Women in Organisation

Q. ‘In the end women are too weak for management’. Discuss this statement in terms of gender issues within the organisation.

“Women are just as capable as men………Women may have to work a little harder to reach the top, but it can and does happen. In the not-so-distant future, with a little extra effort on everyone's part, more women could be buttoning up their suits and heading into that corner office” Strauss E. (2007).

Last couple of decades has seen rapid growth in the number of women at workplace, and also increasingly taking up positions in the managerial ranks in organisations. Articles, books and regulations for the initiatives undertaken by the government and industry towards reducing sex discimination and encouraging women’s participation at work continue to be published (Barett and Davidson 2006:1). However, there has been significant shift from equal opportunity initiative aimed at reducing discrimination at work to managing resistance from the diverse majority group comprisig of male workforce in the organisation (Cassell, 1997; Liff and Wajcman, 1996). Gender perspective though central to the social aspect of life (Barett 1980), is usually ignored in organisational analysis (Hearn and Perkin 1983).

With an increase in women moving into the employment sector, women bring their own mix of skills learned through socialization and practiced in managing and organizing of domestic and family life. In mid 1990s, 47% of the workforce in U.K. comprised of women. Women were challenging the status quo of the working class and were ready to provide a prospective change to the to the conventional definitions of ‘employment issues’ and ‘organizational priorities’ (Ledwith and Colgan 1996:2). Several perceptions about women being the weaker sex have been prevalent. It is perceived that men are the primary breadwinner of the family and women, the primary caretaker. Motherhood makes women happy and children wish to spend more time with their mothers. Hence the...