Free Custom «Women in Management» Essay Paper

Introduction

Over the last few years, women have invented considerable inroads into management jobs. However, most of the women are in the middle or lower management level, whereas few are in top management level. This vertical gender gap happens even among those women with elite education credentials. Based on a research study done by the U.S.A Census Bureau in the year 2010, women were less involved in management level because females acquire less education credentials than men do. Secondly, women accumulate less of the required experience. Thirdly, the cultural schema contributes largely to the difference of the roles women should have in the management level.

The Current Position of Women in Management

The research also showed that the American women have entered the management in an increasing number. The results exhibited that 13 percent of managers in the private sectors were women in the year 1945 as compared to 45 in the year 2010. Therefore, in the future the number of women managers in industries will increase. Again, women representation in management equaled women share of the civilian labor force, which was 46 percent. In current years, the percentage of female managers in the private sector reduced, dropping to 41 percent in 2010, although women’s share of the civilian labor force increased to 47 percent. This long-term trend toward gender equality in management, displeasure as it is by the latest countertrend, is not seen at all lines of management. However, women remain disproportionately separated in lower levels of management. Again, they are scarcely represented at the top.

 

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Over the past 40 years, U.S women education achievements have outpaced those of men. According to National Center for Education Statistics, women earned 43 percent of bachelor’s degrees 1970-1971 whereas between the year 2008-2009 women earned more bachelor’s degrees. In the year 2010, women made up just 50 percent of the civilian workforce with college degrees.

The research also showed that most U.S women have ventured in business. In spite of the fact that women have largely ventured in business, they do not have the required managerial skills as compared to men (Bertrand, 2010). The reason is that they are not in the fields that require mathematics, engineering, technology and the field of science. Therefore, this utmost obstacle is contributing to gender-segregation in management. Women underrepresentation in these fields has kept them out of pipeline to upper management. This is evident by the decreasing number of women who are doing STEM courses. Based on the evidence on National Science Foundation, i.e. in the year 2009, women constituted to 20 percent of the U.S STEM workforce.

Moreover, education stratification in the U.S has contributed to gender segregation in management, i.e. women access to business education is stratified by institutional prestige. The research showed that only 31 percent of the MBA students in the top U.S business school are female compared to 45 percent across all MBA programs. The difference in terms of work experience has played a crucial role in gender-segregation where women managers have less authority as compared to men. According to a research study conducted by U.S Census Bureau, i.e. in the year 2011, women contributed to 34 percent of the U.S workforce as compared to 64 percent of men. Today, U.S women with children are working in the industries and companies for long hours. Again, the number of women has increased in the past few decades (Nguyen, 2008). Notwithstanding these trends towards gender equality, women tend to accumulate less of the work experience that is needed to get into management as compared to men.

The reason is that people believe that women are going to cause a lot of interruption in their careers such as raising children. Therefore, these interruptions reduce the capability of a woman gaining more experience than men do. Next, cultural factor may also be one of the main factors contributing to disparities of jobs preference and work experience between men and women. Examples of the cultural schemas are that men are better than women in science and math. Secondly, women belong to home whereas men belong at work. Finally, the cultural schema shows that men are managers who have natural leadership qualities than women do (Spencer, 2009). These qualities have increasingly led to upper management jobs. Notwithstanding the truth that most people in the U.S have acknowledged the role of married women in management, still, some continue to believe that married women with children belong at home and not to work (Bianchi, 2011). A recent survey conducted by the U.S National Center for Education Statistics found out that mediums of 56 hours per week for male managers and 52 hour per week for female managers. Therefore, these suggest that female managers experience strong work and family conflict.

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In the middle classes, from where most managers are drawn, there is an increasing cultural pressure on mothers to attend to their children by themselves. These mothers are forced to switch from managing bureaucracies to managing their children. Women in management normally get a lot of resistance from men who are her subordinates. Therefore, women experience a lot challenges in making sure that the business operations are running in the correct way. On the contrary, cultural practices have changed, and everyone in the U.S is expected to perform any job without questioning. The cultures of many industries in the U.S are discouraging the role of women in managerial positions. For example, financial industries are working in the 24-hour system. Therefore, they normally look for someone who can stay in management for a long period, unlike women who have to go home before time so that they can take care of their children. Although some women have the required education credentials, the culture of the company may disqualify them (Laura, 2008).

Most of the U.S financial industries believe that women are slow in making a strategic decisions and implementing them. This is one of the reasons why women have fewer managerial position in industries. A study of female executives in finance showed that after women have children, their choices of career trajectories to pursue senior management position or stay at home and work part time are influenced by conflicting cultural schemas. Women have outnumbered men in emotional intelligence management. This statement shows that women should be given top rank managers because senior management jobs have a large symbolic component.

Based on the U.S.A Bureau of Labor Statistics, women now account to a third of all managers. This research shows that women have remarkable implications for a firm’s competitiveness because of the potential benefit of gender diversity. The research also shows that women bring information and social diversity benefits to the top management. Female representation in the top management improves managerial task performance throughout the firm. It is evident from strategic management journal that women representation in the top management has a positive impact. Examples of such effects include bringing innovations to the firm thus improving its performance. A recent comprehensive survey showed the existing empirical work on the relationship between female representations at the top of the corporate hierarchy and firm performance. According to this journal, when women join a top management team, the team becomes more diverse. The team becomes diverse in terms of information and social categorization. This positive factor facilitates the employment of women in management level because they encourage participation by soliciting input from others, share information and empower by keeping open communication channels with their subordinates

Some people find women to be less hierarchical than men. Other people find women to be more collaborative and cooperative than men. Meta-analytic investigation shows that women are more democratic and participatory in the organization setting. Such managerial behaviors promote the sharing of task relevant information. Female workers have combined and established an organization that will cater for problems of women in management. For example, Women in Management are organizations that help to motivate ladies to enroll in education so that they can be capable of contributing to every sector of the globe (Burke, 2009). The organization encourages young women to enroll in colleges regardless of the cultural practices that are in place. Today, women in the universe are joining school. In the U.S.A, a large number of women have done business related master’s degrees. Moreover, they have enrolled in engineering and financial courses that require a lot of mathematics (Penner, 2008). On the contrary, the number of female managers is constantly growing such that more women are lined up to take the restraint of 500 destined firms than ever before.

IBM tapped Virginia Rometty to succeed Sam Palmisano, which will make her the first female C.E.O in the company. Many firms had male managers for decades, thus a masculine management pattern often the default style. Managers at this organization tend to encourage workers who pursue a sanction behavior, which is normally aggressive, direct, and unattached. Therefore, a woman, who does not practice that management style, could be stalled during her corporate climb.

Recommendation and Conclusion

A person would recommend that women should strive to achieve the required managerial skills so that they can be employed in monumental institution. Another recommendation is that women involved in management should entail all the required education, so that educational credentials cannot kick her out of the job. They should also contain the attribute required in all the management levels such as top management, middle management, and operational management, so that she can see the success of the firm’s operations. They should learn how to communicate with the firm stakeholders, i.e. should have adequate interpersonal skills among others. Another suggestion is that everyone should support women in the field of management. Again, more organizations activating for the equal rights in management should be established so that problems will be solved appropriately. Finally, the government should support the campaign against women elimination in the field of management (Schein, 2011). Once these recommendations are met, a large number of women will be involved in running organizations in the near future. In conclusion, the number of women in management is increasing rapidly in that they are managing successful firms, especially in the U.S.A. This paper shows and stipulates various challenges that women are facing in the field of management, their benefits in the field, and some recommendations among others.