Women Fce Greter Chllenges thn Men in Their Attempts to Climb to the Top of the Corporte Ladder - Essay Example

"Women fce greter chllenges thn men in their ttempts to climb to the top of the corporte ldder" Women mke up close to hlf prt of the U.K. workforce,nd this proportion is likely to grow. Working women re diverse group (e.g., White women, minorities, women with children, immigrnts, older workers) with widely vrying needs, vlues, experiences, nd expecttions. However, working women shre common bond in tht, until recently, the world of work ws primrily oriented towrd men. Historiclly, women hve been segregted into jobs tht provided very limited ccess to the top levels of orgniztions, nd this segregtion persists in mny sectors of the economy. More recently, however, there hs been n influx of women into non-trditionl, higher sttus occuptions, nd it ppers tht trditionl ptterns of occuptionl segregtion my be slowly chnging. It is considered, tht women fce greter chllenge thn men in their ttempts to climb top of the corporte ldder. This suggestion hs been mde due to historicl chnges tht took plce in the distribution of gender workforce nd will be discussed lter in this pper. lthough women nd men hve lwys engged in purposeful ctivity, the set of ctivities tht mny people consider work or employment is not lwys cler. Historiclly, men nd women worked side by side together in the fields. Tody, however, distinction is mde between pid, public work externl to the fmily nd unpid, privte work in the home. Ech of these spheres of work hs come to be sex-typed, with pid work being viewed by mny s the domin of mles nd unpid work in the home the domin of femles. These perceptions re chnging but re still deep-seted in mny respects. Historiclly, men nd women hve hd very different experiences of work. Men hve either secured goods or worked externl to the fmily unit, wheres women often hve worked more integrlly s prt of tht unit. Beginning with industriliztion nd continuing to the workplce tody, men's nd women's experiences of work hve vried significntly, lrgely due to the continuing sex segregtion of occuptions. However, with the onset of two world wrs, both Blck nd White women stedily incresed their numbers in the externl, pid workforce. During the 1990s, the mjority of both men nd women, Blck nd White, were employed outside of the fmily unit. The reltions between men nd women - sometimes chrcterised s "wr" - hve since been trnsformed. In the City of London tody, for exmple, some highly pid expectnt mothers ttempt to time their bonus pyments so tht they fll within the reference period used to clculte mternity py entitlements. If they mnge to win bonus between 18 nd 26 weeks before their expected birth dte, they cn receive mternity py mounting to much more thn they ern normlly - nd with the pprovl of the Inlnd Revenue. How much of this chnge is due to the lw, nd how much would hve hppened nywy becuse of economic nd lbour mrket pressures It is, s lwys, difficult to sy. Yet most commenttors rgue the SD hs hd significnt impct on British working culture. "Tody, it is unusul for women to be discriminted ginst directly becuse they re women, which is wht used to hppen," sys Michel Rubenstein, the founder of Equl Opportunities Review, specilist journl. "The discrimintion tht tkes plce now is mostly round women's fmily roles nd resentment of the disruption it cuses." (Overell, 2006). Jmes Cox, n employment prtner t shurst, n interntionl lw firm, sys: "The City [of London] is the lst bstion of old-style employment prctices, where the focus is on working hrd nd ceding your life to your employer nd clients. "But in the lst few yers it hs been hit relly hrd by women tking [employers to] tribunls nd sometimes wlking wy with multimillion-pound compenstion pyments. It is those cses of the lte 1990s, directly due to the SD, tht hve forced the City to chnge its wys." (Overell, 2006). It is only in very recent yers tht there hs been notble rise in the number of people (mostly women) using sex equlity lw to chllenge employers. In 1998-99, 6,200 women took their employers to tribunl; by 2003-4 the figure hd risen to 17,000 people (though the number fell to just under 12,000 lst yer). This dely between the existence of the lw nd public enthusism for using it hs ment widely ccepted legl principles hve been estblished only surprisingly recently. (Verkaik, 2005) For exmple, the ide tht men should be entitled to the sme flexible working opportunities s women ws ccepted only in 2001. The first pregnncy victimistion cse ws in 1985, but the courts finlly greed tht pregnncy ws discrimintion issue only in the 1990s: the bsence of mle comprtor with whom to contrst tretment ment tht previously it ws believed no discrimintion could occur in regrd to pregnncy. mong mny equlity lw experts, there is support for big chnges in the wy gender equlity lw works. Mr Rubenstein nd Mr Cox gree the time my be right to think of wys of enforcing the lw other thn individul workers tking bosses to court. Mr Cox notes it would mrk "nturl extension" of the lw if privte sector employers hdduties to promote equlity similr to those of the public sector. Mr Rubenstein sys: "There is widespred feeling tht if inequlity is systemic or institutionl you cnnot rely on individuls lone being ble to chllenge it." (Verkaik, 2005) However, such reforms should not be seen s pnce, wrns Robin Chter, secretry-generl of the Federtion of Europen Employers. Europen countries such s Norwy, Sweden, Finlnd nd Frnce hve introduced similr chnges but often without significnt improvementto the position of women t work. Other governments re moving in direction the EOC might hope does not ctch on: Polnd recently scrpped its equlity wtchdog, sying the money could be better spent elsewhere. It is mistke to invest too much hope in the bility of lw to chnge society, sys Mr Chter. "The lw is necessry but not sufficient condition." He rgues there re mny subtle mnifesttions of discrimintion tht re beyond the rech of even the crftiest legisltors. For exmple, the work of clinicl psychologists nd psychitrists overlps to considerble extent, but clinicl psychologists -mostly femle - re pid less nd psychitrists - mostly mle - re pid more. "There is gender element to mny issues of occuptionl sttus," he sys. "Vested interests seek to protect themselves from other groups in society, but lwys deny they rely on gender in order to do so." Those were current trends regrding women's position t work. Let us further tke look t the reserch of the question of why women now fce greter chllenge to climb the top of corporte ldder. Let's review the issue of creer nd wht it mens for womn current society. Until recently, most creer reserch ws concerned with men's creers. For vriety of resons, women's creers often develop in different wys thn men's nd my pose different chllenges for creer reserchers. Therefore, it is importnt to understnd how current mle-bsed creer theories hve developed nd how women's creer development deprts from men's. The developmentl perspective presented erlier in this pper is bsed lrgely on observtions nd reserch on men's creers. lthough creer development theories cn contribute to our understnding of women's creer development, these theories my not fully explin this process. For vriety of resons, the theories previously reviewed cnnot fully illuminte women's creer development. One reson is tht creer-development models hve emphsized men's spirtions nd ccomplishments nd re bsed on nerly exclusively mle smples. dditionlly, current theories of creer development often do not include or consider vribles tht influence women's creer decisions. For exmple, s result of sex-role sociliztion, women re more differentilly influenced by chievement motivtion thn men ( Fitzgerld & Crites, 1980). Tht is, development of chievement motivtion for girls depends in lrger prt on the experiences nd support tht girls receive from others. Women re likely to encounter voctionl counselors who re bised nd hve distorted or limited views of occuptions nd women's "proper plce" in vrious occuptions nd, therefore, implicitly (nd sometimes explicitly) discourge them from entering high-py, high-sttus occuptions. Finlly, creer-stge theories tht continue to be influentil give little considertion to such criticl issues s childbering nd childrering. In these theories, mles serve s the stndrd for comprison. Women re often studied in terms of how they deprt from the mle stndrd, in terms of both creer choice nd creer development ( Gutek & Lrwood, 1987). Mny experts (e.g. Fitzgerld & Crites, 1980) noted tht women's creer development is fr more complexly determined nd vried nd less esily ctegorized thn men's. Becuse, historiclly, women do not necessrily expect to be engged in full-time pid work (nd men do), women's creers more hevily depend on ttitude, role expecttions, nd, generlly, sociliztion. Women's creer development will continue to differ from men's for four resons. First, there re different expecttions for men nd women regrding the ppropriteness of specific jobs. These expecttions ffect the kinds of jobs tht men nd women prepre for nd select. Often women re not prepred to pursue creer t ll (lthough they often my expect to engge in pid employment during some prt of their lives), wheres men re expected to prticipte continuously in pid work. Eduction is key considertion here ( Lrwood & Gutek, 2001). Second, husbnds nd wives differ in their willingness to ccommodte ech other's creers. Wives re typiclly more willing to ccommodte thn husbnds, so mrrige hs different effects on men's nd women's creers. For men, mrrige is creer-neutrl or somewht dvntgeous (especilly if the wife does not work outside the home). For women, however, mrrige nd especilly hving children cn be mong the most limiting fctors for creers ( Lrwood & Gutek, 2001). Third, the prentl role is defined differently for men nd women (s we discuss in greter detil lter in this chpter). Pregnncy nd children re criticl fctors in women's creer development, in lrge prt becuse the mother's role typiclly requires more time nd effort thn the fther's role. The stereotype is tht women interrupt their creers to ber nd rise children, but this is often not the cse. Creer theories must be flexible enough to ddress women who follow trditionl pths s well s those who choose to hve children nd continue with their creers lmost immeditely ( Lrwood & Gutek, 2001). Finlly, compred to men, women fce more constrints in the workplce including hrssment, discrimintion, nd stereotypes tht re detrimentl to creer dvncement. Understnding how nd why women's creer development differs from men's becomes incresingly importnt s the number of women prticipting in the workforce increses. The proportion of women t work in the U.K. is incresing . Incresed numbers of women in the lbor force hve been reported in other countries (Dvidson & Cooper, 2002). Finlly, we need to understnd why 50% of the men in the workforce re distributed cross 64 occuptions, but only 16 occuptions ccount for 50% of employed. lthough erly work in voctionl psychology nd choice cknowledged differences between men nd women in life ptterns (Brooks, 2003), the underlying ssumption of such theories ws tht homemking nd work roles were seprte, tht the model life-role for women ws homemker, nd tht women's creer commitment ws nturlly low. Wheres the study of men's creer development historiclly focused on vribles describing the nture of their creer choices, erly reserch on women focused on whether women wnted to pursue creer t ll. In the 1970s, the ssumption tht women must choose either home or creer ws replced with concerns bout how to combine fmily nd creer. Thirty yers fter Hrold Wilson's Lbour government put in plce the country's first Sex Discrimintion ct, Britin's women re still suffering from unequl py nd, incresingly, sexul hrssment t the workplce. substntil py gp between women nd men performing equivlent work still exists three decdes lter, while figures lso show disturbing rise in complints of gender-relted buse nd ill-tretment of femle stff. Tody's nniversry of the groundbreking 1975 legisltion, intended to herld new er of equlity between the sexes, will be celebrted by women's orgnistions throughout the UK. But lthough the gp between slries pid to men nd women in full-time work hs closed, in other res progress hs been fr slower, nd in some cses negligible. ccording to Jenny Wtson, the new chir of the Equl Opportunities Commission (EOC), 'some issues, like unequl py nd sexul hrssment, remin fr too common'. Women working prt time tody ern nerly 38.4 per cent less thn men performing equivlent work. In 1975 the figure ws 42 per cent. For full- time workers the gp is 17.2 per cent compred to 42 per cent 30 yers go. Women re lso bringing more complints for sexul hrssment. ccording to the EOC, hlf of women in the workplce hve complined of some form of sexul hrssment. In lndmrk cse in 1985, Jen Porcelli estblished tht cses of hrssment were covered by the Sex Discrimintion ct. She represented herself in n Edinburgh tribunl, losing twice, before finlly winning the legl rgument. But ltest reserch relesed by the EOC suggests the sexul hrssment cses tht ctully rech n employment tribunl re only the tip of the iceberg. (Overell, 1996) The EOC helpline received 647 clls on sexul hrssment between 1 pril nd 25 November, rise of 10 per cent on lst yer. It ws the fourth most common cuse of complint, fter pregnncy nd mternity, equl py nd work-life blnce. The rise in discrimintion is confirmed by the EOC's decision to lunch investigtions into the hrssment of women in the rmed forces nd the Post Office. One in five servicewomen in the Nvy, one in eight in the rmy nd one in 10 in the RF hs suffered sexul hrssment. Recent cses tken to employment tribunls included tht of Pdrigin Byrd, nvy pilot, who sid she ws constntly subjected to sexist, derogtory nd rude remrks, which were dismissed s being prt of the 'mritime trdition'. (Overell, 1996) In nother cse, Ctherine Brumfitt won 30,000 fter complining bout the behviour of mle sergent. The tribunl sid there hd been undue concentrtion on sexul mtters nd crude nd offensive lnguge. The hrssment of women t work my not be s visible s it ws 30 yers go but it hs not gone wy. Cses over the pst few yers show tht hrssment hs become more sophisticted nd more subtle. While women must still endure verbl sexul buse they now lso fce sexul hrssment by text nd e-mil. On top of this ech yer bout 30,000 working women re scked, mde redundnt or leve their jobs due to pregnncy discrimintion. Ms Wtson sid Britin's 30-yer-gender equlity lws were filing to tckle the different cuses of the py gp nd sexul hrssment. Erlier this yer, Lind Weightmn ws one of more thn 1,500 women helth workers who won up to 200,000 ech fter n eight-yer struggle for equl py with mle collegues. She will shre 300m pyout from n NHS trust in Cumbri in the biggest equl py wrd on record. Ms Wtson sid the current lws plced too much onus on individul women to fight for rights which should be gurnteed. 'The existing lws rely on individuls to tke their cse to n employment tribunl,' she sid. (Overell, 1996) 'It's time for employers to shre more of the responsibility to bring bout chnge by tking proctive steps to ddress inequlity. Unless ction is tken, individuls nd employers will continue to suffer the dmging effects of the gender py gp for t lest nother genertion.' She dded: 'Thirty yers fter the Sex Discrimintion ct, we hve mde some rel progress. We recently considered wht dy without the ct would be like, nd some of the situtions women might typiclly fce were truly shocking, like being forced to resign when they got engged, being scked s soon s they becme pregnnt, or working in environments where they were regulrly subjected to bltnt sexul hrssment. It's rel victory tht such behviour is now clerly illegl, nd women cn ppel to tribunls for justice. But it's unfortunte tht the onus of responsibility to bring bout chnge hs remined lrgely with individuls to bring cses.' Returning to creer issue in women's life, it is needed to sy tht mong girls, plns for mrrige nd children re key indictors of subsequent creer progression ( Betz & Fitzgerld, 2004). The influence of role models or, s we discuss lter, mentors in the workplce is lso n importnt fctor in womn's immedite environment. Finlly, eduction hs criticl influence on women's creer development, especilly when eduction is defined brodly to include the influence of counseling interventions, bilities nd chievement levels, personlity vribles (e.g., self-concept nd sex-role-relted chrcteristics), nd voctionl interests, needs, nd vlues ( Betz & Fitzgerld, 2004). For exmple, creer counselors sometimes reinforce the societl restrictions imposed on women's creers (Hely, 2002). Women who indicte desire to enter nontrditionl occuptions tend to be evluted s more devint nd in need of more counseling thn women entering more trditionl occuptions. Hckett nd Betz ( 1981) proposed self-efficcy theory of women's creer development, suggesting tht gender differences in self-efficcy (i.e., the belief tht you re cpble of succeeding in wide rnge of fields) rise from sex-role sociliztion nd, more specificlly, from differences in men's nd women's opportunities. On the whole, women hve fewer opportunities to engge in chllenging work-relevnt ctivities cross different settings nd, therefore, fewer opportunities to develop self-efficcy. Furthermore, environmentl contingencies influence these beliefs. Sex-role sociliztion cn prevent women from developing skills nd tlents tht would led to self-efficcy ( Hckett & Betz, 1981). For exmple, girls re less likely thn boys to engge in mthemticl or technicl ctivities, which lowers the likelihood of strong self-efficcy for the mjority of higher pying occuptions (i.e., occuptions tht require skills in these res). The degrees of self-efficcy tht people demonstrte interct with both their outcome expecttions nd incentives. Outcome expecttions re beliefs bout the consequences of performnce. For exmple, womn cn believe she is very cpble of being CEO of n orgniztion (selfefficcy). However, she my lso believe tht even though she cn perform t n exceptionl level, she will not be promoted into such position becuse the orgniztion wnts mn (outcome expecttions). Self-efficcy is belief bout one's bility, wheres outcome expecttions reflect beliefs bout wht will hppen if you perform well. Women who believe tht good performnce will not be rewrded with recognition nd promotions will hve less incentive to excel in the workplce thn men who believe tht performnce will be rewrded. nother model pplicble to both men nd women incorportes vriety of fctors reflecting societl, culturl, nd psychologicl involvement in creer development ( Gottfredson, 1981). ccording to the occuptionl spirtions model, people clssify occuptions long dimensions of sextype, level of work, nd field of work. s with other theories of women's creer development ( Hckett & Betz, 1981), people then ssess the suitbility of occuptions ccording to self-concept nd the mount of effort they re willing to exert to enter the occuption. Elements of self-concept tht re occuptionlly relevnt include gender, socil clss, IQ, interests, vlues, nd bilities. Occuptionl spirtions re shped by these elements of self-concept; certin occuptions re rejected or ccepted on the bsis of their perceived fit with one's self-concept. Reserch pplying this model suggests tht occuptions re rejected first on the bsis of gender, then on the bsis of socil clss nd bility level, nd finlly on the bsis of personl interests nd vlues. Once person rejects n occuption, it is unlikely tht she or he will look t it gin s n cceptble lterntive ( Brooks, 2003). The occuptionl spirtions model suggests tht women re found in lower level jobs becuse these jobs re comptible with women's self-concepts nd views bout the ccessibility of different jobs (i.e., the likelihood tht they will hve the opportunity to compete for jobs). Women often do not expect to work continuously throughout their lives; thus, the influence of key contextul fetures such s support from others, nonwork responsibilities, nd spousl employment becomes criticl. Therefore, in chpter on men, women, nd creers, it is essentil to discuss workplce mentoring (e.g., interpersonl work support from key coworkers), the decision to mny nd become prent (e.g., nonwork responsibilities), nd dul-creer issues (e.g., spousl employment). In conclusion, chnges in the workforce pose both opportunities nd chllenges to orgniztions, nd humn resource mngement experts hve devoted incresing levels of ttention to the issues nd problems tht individuls nd groups bring to nd encounter in the workplce. Reserchers in pplied work psychology, orgniztionl behviour, nd other relted fields (socil psychology, sociology, nd economics) re lso showing greter interest in the roles of gender nd sex t work. Furthermore, there is rich trdition of reserch nd scholrship in the re of women's studies deling with similrities nd differences in men's nd women's workplce experiences. Ech perspective brings its own set of ssumptions, insight, nd conclusions to ber, nd there is good del to be lerned by bridging the mny disciplines concerned with women nd men in the workplce. Bibliography: 1. Overell, Stephen (2006, January 6). Business life. Financial Times, London Ed1 (p. 9). 2. Verkaik, Robert (2005, December 29). Thirty years on, women still face harassment in the workplace: Equal opportunities. The Independent, London Press (p.2). 3. Fitzgerald L. F., & Crites J. O. ( 1980). Toward a career psychology of woman. What do we know What do we need to know Journal of Counseling Psychology, 27, 44-62. 4. Gutek B. A., & Larwood L. (1987). "Introduction: Women's careers are important and different". In B. A. Gutek & L. Larwood (Eds.), Women's career development (pp. 7-14). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 5. Larwood L., & Gutek B. A. ( 2001). "Working toward a theory of women's career development." In B. A. Gutek & L. Larwood (Eds.), Women's career development (pp. 170-183). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. 6. Davidson M. J., & Cooper C. L. (2002). Shattering the glass ceiling: The woman manager. London: Chapman. 7. Brooks L. (2003). Recent developments in theory building. In D. Brown, & L. Brooks (Eds.), Career choice and development: Applying contemporary theories to practice (pp. 364-294). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 8. Betz N., & Fitzgerald L. (2004). The career psychology of women. New York:Academic Press. 9. Healy C. C. (2002). Career development: Counseling definitions, through the life stages. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 10. Hackett G., & Betz N. E. ( 1981). "A self-efficacy approach to the career development of women". Journal of Vocational Behavior, 18, 326-339. 11. Gottfredson L. S. ( 1981). Circumscription and compromise. A developmental theory of occupational aspirations. Journal of Counseling Psychology Monograph, 28, 545-579. Read More