Having spent several years working in the turfgrass industry, one thing that has stood out to me is that men dominate this field. There are very few women in this industry and even fewer in leadership positions. Normal working conditions in this industry include long hours, exposure to all types of weather, operation of many different types of equipment, strenuous work and most important the need for strong leadership skills to become successful. Looking specifically at an educational background, “ Women earn 57% of the bachelor’s degrees, 60% of the masters degrees, and more than half of the doctoral degrees”, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, (Northouse, 2016, Page 397). As you can see the educational background is there, but why do women struggle to gain leadership positions. I will further analyze this situation and relate it to the turfgrass industry.
There are several factors that relate to why there are so few women working in this field. First looking at organizational barriers that effect this situation; preference for gender similarity in promotion decisions and ignorance by male peers, which in turn influences developmental opportunities stood out to me. “ People prefer to work with others that are similar to them” (Angel, Lesson 13, Page 5). Since it is a male dominated industry, it may play a part when looking at promotions. In this case a male worker may be given a chance to lead over a women given the fact that most managers on golf courses and sports fields are male. Next ignorance from male peers may result in developmental opportunities. In this case a women may simply not be given a chance. For example, when selecting a worker to hand water greens in the afternoon, a male may be given the job over a women due to the fact that the job requires the employee to carry a heavy rubber house around. In this instance, women might have trouble with the physical requirements in which a male might be more fit for the job and therefore passed over when a learning opportunity presents itself.
Now looking at interpersonal barriers, I believe that gender prejudice and lack of support/access to networks is present. “ People believe that a good leader is masculine”, (Angel, Lesson13, Page 5). Although this preconception is still here today it has been fading in recent years. In this case a women is behind the curve from the start with this preconception. The Eagly Studies point this out, “ Women should not act like men. If women leaders act like men, they are perceived negatively because they are not acting in ways consistent with their gender role.” (Angel, Lesson 13, Page 3). If a good leader is supposed to be masculine, how does a women fit into this preconception? The answer is that women do not and this is part of the reason why women are perceived to be weak leaders. Next the lack of emotional support/ access to information networks also plays a part in the turfgrass industry. The turf industry is very tight nit, connections help you find new job opportunities. I was lucky enough to work under a supervisor who took time to help me develop my network and put my name out there to help me get where I wanted to be. In an already male dominated industry, women most likely do not experience the same amount of established connections. This is especially in the golf world, where informal deals and networking connections are made out on the golf course. As an example, local chapters of golf course superintendent organizations often meet monthly to have a morning conferences and then play golf in the afternoon. In my experiences, these are great informal networking tools. I have met several new contacts within the industry attending these events and playing golf.
Personal barriers also affect women in the turfgrass industry. The big example that jumped out at me is work-home conflict. This industry is very demanding, often requiring long hours with very little time off. “Women are often left to care for the children, or non-work responsibilities. This means that women need to take time away from work” (Angel, Lesson 13, Page 5). In this case, it may be unacceptable to take much time away from work. As a golf course superintendent, you are expected to be there for the golf season. Previous supervisors that I have worked under rarely took time off during the golf season. This is another reason why I believe it is a male dominated industry; career gaps can be harmful to a leaders career. This is particularly true in this industry; a trend that I have noticed is that if you are out of the industry it is hard to get back in. Knowing this, I had a very short career gap at one time but knew I had to find a new job very quickly. Long gaps of employment do not look good on a resume, and having kids can result in laps of time where women would not be present. In a leadership role on a golf course, these types of gaps may be unacceptable in employer’s eyes especially if they occur during the golfing season.
There are several factors that affect women obtaining leadership roles, although it has been proven that women can be effective leaders. I believe that the barriers discussed above point out several reasons why there are few women in leadership roles within the turfgrass industry. Although there are a few women in leadership roles now, I think the trend of a male dominated industry will continue unless these barriers are broken.
References:
Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. Chapter 15.
Pennsylvania State University (2016) Psych 485: Leadership in work settings. Lesson 13.
Rashiem Fuquan Page says
This is an interesting post to me because as I am reading your post, the first thing that comes to mind about women working in the turf grass industry is if they have the ability to do the physically demanding aspect of the job. That is my initial reaction only because of the stereotype of women working in this field. When I see people working in in this industry such as baseball grounds keepers, I only see men working the field. During my four semesters at PSU, I have met eight female classmates that are going for the degree in turf grass industry. I think that is great! My stereo typing f women in this industry was due to what I have only ever seen or heard of whenever I see grounds keepers in this industry. According Fiske (1998); Kunda & Spencer (2003) as cited in Northouse (2016), that is very easily for gender stereotypes to be automatically activated and usually these stereotypes lead to biased judgements.
As you mention there are several factors that relate to why there are so few women working in this field, I believe that there are ways to fix this scenario. The most important way of fixing this issue of few women working in this field is for others to actually do their research into gender and leadership. Doing research before making any judgment can help promote women into the upper echelons of leadership. Research also has shown to dispel myths about the gender gap between what a woman can do versus what a man can do when it comes to leadership and jobs. Northouse (2016) “Women are no less effective than men, and women are no less committed to their jobs or motivated for leadership roles than men.” (Northouse, p. 404 2016)
References:
Northouse, Peter G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice, 7th Edition. Chapter 15.
Connie D Walls says
All of your points were interesting and can be attributed to gender roles and our cultural beliefs but one in particular, the gaps in your work resume and caring for children stood out to me. I recently had a conversation with my nephew about a disagreement he was having with his wife. It was a simple but important disagreement about who should be responsible for certain duties. My nephews wife is a nurse and worked 10 hour shifts before deciding to be a stay at home mother. My nephews main point was that he works and should not be responsible for any of the chores since she “gets” to stay at home with the children. My nephews wife works all day educating the children, having assigned outings and activities for the children along with taking care of all household duties and finances. My nephews perception is that being an at home mother was compared to vacation.
I suggested that my nephew take two days vacation time at the end of the work week while his wife visit relatives in another state, something she had been wanting to do for a year. I also suggested she make a list of her daily schedule for him to follow. After completion of this experiment, my husbands beliefs about being a caregiver changed dramatically and he began to help out around the house without argument.
I believe our society does not value the contributions of care giving on a short-term and long-term scale and the contributions upon society as well. This is true within the work-place for returning care givers to the workplace and the way in which they view the resume’s.
I enjoyed your blog very much, and perhaps as generations become more aware of these issues the inequality of power will also become more apparent.
cok5245 says
You raise solid points about a difficult topic. I feel like your assessment is spot on, and I think it’s very unfortunate that you’ve been denied opportunities and connections based on your gender. This is a difficult issue to overcome because I imagine that the people who are currently creating this environment of discrimination do not feel personally responsible. They most likely feel that “this is just the way it’s always been” and don’t really stop to consider the fact that if they changed, the system would change. It’s easy to assume that we are each individually just following the “status quo” and it can be upsetting to consider the role that we are playing in the creation and continued existence of discrimination.
Whether or not we choose to agree with the current state of “social justice”, there are many people out there who seem to speak out and act out under the impression that older white males represent a force of oppression in a club that seems to exclude all forms of diversity from the norm they are claimed to represent. Again, whether or not we agree with this mindset, I think many of us can at least agree that we have heard it expressed more than once, especially on the internet. If there is any truth to this concept (which in its own way is simply another form of prejudice) I can think of no place other than a golf course in which this type of thinking would be more prevalent. Golf seems to be the hobby of choice for the group of people who are often accused of being the most prejudiced of all. I cannot personally speak on whether these accusations hold any truth, but if they do, I wonder if that contributes to the state of turfgrass being a mostly male dominated field.