Glittering Careers? The Situation of Women in Management Positions in the United States

Mgr. Ivona Balážová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

More and more women in the United States have been entering the workforce, which leads to the growth of supply of capable potential women leaders who end up in arenas such as business and economics that were formerly predominantly meant to be that of men. Although women have been earning top positions of business leadership in recent decades, they form a distinct minority in such positions. Despite progress, women still face substantial barriers and hindrances that prevent them from further career development. The model of the successful manager has traditionally been masculine and while this stereotype remains, it succeeds in maintaining the dominant place for men in management. Countless stories in the popular press also reinforce misperceptions of women leaders by speculating about how they are different from men. These dangerous stories are well accepted as they go hand in hand with popular beliefs about women and men. They reinforce perceptions that are wrong, perceptions that maintain the gender gap in leadership itself. What is more, stereotypes about women managers abilities, interests and behaviors may lead women to behave in ways that limit their effectiveness in the workplace. They may show less confidence and lower self-evaluation even when their performance is objectively similar to that of their male colleagues. Apart from gender stereotypes, which have remained deeply rooted in the US society, there are discriminatory practices in hiring, performance appraisals, training, promotion and pay. Gender-based wage inequality is painfully real and leads to substantial differences in opportunity compared to their equally educated male counterparts. Women in managerial career paths have difficulties attaining top executive positions, in part because they are often not given the same developmental opportunities as their male peers. And last but not least, job segregation, which provides the basis and justification for lower wages for women together with the problem of sexual harassment, have been the norm in the US work environment. The work is set in the area of middle and upper-middle management in the United States and deals with women who already possess these posts and aspire for top management positions. By definition middle managers are those who implement strategies and policies, whereas upper level managers are those who develop them according to Van Fleet (qtd. in Wentling). Issues occurring in the workplace are predominantly discussed from organizational and societal perspectives. The work is mainly theoretical and draws from scholarly journals, periodicals and studies that have been carried out on the issue with some practical, real-life data in case studies, which I collected during my stay in the United States. One section is devoted solely to the situation of women managers in the South of the United States as it was in this region that I stayed and got acquainted with its socio-historical circumstances, which are distinct from those of the rest of the nation. The work is divided into four thematic blocks, each of them mentioning historical circumstances and each flowing from a general level concerning the situation of women in professions in the United States to a more concrete level of women managers in the US South.

Keywords

manažerky, gender, diskriminace, stereotypy women managers, discrimination, stereotypes

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 13. 6. 2006

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 25. 1. 2006
• Supervisor: Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Humanities / English Language and Literature