Individual Reflective Portfolio: Learning of Women in Business - Coursework Example

Individual Reflective Portfolio 01213 Introduction Learning of Women in Business provides the details about the history of women participation in therole of leadership in organisations. This module will assist me to recognize and evaluate various arguments and assumptions regarding gender in popular scholarly and interpersonal discourses. It will extend assistance to evaluate various theories related to feminism. The study will also enable me to address debates regarding the participation of different genders in various interdisciplinary fields (Peris-Ortiz, et al., 2012). My personal goals during the study of the module include accumulation of knowledge regarding female entrepreneurship, gathering insight of social influence on participation of different genders in the professional world and relating my own experience with the theories and practices of feminism and sexism. Finally, I tend to shape my own career aspiration through the study of this module. Understanding the role and participation of entrepreneurial women in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is the most relevant aspect for me as it will enable me to design my professional goals for the future. It is also beneficial for my future communications with my colleagues in larger corporation. There are a number of professional goals that I wish to achieve after the completion of this module. The major goal is to develop skills for entrepreneurship and leadership. Other goals include elimination of gender barrier in terms of achieving career goals, utilizing my learning from different agents of socialization to efficiently interact with my colleagues in diverse work atmosphere and balancing both the personal as well as professional life. Week 2 The agents of socialization influence our lifelong process to learn about the social expectations and procedure to interact with others within the society. In my opinion, the key agents of socializations are family, peers, mass media and school. Family plays the most important part as a socialization agent. Family educate us about group life, interpersonal relationship and sharing of resources. They also enrich us with our first understanding regarding values, norms, and beliefs. School is another important agent which assists us to accumulate discipline, moral values and group interaction process through different hidden curriculum. Peer can be defined as the group of people around us who assist us to shape our behaviour within group. Mass media, such as newspaper, internet, magazine and television, shapes our tastes, thoughts, languages and appearances (Bales and Parsons, 2014). The concept of femaleness and maleness is widely driven by the agents of socialization. Our observations about the different roles of men and women, in terms of our parental figure, other family members, friends and role models, shape our perceptions regarding maleness and femaleness of various behaviours aspects such as women are tend to be passive and expressive one while men are inclined towards inexpressive, assertive and aggressive behaviour (Manolache, 2013). These influences of society regarding gender differences have also impacted on my career aspiration. As per the learning from socialization, women are considered to be more emotional and affectionate. It is perceived that women are good in interpersonal relationship and emotional bond rather than the final decision maker of any organisation. Therefore, these social influences have diverted my career towards human resources profession. Week 3 Feminism can be defined as a multi-disciplinary approach towards the gender and sex equality which highlights the rights of women to achieve equality in terms of different economic, political, cultural, and social aspects. According to me, feminism has both best and worst side of application. It can be said that feminism is an essential movement to bring great changes in the society as well as corporate cultures. On the other hand, the understanding of feminism can also be ruined by developing as well as distributing hatred towards men. This misperception of feminism can adversely affect the interpersonal role of men and women in corporate world (Fuss, 2013). This session regarding women in business has assisted me to analyse and change my views and perceptions regarding gender differences in career aspiration. After this session, I can explain myself as a feminist. The understanding of feminism has altered my view regarding career choices. It has assisted me to neglect the pre-defined guidance of gender particularities. On the other hand, it has enabled me to explore my traits, capabilities and competence to decide upon my future career aspirations. This session has enabled me to explore my ability to manage people from diverse background and take constructive decisions. Therefore, it has changed my career aspiration to develop my skills and competence as a female entrepreneur in the SME sector. Week 4 According to Eagly and Wood, (2011), the system of sex-gender allows an individual to indulge in their personal identification based on their internal awareness. The learning of sex differences is based on physical anatomy. On the other hand, gender can be explained by a number of characteristics that evaluates femininity and masculinity (Johnson and Repta, 2012). There is a number of prejudices regarding the role of male and female in the society and corporate world. Various communities and organisations tend to stereotype the responsibilities of men and women as per their physical anatomy while they are tend to neglect the inherent traits and competencies (Dowd, et al., 2012). This understanding of sex-gender system has made me wiser regarding the identification of personal capabilities. It has assisted me to eliminate biased thoughts in terms of roles and responsibilities of men and women. Therefore, this self-analysis has enabled me to design and balance my role in the various future personal and professional dimensions. Before 20th century the entrepreneurial role of women in China was hugely underestimated. At that part of time sex-gender discrimination was a huge issue within China society. During that time the China women’s right for better living, independence and personal success was very nominal (Deng, et al., 2011). Women in China started to achieve equal rights in the professional world at a very late stage. Entrepreneurial activity by women in China has become more active in recent years with greater attention being paid within and outside of China (Deng, et al., 2011). Before the introduction of People’s Republic of China (PRC) the women population of Chinese have possessed vary little economic power. Most of them were depended on their husbands or fathers for survival. After the introduction of PRC in 1949 the law facilities and socialist system have highly influenced the participation of women in the political as well as economical world (Hernandez, et al., 2012). The regulations by Chinese government have widely eliminated the sex-gender discrimination from the society. These regulations have also introduced equality in terms of legal, educational and administrative right (Hernandez, et al., 2012). Week 5 Throughout the course I came across various activities of different renowned female entrepreneurs which enriched my knowledge and ideas in this area. I have learned about the activities of Anne Bezancon, founder and CEO of Placecast. This organisation is a mobile-location based marketing service provider to various leading organisations. She has recommended all the aspiring entrepreneurs to focus and evaluate their innovative and exceptional ideas. She has also believed in creating a vision and generating common goal within the workforce to achieve it (Davis, 2013). The transitional economy of China has introduced immense opportunities to the population. These opportunities have also assisted the female population to explore the professional world in China (Hernandez, et al., 2012). The recent industrial restructuring programs in China have shifted the focus of economy towards the service. This situation has brought huge options for women by introducing business areas with female advantages. In the present year women are contributing half of the total household income of the Chinese society (Deng, et al., 2011). Therefore, these rapid changes in the political structure and economical expectations have increased my opportunities to evaluate the entrepreneurship activities in the China market. The development of privet sector and rapid generation of small and medium sized organisation has influenced me to explore the entrepreneurial opportunities (Hernandez, et al., 2012). The urge of better living, independence and personal success as well as the decreasing sex-gender discrimination has also influenced me to enhance and apply my leadership skills (Deng, et al., 2011). Though the economical and political cultures in China are demonstrating supporting behaviour towards female entrepreneurial venture, the scarcity of proper training and guidance regarding managerial responsibilities and leadership capabilities may hinder my entrepreneurial prospects. The responsibilities of household are still the main area of concern for women. Therefore, the balancing of personal as well as professional life will be a major issue for me as a female entrepreneur. According to my learning, a female entrepreneur should have a positive attitude and strong mindset. She should be a good leader who is long-term goal oriented and driven by cause. She should have strong will to overcome obstacles while showing compassion for each member of her team. Finally, female entrepreneur should balance their personal life while generating a strong interpersonal relationship within her professional world. Week 8 Sexism can also be described as gender discrimination which is related to the stereotyped behaviour and thinking related to the roles of different genders. This discrimination support believes that one gender is intrinsically superior to another in terms of different job roles (Jetten, et al., 2013). According to my experience, sexism can affect both women and men. As a woman, I have faced gender discrimination regarding offering my opinion within a group and contribution in final decision making process. My capabilities have been neglected in various professional aspects which are considered to be “men’s job”. Alternatively, the job scopes of men have been narrowed by stereotyping various job roles as “women’s job” such as nurses and human resources. A number of time, they are predicted to be stronger than women and forced to work overtime (Ronai, et al., 2014). Therefore, these experiences have assisted me to understand that sexism can affect both men and women. The major reason of sexism is the old and stereotypical ideas regarding capabilities and skills of men and women. Socialization agents play an important role in the construction and demolition of these ideas (Jetten, et al., 2013). Hence, it has altered my capability of analysing and utilizing the values, norms and education accepted from socialization agents to enrich my interpersonal behaviour and career scopes. Week 9 According to my learning in this module, global perspective provides the capacity to an individual to analyse complex economic, social and political links between people across globe. The global perspective is not only depended on analysing international career opportunities. It consists of a broader view of learning, knowledge and experience that include the understanding of the links between our own lives and those of people throughout the world (McMichael, 2011). This understanding has made me wiser as I have developed skills regarding identifying social and cultural diversity, conflict resolution and sustainability building. It also assists me to sharpen my expertise in terms of eliminating human rights discrimination and inequality within the organisational team members. Therefore, this knowledge will allow me to enhance my entrepreneurial skills to efficiently handle the diverse groups of my organization. Symposium The discussed topic has enabled me to analyse the proper utilization of the power of feminism to change the stereotypical assumption of the society. This learning also allows me to utilize my expertise to explore the knowledge gathered from the agents of socializations to eliminate sexism from the workplace and society. This discussion has also assisted me to eliminate biasness from sex-gender system while analysing personal capabilities. This understanding will assist me to develop my leadership and team management capabilities as an entrepreneur. Conclusion The learning and understanding of the module has assisted me to develop my entrepreneurial leadership skills and capabilities. The module has evaluated my learning regarding my leadership capabilities and decision making skills. Therefore, it has directed my career path towards entrepreneurship and leadership. The understanding of sex-gender system and elimination of biasness has enabled me to reduce gender barrier while designing my career path as well as the job roles of my subordinates. Elimination of sexism enabled me to improve the interpersonal skills and interaction procedure with the peers and colleagues. Finally, analysis of my own competencies and capabilities has assisted me to balance my personal and professional roles. Reference List Bales, R. F. and Parsons, T., 2014. Family: socialization and interaction process. London: Routledge. Davis, Z., 2013. 15 Female Entrepreneurs You Should Know About (But Probably Don’t). [online] Available at < http://tech.co/15-female-entrepreneurs-know-probably-dont-2013-11> [Accessed 20 April 2015]. Deng, S., Wang, X. and Alon, I., 2011. Framework for female entrepreneurship in China. International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 3(1), pp. 3-20. Dowd, N. E., Levitt, N. and McGinley, A. C., 2012. Feminist legal theory meets masculinities theory. Masculinities and the law: A multidimensional approach, pp. 25-50. Eagly, A. H. and Wood, W., 2011. Feminism and the evolution of sex differences and similarities. Sex Roles, 64(9-10), pp. 758-767. Fuss, D., 2013. Essentially speaking: Feminism, nature and difference. London: Routledge. Hernandez, L., Nunn, N. and Warnecke, T., 2012. Female entrepreneurship in China: opportunity-or necessity-based? International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 15(4), pp. 411-434. Jetten, J., Branscombe, N. R., Iyer, A. and Asai, N., 2013. Appraising gender discrimination as legitimate or illegitimate: Antecedents and consequences. Handbook of gender and psychology, pp. 306-322. Johnson, J. L. and Repta, R., 2012. Sex and gender. Designing and conducting gender, sex, and health research, pp. 17-37. Manolache, E., 2013. Transforming the Gendered Social Relations of Urban Space. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 1, pp. 125-130. McMichael, P., 2011. Development and social change: A global perspective. New York: Sage Publications. Peris-Ortiz, M., Rueda-Armengot, C. and Osorio, D. B., 2012. Women in business: entrepreneurship, ethics and efficiency. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 8(3), pp. 343-354. Ronai, C. R., Zsembik, B. A. and Feagin, J. R., 2014. Everyday sexism in the third millennium. London: Routledge. Read More