Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-21T04:06:20.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Girl disease’: Women managers' reticence and ambivalence towards organizational advancement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Anne Ross-Smith  and
Colleen Chesterman
Anne Ross-Smith
Affiliation:
School of Management, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney NSW, Australia
Colleen Chesterman
Affiliation:
School of Management, Faculty of Business, University of Technology Sydney NSW, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper addresses the theme of the special issue by drawing attention to ways in which gender scholarship can influence management and organizational studies in an analysis of the pathways to senior management. Based on an Australia-wide study of the experiences of women and men in senior management, it adds new empirical data to the body of knowledge on women's career advancement at senior levels of organizations. Many women interviewed expressed reticence and ambivalence about the advancement of their careers and their prospects for promotion, which was called ‘girl disease’ by one woman. Forms of ambivalence varied according to different age and sector cohorts; in particular difficulties were identified in reconciling family responsibilities with the demands of senior level appointments. We analyse expressions of ambivalence and reticence by exploring the tensions between women's gender identity and the organizational factors that shape their ‘managerial’ identity. We conclude by suggesting strategies to improve organizational practices in relation to women's career development and promotion.

Keywords

gendered organizationsreticenceambivalenceorganizational culturefemininitygender equity
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , November 2009 , pp. 582 - 595
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AAA (1995) Affirmative action program 1995 Progress Report for the period 1 February 1995 – 31 January 1996, internal document.Google Scholar
Babcock, L. and Laschever, S. (2003) Women don't ask: negotiation and the gender divide, Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1982) Self-efficacy mechanism inhuman agency, American Psychologist, 37(2): 122–147.Google Scholar
Calas, M. and Smircich, L. (1996) ‘The woman's point of view’: feminist approaches to organization studies, in Clegg, S, Hardy, C and Nord, W (eds) Handbook of organization studies, pp. 218–257, Sage, London.Google Scholar
Chesterman, C., Ross-Smith, A. and Peters, M. (2005) The gendered impact on organizations of a critical mass of women in senior management, Policy and Society, 24(4): 69–91.Google Scholar
Crompton, R. and Le Feuvre, N. (1992) Gender and bureaucracy: women in finance in Britain and France, in Savage, M. and Witz, A. (eds) Gender and bureaucracy, pp. 94–123, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Davidson, M. and Cooper, C. (1992) Shattering the glass ceiling: the woman manager, Paul Chapman Publishing, London.Google Scholar
Deal, T. and Kennedy, A. (1982) Corporate cultures. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.Google Scholar
Ely, R. (1995) The power in demography: Women's social constructions of gender identity at work, Academy of Management Journal 38: 589–634.Google Scholar
EOWA (2008a) Australian census of women in leadership. Report for the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, Australian Government.Google Scholar
EOWA (2008b) Generation F: attract, engage, retain. Report for the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency and Hays, Australian Government.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1990) The history of sexuality, Penguin, London.Google Scholar
Fournier, V. and Keleman, M. (2001) The crafting of community: recouping discourses of management and womanhood, Gender, Work & Organization, 8(3): 367–290.Google Scholar
Gist, M. (1987) Self-Efficacy: implications for organizational behaviour and human resource management, The Academy of Management Review, 12(3): 472–485.Google Scholar
Katila, S. and Merilainen, S. (2002) Metamorphosis: from ‘nice girls’ to ‘nice bitches’: resisting patriarchal articulations of professional identity, Gender, Work & Organization, 9(3): 336–354.Google Scholar
Kanter, R. (1977) Men and women of the corporation, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Liff, S and Ward, K. (2001) Distorted views through the glass ceiling: The construction of women's understandings of promotion and senior management positions, Gender, Work & Organization, 8(1): 19–36.Google Scholar
McNay, L. (2000) Gender and agency: reconfiguring the subject in feminist and social theory, Polity Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Niederle, M. and Vesterlund, L. (2007) Do women shy away from competition? Do men compete too much, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3): 1067–1101.Google Scholar
Probert, B. (2005) ‘I just couldn't fit it in’: gender and unequal outcomes in academic careers, Gender, Work & Organization, 12(1): 50–72.Google Scholar
Ross-Smith, A., Chesterman, C. and Peters, M. (2003) Getting there and staying there: identifying the characteristics of organizational cultures that keep women in academic leadership roles, McGill Journal of Education (special edition on Gender issues in Commonwealth Higher Education), 38(3): 421–436.Google Scholar
Ross-Smith, A., Kornberger, M., Anandakumar, A. and Chesterman, C (2007) Women executives: managing emotions at the top, in Lewis, P and Simpson, R (eds) Gendering emotions in organizations, pp. 35–55, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Sinclair, A. (1998) Doing leadership differently, Melbourne University Press, Victoria.Google Scholar
Tharenou, P., Latimer, S. and Conroy, D. (1994) How do you make it to the top? An examination of influences on women's and men's managerial advancement. Academy of Management Journal, 37(4): 899–931Google Scholar
Van Maanen, J. (1979) The fact of fiction in organizational ethnography, Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(4) 539–550.Google Scholar
Van Vianen, A. and Fischer, A. (2002) Illuminating the glass ceiling: the role of organizational culture preferences, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75(3): 315–337.Google Scholar
Van Vianen, A. and Keizer, W. (1996) Gender differences in managerial intention, Gender, Work & Organization, 3(2): 103–114.Google Scholar