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Why Do Few Women Attain Top Management Positions?

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Why Do Few Women Attain Top Management Positions?
Why do few women attain top management positions?

Name: Linghui Li (laura)
Date: 10 August 2012

Abstract

Women have been striving for equal rights for themselves for a long time and they are gradually achieving the goal. As a result, when it comes to managerial area, women’s voices have been heard and responded little by little, more and more women are moving into higher posts in their working. Nevertheless, the business is still strictly run by males, only few women gets the chance to top in management positions, which, at the same time, has already intrigued great debates among all parties. This paper tries to look for the reasons why few women set foot in the top leading places and see whether women are less-qualified to handle the deal or are there any other barriers hinder them from moving forward.

Introduction

There have been an increasing number of women getting involved in leaderships in corporations for quite some time. Generally, people are used to be in a man-dominated business world, given that more males hold “the vast majority of top leadership positions” across the world ( Stelter cited in Weyer, 2007). Yet, it seems that there is a sign for a change when we notice the fact that, according to the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics, the proportion of females holding managerial and administrative posts in the USA have risen from 18% in 1972 to 46% in 2002 (Eagly & Carli, 2003). However, despite the ascending numbers, women still remain mostly in junior or middle management positions, few of them obtain the top jobs, as shown by the Catalyst, a New York-based consulting firm, there were only 17 female CEOs within the Fortune 1000 companies, while only 13.6% women are directors in board of Fortune 500 companies ( Weyer, 2007). Approximately 40% of the Fortune 501-1000 corporations composed their Boards of Directors with no woman involved in 1999 (Catalyst cited in Winn, 2004)



Bibliography: Burke, R.J.(2003), Women on corporate boards of directors: the timing is right, Women In Management Review, Vol. 18 Iss:7 pp.346-348 Eagly, A.H. & Carli,L.L.(2003).The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence, The Leadership Quarterly 14 pp.807-834 Vinnicombe, S. & Colwill, N.L.(1995). The essence of women in managementiew,Vol.22 Iss:6 pp.482-496 Weyer, B. (2007).Twenty years later: explaining the persistence of the glass ceiling for women leaders, Women In Management Review,Vol.22 Iss: 6 pp.482-w96 Winn, J.(2004). Entreneurship: not an easy path to top management for women, Women In Management Review,Vol.19 Iss:3 pp.143 - 153 1,564 words

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