to a range of factors including the concentration of women in support functions and in specialist roles. Women may also be less likely to put themselves forward for promotion and to suffer discrimination through a combination of implicitly male role models,explicitly “male” selection criteria and subjective assessment methods. The trend towards defining management criteria more rigorously and assessing them less subjectively may be an important step towards promoting more women. Monitoring the retention and career progress of female employees is still undertaken only by a small minority of employers, and is a powerful step in the change process.