OBA Essays- Gender & Diversity
1. "A career or a family" - must women choose just one?
2. Why does gender diversity at the top of organizations remain a challenge?
3. What are the main factors affecting the career achievement of women?
4. “Organizations often segment opportunity structures and job markets in ways that
enable men to achieve positions of prestige and power more easily than women.”
Introduction
There are women who have both a good career and a family life is objective proof that
some women can achieve both.
Definition of family: responsibilities over old, significant others, kids, size, etc- overall,
just the idea of taking care of others
Need to evaluate the extent to which society and the patriarchal structures within it
create an environment in which woman may be suppressed and their opportunities may
be restricted
Essay focused on understanding what are the main factors affecting the career
achievement of women?
P1: The traditional roles of men and women in society
Firestone (1974): it is the biological differences between men and women that
influenced the initial separation of men and women’s roles in society.
o Because women give birth society expects them to take care of the children, due
to a greater bond. This creates a natural role for men and women, whereby,
because men do not bear the burden of childbirth, they go to work, whilst
women who cannot work (for a period at least), remain at home and care for the
children.
o Lee et al (2015): People draw on stereotypes to assess the suitability of
candidates to specific tasks
o SO, biology theory dictates that women would be disadvantaged and perceived
as less qualified.
Becker’s (1985) Rational Choice Theory: men and women specialise in different aspects
of life due to a rational application of the theory of the division of labour where
specialisation within a workforce increases overall productivity. Households maximise
total utility by specialisation within the family
o Engels (1968) argues that as technology advanced, production (the sphere of
men) began to produce a surplus, leading to the creation of a panoply of
patriarchal institutions designed to redistribute and govern this new surplus in
output.
o This leads to women investing less than men in human capital, education and
career development.
To overcome this patriarchal structure of work, giving women uninhibited access to both
a career and a family, a reproductive system that does not depend on women would
need to be constructed.
The biological differentiation subsequently exploited over generations has now
ingrained itself within the institutions and perspectives of society, providing a strong and
, reasoned basis to suggest that a woman’s ability to maintain both a career and a family
is severely limited.
o A trade off becomes apparent, which leads to a bias against career in favour of
family.
This deterministic outlook on decision making, suggests that a woman does not make
her own choice about this, the environment makes her choice for her.
P2: Society’s perception of feminine traits
A factor which influences the relationship between women and work is society’s
perception of feminine traits and femininity.
Eagly & Carli (2007): women are less associated with leadership traits.
o Goldberg (1973)- Inevitability of Patriarchy theory
o While masculine traits are associated with aggression, dominance and being
successful, women are perceived as having qualities of kindness, sensitivity, and
compassionate treatment of others which they argue are not associated with a
strong career progression (although leadership and motivation theories may
counter this perspective).
Equal opportunities legislation of the second half of the 20 th century
o BUT not informally implemented
o BUT Hakim (2006): some sex differences remain unchanged: career advancement
is associated with traits of rivalry and competitiveness, which are associated with
masculinity- sex discrimination as a primary reason for differences between men
and women in the labour market.
o With these trait assumptions, in situations where women speak up, she may be
vilified as being a control freak, while a man doing the same would be called
passionate.
o Oxford Union Talk by Theresa May: if I am harsh I am considered robotic, if I am
emotional I am considered weak.
Fels (2004): femininity of women is assailed if they attempt to compete for high-visibility
positions in an organisation for it does not match their stereotyped traits.
o These institutional biases supresses women in informal ways even during
recruitment or applications. The TSA test is made by men so will favour men.
o Women who reach high level careers may be viewed as either asexual and
unattractive or the opposite, promiscuous and seductive.
o If a woman puts her career ahead of a family, her femininity is questioned due to
the socially embedded assumption of women as the bearers of children. As such,
women have been labelled spinsters and agamic due to their pursuit of careers; if
they work, they will fail at their feminine family role.
o Strong social assumption that women have the opportunity to pursue their own
goals, but this is only socially condoned if they have first satisfied the needs of
the family members.
Changes in the modern firm have led to flatter organisational structures, which leads to
promotion of more feminine styles of management such as flexible working and
cooperation.
o BUT Davies & Thomas (2000): this does not actually lead to a rise in female
leaders because it leads society to consider other essentialist notions of women
