Women in Management - Essay Example

Women in Management Introduction Nowadays women are no more only a house maker. Women presently are coming out into the corporate arena which have oflate being termed as the man’s domain and are equally competing with men in every field of profession. Emergence of globalization has led more companies to embrace the newer industry trends in order to bring in positive changes in the workforce. Organizations are not shying off from overtly adopting the new policies and guidelines to keep pace with the dynamic business environment. In recent years, the women workforce has been significantly contributing in economic development of different countries. The companies have been implementing programs so as to fix gender biasness in workforce. Presently, 40% of the global workforce is constituted by women in different positions the percentage is increasing at a fast rate. We have dismantled the age old belief about women being weaker in the workplace compared to men in every aspect by way of placing work before their families. The organizations have also been cooperative towards our quest of attaining an influential position in the corporate structure.(McFarlin, 2014). (McFarlin, 2014). Present Scenario of Women in Management In every organization, diversity in work force is a laudable achievement as there have been studies, which proved that bringing in gender equality in work force could improve a company’s performance financially. It has been found out that gender-diverse businesses in retail industry and the hospitality sector have generated 14% and 19% higher average respectively than companies that have not yet been able to understand importance of this diversification for workforce (Carter and Silva, 2010). A work team with diversity in gender always performs better than the single gender teams. Men and women both possess different ideas, market insights and strategies, which enable a team to take correct decisions in lesser time. It is easier to access resources in a gender-diverse workforce with numerous sources of information, industry knowledge and credit (Badal, 2014). This also allows a company to serve wider customer base (Badal, 2014). A gender diverse work environment attracts more talented women to work with them. In order to stay in the competitive market, companies cannot afford to neglect the talented individuals on the basis of their gender (Carter and Silva, 2010). The most critical problem faced by us in work is that of balancing our professional and personal lives. I believe the women nowadays should understand values and needs of both personal and professional commitments and prioritize them in order to attain a balance. Employing more of us in the workforce proves to be beneficial because by nature, we are team players and are more persuasive than our male counterparts. We prefer taking up challenges in our professional front and are hard workers too. It has been reflected in a study that we, the contemporary women are ambitious and are quite confident about our abilities to be in the top management. But we are doubtful about the company policies, which might not align appropriately with our lofty ambitions due to gender biasness. In one of the surveys conducted in 2012, it was found that companies are more eager to bring in required changes in their workforce so as to retain and develop women employees and have even implemented measures for the same. Since the day of liberalization of women we have continuously reflected a rise in our intent to work as hard as our male peers in order to make a mark in the global arena (Catalyst. 2014). The Wall Street journal reports that after the infamous global recession in 2008, when most companies had adopted the strategy to curtail their work force, women had been more successful in regaining jobs that they had lost during the turmoil in global market. The unemployment rate for women stood lower than men (House, 2013). Despite achieving this milestone, we are still struggling to break off from the shackles, which have been placed against us in workplaces. The companies are still skeptical about our abilities (McKinsey&Company, 2014).In the workforce we face a two-way challenge while showcasing our leadership abilities in areas of work. Assertion of ideas with force may trigger backlash as it would show that we are trying to dominate. Then again, we are not recognized as strong leaders if we act in feminine way. According to me, women must adopt few strategies so as to excel in their leadership abilities (Gannon, 2012). We must start off by enlisting a mentor who would notice our activities and would provide with positive advices. We must also take charge in office events to showcase our leadership acumen. This we can do by leading in presentations and meetings effectively by allowing others in the team to come up with useful suggestions and considering them while decision making (Gannon, 2012). This would emit a sense of belonging among team members. Setting high expectations for self can be sometimes misjudged as over ambition and attract negative attention from colleagues. A woman must, therefore, advance in a very careful manner; we might exude enthusiasm for a new project and can support it by showing a great deal of confidence on our team and their abilities to complete work efficiently. The growing number of females at influential positions is challenging the age old practices of companies, which are making way for fresh approaches that are incorporated by us. We generally approach the problems encountered in a lateral and collaborative way, which is an antithesis to those, which have previously been undertaken by our male counterparts (Dow Jones & Company Inc., 2014). Recent report suggests that the role of women in management is going to be a key factor in recent future with rise in economy in the emerging markets (Pandey and Kumar, 2012). More women than men are entering the labor force so as to fuel the growth of emerging markets. The reason behind this is women have the required skills that are demanded by emerging markets for competing globally. The dynamism in emerging economies is a critical factor that acts in favor of us (Pandey and Kumar, 2012). While the developed nations are still formulating measures to develop women workforce, the emerging nations are establishing own business cultures in an organic way (Zahidi, 2014). This has even had a marked effect on wages of the women employees, which has risen over past few years. In these nations, a virtuous circle is created by the rise in number of influential businesswomen, which provides for homegrown female role models, thereby effectively influencing the younger generation like us(Zahidi, 2014). Despite many positives, there still exist certain negative aspects for women in workplace. Certain issues that we still have to encounter in the workplace are; women often find it extremely challenging to balance professional commitments with the traditional female oriented duties like, cooking, laundry and cleaning. This problem hinders us from delivering our best at work. As per studies performed by the Centers for Disease Control, women are found to be more prone towards work related health issues. We experience higher rates of stress and anxiety disorder caused by strain involved in attaining work-life balance. Problems of sexual harassment also add to women’s stress in the work life (Bigelow, 2014). Reports also claim that despite being more talented, women cannot rise up to the top management level because of the concern which the management has regarding women quitting the responsible role in order to provide time for family. This phenomenon is attributed as “glass ceiling” (Bigelow, 2014).According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we earn 80 cents of every dollar earned by a man performing similar role. We are still subjected to less salary than men due to presence of the gender income disparity in the modern system; this needs to be abolished so as to reward women equally as the men on achieving success (Bigelow, 2014). Conclusion I would like to conclude by stating that women who were in the shadows of darkness in the past are presently willing to move ahead and compete with the patriarchal society, which is why they would require cooperation from the organizations, who must bestow some confidence on the women workforce. Although the present scenario of women in the corporate environment is better than that of earlier, yet there are certain loopholes in the system, which are obstructing imminent success of the working women. The most critical factor causing these problems is mindset of the management, who are predominantly male. In order to change the stereotype image of women in people’s mind, more and more women should join workforce and exude equal zeal to achieve the topmost rank in the management. Given the amount of women entering the workforce annually, this change would take some time, but will be achieved eventually. My paper has reflected the findings of studies, which have been conducted on the similar topic and gives a comprehensive outlook about the women workforce in recent times. Reference List Badal, S., 2014. The business benefits of gender diversity. Gallup Business Journal, 20 January. Bigelow, L., 2014. Problems women encounter in the workplace. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Carter, N. and Silva, C., 2010. Women in management: Delusions of progress. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Catalyst, 2014. Statistical overview of women in workplace. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Dow Jones & Company Inc., 2014. How can young women develop a leadership style? [online] Available at: < http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-can-young-women-develop-a-leadership-style/> [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Gannon, D., 2012. How men and women differ in the workplace. The Fiscal Times, 25 May. House, J., 2013. Women reach a milestone in job market. The Wall Street Journal, 20 November. McFarlin, K., 2014. The effects of globalization in the workplace. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. McKinsey&Company, 2014. Moving mind-sets on gender diversity: McKinsey global survey results. [online] Available at :< http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/moving_mind-sets_on_gender_diversity_mckinsey_global_survey_results> [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Pandey, A. and Kumar, R., 2012. Women’s work participation in labour market in contemporary India. [pdf] Journal Of Community Positive Practices. Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Zahidi, S., 2014. How women will dominate the workplace BRIC by BRIC. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20 June 2014]. Read More