Globalization Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

Women are becoming an unmistakable portion of the workforce. Woman now make up 43 percent of the managerial, administrative, and executive positions in the U.S. This may sound impressive, but unfortunately most of those jobs are only in lower level management. Women only make up three to seven percent of senior management (vice president and higher). There is still a great inequality in corporate America. Old fashioned views are the main thing holding women back. Many things come from those old fashioned views including viewing women as inferior, sexual harassment, and the “good old boys” problem. Women are fighting these problems however, and are gaining powerful positions as a result. This report will cover women in managerial and executive positions, what is holding women back, women helping women succeed, and women who have made it big.

Woman in Executive and Management Positions

Women’s Numbers in Executive Positions

In the past women were only allowed to stay at home and take care of the kids. It is not until recently that women were allowed to enter the workforce, and even more recently that they were allowed the chance to gain managerial or executive positions. Although according to U.S department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics women make up 43 percent of the managerial, administrative, and executive positions in the U.S. Most of that percentage however is made up of lower level management. Only three to five percent of executive positions belong to women. That means that 95 to 97 percent of all senior managers (vice president and higher) are men. Mostly white men to be precise. The numbers are even lower when you get to even bigger companies. A 1990 study of the top Fortune 500 companies by Mary Ann Von Glinow of the University of Southern California, showed that women were only 2.6% of the corporate officers (the vice presidential level up) of those companies. That is what is known as the glass ceiling. Women have an invisible barrier that attempts to prevent them from rising to an executive level.

Even more sadly, a good number of the executive women are only there because they started the company, and many more because it is a woman owned company. There is still a “good old boy” attitude that prevails at the higher levels of business. It is an attitude that is wide spread among corporate America, which is that white guys are the best candidates for high level jobs. There are many intelligent women who are overlooked, underpaid, and pushed aside for white men with less credentials. Women get underpaid even at the executive level, a May 1987 report by Nation’s Business showed that “women at the vice presidential levels and above earn 42 percent less than their male peers.” That is a huge difference in pay. An example could be that if a female made $300,000 a year, a male counterpart doing exactly the same job would make about $450,000.

Women on Corporate Boards

Corporate boards are sadly similar in their numbers. Only 4.5 percent of the Fortune 500 industrial directorships are held by women. On Fortune Service 500 companies, only 5.6 percent of corporate directors are women. Women are making more progress in this arena then in the executive officer arena however. Although very few companies have women as a board director, a 1991 study by the Glass Ceiling Commission shows that 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies had women on their board.

Women Owned Companies

Many women are starting their own companies. These aren’t baby companies either. Large economy shaking companies such are E-bay are founded by women. This is one of the biggest factors in changing the way women are perceived in the workforce. On average, women owned companies hire a much more proportionate number of women and minorities than do their male counterparts (see figure 1). While women tend to hire half males and half females, men tend to hire only a third women and the rest men. Men on average prefer a two to one ratio of men to women. As men’s companies go up in value, they hire a smaller and smaller percentage of women.

Figure 1

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What’s Holding Women Back

Old Fashioned Views Against Women

The main things holding women back are old fashioned views about women. Women have traditionally been housekeepers and mothers, staying at home and taking orders from men. Women are raised to be diminutive, submissive, and never aggressive. They are taught not to raise their voices, be too direct, too forward, or argue. They are especially taught not to act this way around males. This idea stays ingrained in the U.S. culture and makes it very difficult to combat discrimination. The court systems are still allowed to take into account how a women dresses in sexual discrimination cases, saying that if they dress or act in a certain way they are “asking” for lewd comments and the offending male was not out of line. With laws like that, it is no wonder it is so hard for women to get equal treatment.

The “Good Old Boys”

This all ties into the “good old boys” idea that holds women back. The “good old boys” are comprised of white male executives who want to keep upper executive America made up of only white males. They consider women who are strong to be “feminazis” or “bitches”. A strong man on the other hand is considered to be determined, persistant, and great upper management material. These men want to promote other males which they have buddied up with in after-work activities which women are often excluded from. Women executives are frequently excluded from social activities and often describe the “clubbiness” among the men that exists at the top. The corporate executive suites are “the ultimate boys’ clubs.”

Even on a more formal level, women report there are “certain kinds of meetings” they don’t get invited to because they are not seen as policy makers. When comparing men and women at the same level, men generally manage more people, have greater freedom to hire and fire people, and have more direct control over the company’s assets. When excluded from meetings and not given as much power, it is much easier to not acknowledge the skill and intelligence of these women. Of course it already had been overlooked or they would not be treated like that in the first place.

Women, Their Families, and the Real Problem

Another view that holds women back is the idea that once they have children they will become less reliable and less dedicated to the company. This idea is not true, and is yet another chauvinist view imposed by men. In a Wall Street Journal/Gallup survey, women managers were asked what they consider to be the most serious obstacle in their business careers. Only three percent said “family responsibilities”, but half named reasons related to their gender, including: “male chauvinism, attitudes toward a female boss, slow advancement for women, and the simple fact of being a woman.” In a survey by Korn/Ferry International, executive women were asked to name the greatest obstacle they had to overcome to achieve success; the most frequent response was simply “being a woman” (40 percent).

More than 80 percent of the executive women in the Wall Street Journal/Gallup study said they believe there are disadvantages to being a woman in the business world. They say that men “don’t take them seriously.” In the same survey, 61 percent of the women executives reported having been mistaken for a secretary at a business meeting and 25 percent said they had been frusterated on their way up the corporate ladder by male attitudes toward women.

Stereotypical “Women” Careers

Women still have many stereotypes to deal with. They have jobs that they are “supposed” to be in, such as secretaries, nurses, and administrative support. Ninety-nine percent of secretaries are women, 93 percent of nurses are women, and 82 percent of administrative/clerical support workers are women. Women are also the majority of textile workers (91 percent) and housekeepers (82 percent). Women make up a majority of these positions, but the numbers of executive positions stay low. Women are also still paid less than men for the same work. Full-time employed women still earn considerably less than men. The average man with a high school education working full-time earns more than the average woman fulltime worker with a college degree.

One reason women have a hard time getting to the top is the type of jobs they are encouraged to go into. They are concentrated in areas that are mostly staff and support jobs, which don’t have much opportunity to rise to the top. Women are often not included in the mainstream line jobs. Even when they get lucky enough to get a line job (which is the most common route to make it to a high executive position) they are often the line jobs which don’t mark them as leaders or as valuable members of the company. The highest ranking women in most industries are in non-operating areas such as personnel, public relations, or, occasionally, finance specialties that seldom lead to the most powerful top-management positions.

Women Helping Women Succeed

Executive Women Battling For Women

As mentioned before, women are much more likely to hire an equal number of males to females. Women business executives also overwhelmingly support feminist positions. Women executives are giving a lot of support to women in lower positions. They are trying to equal out the playing field. Sixty-three percent of the women executives in the Korn/Ferry survey believe that “barriers to women have not fallen at the senior management level,” and 70 percent believe that “women do not receive equal pay for comparable jobs.” In a Wall Street Journal/ Gallup poll, more than four out of five women executives say “there are disadvantages to being female in the business world.” It is still a very unfair atmosphere for women. Women in high places however are working to make this change.

Entrepreneurial Women Battling for Women

Entrepreneurial women are also helping one another, and other women in business. It is still difficult for a woman trying to start a business. Many men won’t take her seriously and she will have difficulty attaining loans. Women are helping each other a lot though. There are many support groups, both physical and online. Resources for women in business are becoming abundant as well. Women are really working together to make things change.

Woman Who Have Made It Big

Although the numbers aren’t yet equal, there are still some very powerful women out there. The following business women were ranked according to Fortune magazine. The most powerful woman in the world is Marjorie Scardino. She heads up Pearson PLC, a FTSE 100 company, as CEO. She is the only woman to head up a FTSE 100 company. Since being in charge, she has made the price of Pearson’s stock go up from $11 per share to around $30 per share. The second most powerful woman in business is Fabiola Arredondo, who is the managing director of Yahoo! Europe. She tells woman in business to “focus on operational positions where you have responsibility for profit and loss, that way it’s easy to measure whether you’re doing a good job.” The third most powerful woman in the world is Sari Baldauf, who is the president of Nokia Networks. She says that many people she had met when she was first starting out assumed that she was only a secretary (more proof of workplace discrimination). As president of Nokia Network Equipment she generates over $6.5 billion in annual sales.

Conclusion

Women are starting to achieve great success and power. Women are working hard to overcome all the obstacles placed before them. They are working together to shatter the glass ceiling, and women already in power are helping women in lower positions rise up the ladder. They are breaking stereotypes left and right. Although the business world is still far from equal, it is getting better. Hopefully someday soon people will be judged and promoted based on their skill, experience, and knowledge, not on wheth

Bibliography

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………… Pg. 1

Women in Executive and Management Positions……………………………… Pg. 1

Women’s Numbers in Executive Positions………………………………….. Pg.

Women on Corporate Boards………………………………………………… Pg.

Women Owned Companies…………………………………………………. Pg.

What’s Holding Women Back………………………………………………….. Pg. 3

Old Fashioned Views Against Women……………………………………… Pg.

The “Good Old Boys”………………………………………………………. Pg.

Women, Their Families, and the Real Problem……………………………… Pg.

Stereotypical “Women” Careers…………………………………………….. Pg.

Helping Women Succeed………………………………………………………… Pg. 5

Executive Women Battling For Women……………………………………. Pg.

Entrepreneurial Women Battling for Women……………………………….. Pg.

Women Who Have Made it Big………………………………………………… Pg. 6

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… Pg. 7

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List of Figures

Figure 1, “Women Owned Business Employ A More Gender Balanced Workforce” graph Pg.