One concept from our recent assigned readings that resonates to me comes out of chapter five of our textbooks about women leaders in global business. This blog is about a women at my current job that has not faced but also faces many obstacles and how she is now excelling in them. I work for a company where men typically dominate the board that oversees how everyone works (ex: the president and vice president) and in head maintenance positions. For the past ten years this is how it has always been up until recently. When I first started there, there was only two female workers. Today there are many more with about nine or ten.
Many organizations are working hard to leverage workplace diversity and gender equality so that all people can succeed (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). In my workplace, even though there are more women working, there really hasn’t been leadership in the past that is dedicated to creating a very diverse workplace. This could be because of lack of interest in people wanting to apply. One thing that has happened that has been a positive change involved our president. Each year elections are held to vote in who they want as their leader and it ended up being a woman. This was a good change because it showed to the rest of the employees there, that we can be diverse and accepting to positive change and not label someone just because of the false belief that they are not equal. With the female leader, we had, she helped to build better comradery amongst other workers, while showing that anyone can bring about change in the workplace. This was awesome to see because women at their highest level of business is quite rare (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). With good mentoring from the previous head maintenance man, she was able to develop a nurturing and cooperative relationship between one who had more experience and herself who had less-experience to be able to survive and overcome the daily difficult working conditions (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). This same individual ended up in a job that is quite tough and demanding. It was a surprise to all to see that she has been able to handle the job and so much more!
Before taking the job that she is currently in, which involves running the maintenance in a building, there was a stereotype that the job was too soft for a woman and that she couldn’t be aggressive enough, or that she should be in an office where she can show soft skills. Even in most jobs around the world, women are often seen as more “human” and therefore better suited for a specific type of job, such as human resources, communications, public relations, and marketing (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). The idea that a woman would take that job was something that no one could see before her success. Today, she has proved all the naysayers wrong and a lot of times often out working other men in the field.
Although often the many stereotypes of women leaders in the workplace can be a hinderance to their advancement, examples like this are able to show us that women are able to work just as hard as men can, making them just as capable of moving up in a company. One possible reason for a stumbling block in the way of women being able to advance is because of the balance of work and family. Most companies might look at women as the ones who should be at home caring for their families. In my example, I cannot say that this would inhibit her only because she does not have any more children living at home. To overcome the many stereotypes that exist to women at my workplace, I think better testing should be given for every applicant and that the biases that women are homebodies who should take care of their children need to be eradicated. Also, there should be more audits to see how my employer’s performance is and whether it is efficient and allowing the “glass ceiling” of creating barriers that prevent women and minorities to be removed while being more responsible to hire more women at all levels (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). In conclusion, there are some ideas of women leaders in global business that fit together with my example in that there was a good mentoring program between her and the old head maintenance man, but many also align with reasons why women in global business, and this woman, are often looked down upon. The biggest of all of these is the pay gap. I have been there roughly the same amount of time as her, yet I make more. Women leaders in global business are hard to come by because of the many issues they face. At my workplace it was rare to see a woman as leader because of the scope of the job however, the employer is working to fix the problems that exist whether pay gap or employer-sponsored training and because of that we have more women working there and many wanting to take on more risky positions. A different woman has also taken the lead, seeing the first women move up to her challenging position, in being an assistant to the head at another building. Ultimately however, when my employer can do away with the many stereotypes that are attached to women leaders then my workplace will be able to grow into a more diverse and productive place.
References:
Moran, Robert, Abramson, N., & Moran, S. Managing Cultural Differences. Ninth Edition. Routledge Publishing. New York, New York. 2014
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.