When we consider recent statistical revelations about the status of women and work, and in particular, women’s participation in management, it is easy to become despondent. In spite of progress made with regard to women’s rights across many areas of personal and political struggle, women continue to be underrepresented in management, particularly the upper echelons in some industries and occupations, while being over-represented in others.
A study of the top 200 Australian Stock Exchange companies revealed that as at 30 June 2014, just 15.4% of board directors were female, while 52 companies do not have a woman on their board at all, according to the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Despite this, 87.8% of women aged 20-24 have attained year 12 qualifications or above in 2013, in comparison to 84.1% of men in the same age bracket.
At home and abroad, the issues are the same. Regardless of their greatly improved levels of education, technical competence and their wealth of experience, women continue to encounter “the glass ceiling”, an invisible barrier that limits their access to more senior positions within organisations. Furthermore, as highlighted by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce at a Women’s Leadership Conference in 2011, many women are hitting the “maternal wall” before reaching the glass ceiling. Their ambition is tempered by competing priorities and moulded to some extent by the choice for greater life balance.
The issues that emerge on closer examination of these trends are complex and many-faceted. While it is essential to understand the broader structural and ideological foundations that contribute to a power differential within our institutions and organisations, it is also necessary to examine the day to day practice that creates and recreates cultures, maintaining the status quo or continuing to push the […]
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