In this essay I will examine the meaning of "masculine ethics", their influence on managerial work and everyday life. Furthermore I will analyse the thesis that management is a gendered practice and then draw/point out possible solutions to this problem. Management is still said to be discriminating against women. This is based on the assumption that it is infused with an irreducible "masculine ethics", which means that masculine instincts and a dominance of the male sex rule this area of working life.It emphasises a system of rules which formalise the notion of obligation.
Many women still suffer from segregation in their workplace and find it hard to break through the so called "glass ceiling". This glass ceiling is an invisible artificial barrier to positions of management, created by prejudiced attitudes and behaviour. It is fact, that less than 5% of the top jobs in corporations are held by women. 1 And whenever women manage to rise to the top there is mostly still a difference in the level of payment.
Let us take a closer look at possible reasons for this. It already starts in families where the mother mostly stays at home to raise the children and do the cooking and the father as the head of the family earns the money. This picture of the father being the breadwinner and the mother being a housewife is something we see in everyday life and therefore may adapt subconsciously as a child.Education is another critical point to look at, regarding gender diversity. Most management textbooks use examples of men, like Everard, K. B.
and Morris, G. "Effective School Management", Harper and Row, London 1990) who refer to managers as "he" throughout the entire book, which may have a "detrimental educational effect" on women. 2 I have to admit that I personally tend to think of a manager as a man, rather than a woman. A powerful man in a suite is a typical picture of a manager. It is the same with secretaries.
Who would think of a man when hearing the word secretary? So there is a highly gendered nature of management practice and education. To develop this argument further let me name another personnel example: An all-girls school!I made the experience that some male teachers at mixed schools tend to disregard girls at times, whereas others may pay special attention on them, e. g. in sciences. At an all-girls school girls do not face male rivals and are somehow "protected". At work there is no such thing like a female section.
Women have to prove themselves amongst male colleges all the time. In general this works quite well but when taking a closer look we discover that women are typically placed in non-strategic sectors such as personnel and administrative positions which are said to require little skilled workers.This typical placement may be due to the fact that women and men appear to define leadership differently. Female managers, for example, tend to apply "soft management" whereas male managers generally tend to apply "hard management". 3 That is to say, if a woman achieves a high-level managerial position she is often restricted to a less vital area like Human Resource Management. From personal experience I can say that there are quite a number of women in managerial positions but when it comes to the board of directors it is mostly men.
This again proves the glass-ceiling theory, a barrier which separates top-level management and professional jobs. I believe that it is not only prejudices against women as the "weaker sex" but also the problem of the family responsibility women have. A manager might not want to give a woman a leading position because he fears she might drop out because of pregnancy. Unless a woman totally devotes herself to her job and leads a childless life there will almost always be problems managing family and career. 4 Especially as long working hours seem to be required to gain recognition and eventual promotion.
Part-time managers are a rare breed and yet it seems virtually impossible to reconcile long hours with the demands of running a home and caring for children", (World of Work, No. 23, 1998). Is management a gendered practice then? There clearly still is diversity in management perspectives especially in senior levels. Younger generations seem to be less narrow minded regarding gender diversity. In fact, a business can only benefit of gender diversity.
Differing perspectives allow greater competitiveness. Women worldwide are demonstrating their intellectual ability and are approaching the level of men in educational attainment.We should be able to see over the distinction of sex. But what slows down this development are "masculine traditions", the unconscious dominance of a race habit. 5 Masculine qualities are dominance, independence, aggressiveness, competitiveness as well as self-confidence, according to Patricia W. Lunneborg.
These masculine characteristics are seen to be essential in order to master and control one's environment and within that lies the meaning of management (Kerfoot and Knights, 1993, 1995, 1996). "The 'right to manage' in most modern organisations depends on displaying these masculine forms and behaviours" (Lecture 6).Because women's style of leadership is different from men's and has its main emphasise on intimacy and affiliation rather than the individual ego the masculine 'qualities' may dominate the female qualities. These qualities make a difference to the way in which a person, male or female, experiences his or her social world (Brewis and Linsted, 1999). There is an informal hierarchy that is gendered, meaning it is a male dominated and orientated hierarchical structure which places men in key positions throughout the hierarchical structure with the only positions left for women on the lower levels of an organisation's structure.
To actually make this more of a symbiotic relationship between the genders on the organisational level would need a complete change in society's social structure. This is because society's attitude toward the gender is primarily male orientated. If this were to be changed, then the resulting knock-on effect would change the hierarchical structure in the companies throughout the society to be less gender biased. There have been several policies to achieve equality and to advance women but these policies are still not fulfilled in terms of equal pay as mentioned in the beginning.
Equal pay legislation has not brought about equal pay practice", (Novarra, Virginia, p. 95, London 1980).Although national sex discrimination laws and Acts have been established in the 1970s it is still a long way to go till equal employment opportunities will finally be practiced all over the world. Even in organisations where these equal opportunity initiatives are well developed their cultures may be resistant and gendered, being a barrier to change. Moreover some men feel threatened by the equal opportunity policies which imply that a company has to employ a certain percentage of women, resulting in positive discrimination.Where women face hostile cultures, the pressures are great and it is rather hard to survive in an organisation.
Newly appointed female managers have to fight hard to gain acceptance, despite support from the top. This is because management is still believed to essentially be a male function, (Itzin and Newman, p. 14, London 1995). This probably results from the difference in valuation of men and women, meaning lower value and status of women as women and of work done by women in all areas. It is still hard for women to climb the career ladder even though their level of qualification is increasing.
Furthermore women's participation in decision-making is yet "one of the most resistant areas for gender equality", (Itzin and Newman, 1995). That is to say that social attitudes as well as cultural biases are the major factors discriminating against women. I personally agree on the view that management still is a gendered practice. This results in the gender biased language used in management and in behaviour towards women. I do not mean to say that women are being oppressed at work but I want to point out the need for a change in people's attitudes.There are still very dominating traditional issues on management which are hard to overcome for women such as patriarchy, a system of domination through which men subordinate and exploit women.
These assumptions and practices persist. The suppression of gender differences goes on even though legislations have been changed. The major change that has to be made is in people's heads! Men have to see and understand that equality can only help to gain the maximum of skills, creativity and abilities.The only way towards a high organisational performance is by "empowering everyone and realise individual's full potential" (lecture 6). Women must not be disregarded as the weaker sex but are to be respected as people (because they form part of the "human resources" of the organisation) and their contribution is to be valued (because their skills are needed).
Women must be given the chance to contribute on equal terms. 7 Our society is on its way to equality but to fully get rid of prejudices a lot of improvement still needs to be made.To finish with I have some possible solutions as to how to change this gender diversity. One solution would be, for example, to make the structure and dynamics within organisations more conductive and sensitive to gender equality concepts and practice. The old (male) power bases need to be unlocked first before applying new concepts.
There are still limits to the extent equality is achieved within organisations. These are determined by inequalities in a society, by hierarchies as mentioned above and by competition between discriminated groups, (Itzin and Newman, p. 150).Employees should start to take advantage of the diversity in their companies rather than discriminating it.
As I already mentioned in the beginning diversity can even improve business competitiveness as there is a variety of new ideas arising from the differing perspectives men and women may have. Today we have moved away from the view that masculinity is all that matters. Soft skills are more and more required. Women's share of managerial jobs could also be increased by more flexible managerial styles and approaches, e. g. maximising human resource utilisation.
From my point of view society is on its way to equality.It is just a matter of time. With today's educational standards women do not have to fear disadvantages when applying for a job. Most men are perfectly comfortable with having a female manager or group leader and thus I believe that there will soon be a percentage change in the number of top positions held by women.
As a woman I am fairly optimistic about getting a well paid job in a high position. The younger generation generally seems to have a different attitude towards equality already and therefore I see no need to worry about "irreducible masculine ethics" in future.
