The year is 2017 and women are still facing challenges in the work place. When a woman aspires to be a leader, she is faced with challenges that men typically do not encounter. Diversity is not just a color issue, it is also a gender issue.
The industry I work in is a blue color air conditioning industry that for decades has been primarily dominated by males. Being a woman entering this industry there has traditionally been a spot for us, accounting, data entry, and administration. When I started, that is the role I played. I played the part for over 15 years, through 3 different companies. I began to see there was an easy path that I could follow that would take me into a leadership position. I could follow the business path. The thought of following the business path, bored me to tears. My personality is not one of sitting behind a desk, I am a people person. I wanted to go to customer sites, work with the guys in the field, and sell. When looking at the company as a whole, and counting the number of women who took that path, it was rather daunting. In a company with almost three thousand employees, four women had broken through the barrier to the leadership position I wanted.
I found out quickly the studies are correct, women cannot act like men (PSU WC, 2017). Being tough meant I had to figure it out by myself. I knew I would need an education to back me up. I took every class available through the company, and began pursuing completion of my undergraduate degree. I knew I would need a mentor. “Women unlike their male counterparts also lack strong mentor relationships” (PSU WC, 2017). Finding the right mentor, and securing his support was the key to my success. Our company suffers from a lack of developmental and training opportunities (Northouse, 2016, p401). He helped me get into classes I was unable to get into on my own, and he encouraged me to trust in myself. Having a strong successful mentor helped me to break down the barrier that typically holds women back in our industry, which primarily was the corporate culture which was fundamentally male driven.
With my mentor’s encouragement, I was able to show my employees that while I may be a feminine woman, I do understand the fundamentals of machines. I may paint my nails, but I am not worried about them being perfect if I need to pull refrigerant or oil out of a machine. I had to show the men that while I am every bit a lady, I can also get my hands dirty. If a technician needed help on a job, I had to show them that I could take off my heels, put on work boots, and help to the best of my ability.
I learned that as a woman, I had a harder hill to climb than most men. I could bow down to the challenge and take the easy path, or I could rise to the challenge. I could do my part to help dissolve the gender stereotype that keeps women out of this side of the industry. I learned that the work prior to the promotion to educate myself, so that I could work alongside my employees when needed, was instrumental in gaining their trust and support. I learned that I am not successful, unless my employees are successful.
Reference:
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, California, USA: SAGE.
PSU WC L13. (2017). Introduction to Leadership and Diversity. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1867456/modules/items/22975789
Nathan Gallahan says
Amy,
I greatly respect your strength and determination in striving for and attaining your goals in such a male-dominated industry. The perspective you have shared from within your personal experience shed bright light on the principles discussed within our lesson. Specifically, I would like to mention Sidanius’ (2016) remarks that pertain to your situation. He discusses, in depth, “HE Jobs” and “HA Jobs” within Social Dominance Theory. “HE Jobs” are hierarch-enhancing jobs, which produce higher and greater degrees of social inequality [7:06]. Counter to those are “HA Jobs,” or hierarchy-attenuating jobs, which create greater and greater levels of equality [7:38]. The “hierarchy” under discussion is how human social systems are structured as group based hierarchies, with one group at the top of the social system with subordinate groups below [4:35].
He attributes ideologies like capitalism, fascism, and racism to HE-jobs, and social democracy and universal rights to HA-jobs [8:24]. He goes so far as to explain organizations like the FBI and KGB are HE-jobs and civil rights lawyers and civil liberty organizations [10:06]. While what he’s discussing takes quite a bit for me to wrap my mind around, I see where he’s coming from.
So in your example, a capitalist-driven, air conditioning industry, would be a hierarchy-enhancing job, and your example of male dominance within it is consistent with expectations. Sidanius’ comments become particularly interesting later on, when he discusses how long-time exposure within hierarchy-enhancing institutions, codifies and enhances those feelings within that social group [45:10]. So, many of your coworkers may not have initially had any predisposition to define you as an accountant, data entry clerk or administrator, but acclimated to the idea, over time, due to the hierarchy-enhancing nature of that capitalist industry. This, in turn, would result in greater and greater support for the hierarchy itself and a predisposition to pass these feelings onto others.
I’m glad I watched his video, but it is a lot to digest! While I can follow his logic path, I completely disagree with Sidanius’ fourth conclusion, which states, “The allocation of people to the appropriate social roles will be achieved by four mechanisms of: self-selection, institutional-selection, institutional-socialization, and differential reward-retention” [1:01:10]. As far as I am understanding, the institution in reference is the government and his second bullet (institutional-selection) would be the government selecting what job I am best suited for based on my social dominance orientation (SDO). That’s quite counter to the basic American idea of freedom. I think I need to go back and re-watch this and conduct further research on Social Dominance Theory. It’s going to take longer than a week-long lesson to fully understand and appreciate what he’s discussing.
References
Sidanius, J. (2016, March 11). Under Color of Authority: Terror, Intergroup Violence and the Law, a Social Dominance Perspective [Video File]. New York University Abu Dhabi. Retrieved November 19, 2017 from https://goo.gl/wfM9LZ