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The glass ceiling: a perspective of women working in Durban


Risper Enid Kiaye
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, and

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Anesh Maniraj Singh


Graduate School of Business & Leadership, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the glass ceiling exists in organisations located in Durban. The study specically concentrated on the barriers to the upward mobility of women, based on constructs such as social roles, personal characteristics and situational barriers. The study was intended to provide guidelines to South African organisations on how to facilitate the growth of women in senior management. Design/methodology/approach This study comprises a literature review which outlines the various theories related to the glass ceiling and is supported by an empirical study which tested some of the concepts that emerged from the literature. A survey was conducted using an online questionnaire distributed to a group of women who met the respondent specications. In order to obtain a larger sample, snowball sampling was used. Findings It is evident that certain elements of the glass ceiling existed. Situational factors emerged as clear barriers to the progress of women which included gender discrimination, lack of respect from male colleagues and insensitive handling of the multiple roles played by women. Social roles such as family commitment and relocation also inhibited the growth of the respondents. At a personal level, the respondents were all condent, emotionally suited to progress, competitive and enjoyed the condence of their subordinates. Research limitations/implications A larger sample would have ensured more generalisable results to organisations in Durban. Respondents had to evaluate their personal characteristics, which could have been exaggerated; the views of subordinates would present a more balanced view. This study needs to be replicated in other major centres in South Africa, in order to improve the gender equity across the country. Practical implications The study highlights the fact that unless all barriers are removed, women will not progress to higher levels in organisations. It also provides guidelines to break through the invisible barriers. Social implications This study will benet women in the workplace, giving them due recognition, empowerment and prospects for upward mobility. Originality/value This paper highlights localised barriers to the advancement of women within a South African city. Keywords South Africa, Women, Employment, Glass ceiling, Gender discrimination, Flexible working hours, Family roles, Equal opportunities Paper type Research paper
Gender in Management: An International Journal Vol. 28 No. 1, 2013 pp. 28-42 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1754-2413 DOI 10.1108/17542411311301556

Introduction The involvement of women in the workplace across the world in general and in South Africa in particular has been on the increase. Women are no longer employed to perform unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Due to their access to education women are nding employment in all the functional areas of organisations and even as line managers.

Whilst female representation at lower and middle management is on the increase, the trend is not the same at the senior management level. The under representation of women at senior management has been attributed to what several authors have termed the glass ceiling. The concept of the glass ceiling emanated from corporate US where a commission termed the Glass Ceiling Commission (GCC, 1991) was set up to investigate why the involvement of women in employment in the USA was not in proportion to their representation at senior management. The glass ceiling has been described as an invisible barrier akin to a concrete ceiling that is impenetrable and prevents the accession of women to senior levels of management. The way the glass ceiling manifests itself differs between countries and organisations. How the glass ceiling is managed will determine the success of an equitable workplace. This study will focus on the incidence and management of the glass ceiling in Durban organisations. Literature review Globally, there has been an unprecedented change occurring in the composition and participation of the workforce in the world economy. This change has been propelled by the active involvement of more women in the economy than before (April et al., 2007). According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2006), out of the worlds 2.9 billion workers, 40 per cent were women. However, the increasing involvement of women in the work force is not synonymous with their representation at senior management levels (Cross and Linehan, 2006). South Africa is mirroring the global trend with the increase in female participation in the workforce and senior management positions remaining the preserve of men (Stelter, 2002 cited in April et al., 2007). On the surface women are being accepted as part of the workforce, but their reception into senior management levels is stied due to subtle forms of discrimination that present themselves in compensation, training and/or socialisation networks (Billy and Manoocherhri, 1995). With the need to increase diversity in the workforce, a study conducted by Powell and Graves (2003 cited in Mok Kim Man et al., 2009), indicated that the proportion of women holding lower and middle management positions had increased, concomitantly with their greater demand for equality in the work environment. However, the proportion of women reaching top management positions has remained relatively small pointing to the existence of discriminatory barriers to entry to senior management positions which has been termed the glass ceiling (Maume, 2004; April et al., 2007). According to Insch et al. (2008), the concept of the glass ceiling originated in the USA, where the Federal GCC was created as part of the US Civil Rights Act of 1991 to carry out a study and prepare recommendations for the US Congress on how to eliminate articial barriers that hindered the advancement of women to senior management positions. The glass ceiling was perceived to exist in corporate America because it was observed that women participating in the workplace could only progress to certain levels in organisations and no further. Their 11 per cent representation at senior management and 2 per cent representation on corporate boards did not mirror their 50 per cent composition of the total US labour force (Taylor and Waggoner, 2008). Once at middle management, women got stuck owing to articial barriers that were attributed to the glass ceiling. The GCC found that women were being hired into feminized positions in the organisation, more so in human resources and personnel as opposed to holding senior line management positions or in executive positions in sales, marketing and

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production (Insch et al., 2008). Furthermore, according to the GCCs report, the glass ceiling disregards merit and achievements of women by reinforcing discriminatory barriers that takes the form of gender bias, harassment or organisational norms that do not favour women thus hindering their upward career mobility. Powell and Buttereld (2003, p. 6), dened the glass ceiling as a barrier so subtle and transparent, yet so strong that it prevented women and minorities from moving up the management hierarchy. Unlike formal barriers to career advancement such as lack of education and insufcient work experience, the subtleness of the ceiling means that glass ceiling barriers are less tangible and may be embedded in culture; society and psychological factors that work collectively to impede the advancement of women to senior managerial positions (Jain and Mukherji, 2010). Hoobler et al. (2009) asserted that the ceiling referred to barriers women faced that hindered their upward mobility in organisations, with the glass metaphor referring to the invisibility and subtleness of the barriers. There are many theories which have been used to explain the glass ceiling which include: person centred theories, situation/organisation theories, social role theories, interaction theories and human capital theories. Person centred theory First reviewers of person centred theories suggested that lack of socialisation practices and behavioural differences between men and women in leadership resulted in the glass ceiling (Rigger and Galligan, 1980 cited in Akande, 1994; Bartol, 1978 cited in Powell and Buttereld, 2003). Additionally, women were said to lack the necessary qualities such as ambition and condence when compared to their male counterparts as well as assertiveness and inuential behaviour that were critical qualities for leadership (Singh and Terjesen, 2008). It was also postulated that women lacked the relevant experience and/or education needed to hold or assume leadership positions. Studies conducted by Cassell and Walsh (1994) challenged the person centred views as outlined by Rigger and Galligan (1980 cited in Akande, 1994) and Bartol (1978) and claimed that cultural factors such as gender-based power dynamics, power in organisational bureaucracy and mens dominant norms and values resulted in the informal formation of barriers within organisations (April et al., 2007). These cultural factors according to Cassell and Walshs study (1994 cited in Powell and Buttereld, 2003) are what appeared to strongly supersede the impact that individual differences in attributes between males and females may have leading to the glass ceiling. According to Morrison and Von Glinow (1990 cited in Har-Even, 2004); womens traits and behaviours, socialisation practices and attitudes do not make woman inadequate or decient in any way to assume leadership positions. Furthermore, they refuted the assumption that womens risk aversion and fear of success made them unsuitable for leadership positions. In fact their study concluded that male and female managers were very much alike in personality, motivation and abilities. Situation/organisation theory According to Singh and Terjesen (2008), in an open and competitive labour market, organisations which focus on the individuals effort and the organisations needs can assist women achieve senior management positions. Situation centred theories are concerned with the nature of the work environment faced by women aspiring to management positions. According to April et al. (2007), the work environment determines their fate

more than their own traits, skill or behaviour as outlined in person centred theories. According to Powell and Buttereld (2003), group dynamics in the workplace plays a role in making women feel unwanted due to the negative attitude of workers towards female managers and seeing them as mere token appointments. Token appointments are the unintended consequence of employment equity legislation. Instead of women being empowered by the legislation they pay a heavy price for their empowerment by being labelled or not being promoted (April et al., 2007). With afrmative action also contributing to empowering the previously disadvantaged, what is emerging is a phenomenon termed reverse discrimination where the previously advantaged feel they are being discriminated against (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2008). According to April et al. (2007) a common perception of afrmative action, is that individuals who lack requisite qualications, skills, networks and experience are being appointed to executive leadership positions without the needed support structures. As a consequence afrmative appointees are being consciously set up to fail, not because they are incompetent but due to the fact that they are being denied access to education and the accompanying support mechanisms such as further education and social networks. Another point of contention regarding afrmative action and employment equity legislation is the perception that some women are appointed by companies concerned with ticking off their compliance with their black economic empowerment (BEE) and gender score cards rather than the professional achievements of their appointees (Harris, 2010b). Tokenism has created a stigma for the previously disadvantaged especially women irrespective of whether they are competent in terms of possessing the requisite skills, experience, training and qualications (Maddock, 1999 cited in April et al., 2007). According to April et al. (2007) tokenism results in a lose-lose situation wherein those who do not benet from afrmative action withdraw psychologically and those who benet are perceived by colleagues and other employees as having been appointed to their jobs on the basis of their EE status and not on merit or competence. This token predicament leads to women feeling isolated from their colleagues especially if they accept the position and for those who yearn for group acceptance/assimilation do their best to lose their visibility (April et al., 2007). In effect, the legislation which was meant to enable the mobility of women has disabled them. Social role theory Social roles and social stereotypes play a major role in inhibiting the progress of women. Singh and Terjesen (2008, p. 56) asserted that the existence of the glass ceiling was attributable to gendered social systems where work designed by men and for men and where patriarchy dened work roles by gender has led to gender discrimination and stereotyping. Where promotion systems work in a gender biased way, it is expected that career paths for corporate leaders are to be unbroken. Such systems work to exclude women who take maternity leave or part-time work or those who relocate due to their spouses career moves adding to the glass ceiling (Singh and Terjesen, 2008). Singh and Terjesen further explained that womens family responsibilities are what hindered or were perceived to hinder their commitment to the organisation and consequent lack of involvement in corporate networks that provided access to powerful people. Around mid-career, when a male counterpart is scaling the corporate ladder, the female may in most instances opt to take career breaks in order to raise a family or attend to family needs: breaks that indeed can prevent women from being seen as potential corporate candidates (April et al., 2007; Mooney and Ryan, 2009). Hoobler et al. (2009) asserted that

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gender typical roles (breadwinner versus the homemaker) ascribed to men and women, respectively, shaped their behavioural expectations and beliefs about their talents and skills. This view aligns with social role theorists who suggest that women are not associated with managerial effectiveness due to their nurturing, communal and supportive nature which is seen as not consistent with top management astuteness, leading to subconscious gender role stereotyping. According to Hoobler et al. (2009, p. 939) stereotyping women with being kind and caring and men as tough and achievement-oriented has been labelled think leader think male. Social role theorists associate women with being more of care givers and hence less committed to their careers: a situation that is incongruent with leadership and less prospects for promotion adding to the glass ceiling (Hoobler et al., 2009). Lewis (2001 cited in Hoobler et al., 2009), contradicts the assertion that females are mainly care givers. Instead he states that professional women who concentrate more on their careers are less likely to get married and have children and those who do get married are likely to have fewer children. According to Harris (2010a), women are at higher risk than men of suffering from increased stress levels and burn out due to the multiple roles they play, labelling women as their own worst enemies. However, Byron (2005 cited in Hoobler et al., 2009) concluded that men and women experienced similar levels of work interfering with family and family interfering with work. Whilst the ndings of Byron present a new dimension to social roles, the other works cited show that gender stereotyping has mainly impacted negatively on the career prospects of women. Interaction centred theory According to Singh, Kumra and Vinnicombe (1998 cited in Singh and Terjesen, 2008) from an interaction centred viewpoint, women limit their own advancement due to their reluctance to self promote themselves through networking. Furthermore, they do not actively manage their careers by clearly stating their career ambitions to gatekeepers who inuence promotion decisions. The consequent result of this is that management assumes that women are happy to maintain the status quo. Male peers on the other hand according to interaction centred theory give clear indications to promotional gatekeepers about their career ambitions, career successes and their readiness for the next step making their movement higher up the hierarchy even faster, a phenomenon which has been termed the glass escalator (Singh and Terjesen, 2008). Human capital theory The human capital theory premise of the under representation of women in management is attributed to the free choices made by women with regard to their participation in the work force, the type of work and decisions they make to invest in their education and training (Hede and Ralston, 1993). Women tend to place higher value on their domestic responsibilities; therefore their voluntary choices related to work differs from those of their male counterparts (Hede and Ralston, 1993). According to Powell (2000 cited in Davidson and Burke, 2000) the major aw in this theory lies with the assumption of free choice, and the theorys failure to recognise the differences in power between the employer and employee which may serve to hinder the progress of female employees. Additionally, the theory does not explain why women with uninterrupted careers do not reach senior management (Broadbridge, 2008). Thus, far, the human capital theory has not been supported by sufcient empirical evidence. What must be concluded is that no

matter what theory or viewpoint is used, women are not advancing rapidly enough immaterial of where they are working in the world. The Grant Thornton International Business Report (2011) summarised in Table I shows that the global average of women in management was 20 per cent which is similar to the 2004 average. It is evident from Table I that four of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) countries exceeded the global average (20 per cent) of women in management with only India (9 per cent) being well below the average and having the third worst representation of women in senior management positions. What is clear is that two of the developed nations UK and the USA were hovering around the global average with the UK slightly above the average and USA below. According to Hakim (2003 cited in Broadbridge, 2008), the growing representation of women in management in the UK can be attributed to government investment in higher education, changing attitudes towards the acceptance of women with children in the workplace and a decreasing fertility rate. Furthermore, organisational policies promoting equal opportunities for both men and women and the growth of an information and service-based economy supportive of women are factors that have helped to increase the representation of women in management in the UK (Powell and Buttereld, 2003). South Africa in 15th position has made major strides in a very short time to beat the global average. The fact that South Africa outperforms the global average can be attributed to the emphasis placed by government on gender equality and employment equity (Hern cited in SA Business Women Beat Global Counterparts, 2011). The Grant Thornton International Business Report (2011) found that South African women in senior management positions were employed as: human resources directors (21 per cent), chief nancial ofcer/nance director (20 per cent), sales directors (9 per cent) and marketing ofcers (8 per cent). A major concern raised by the study is that only 3 per cent of the companies surveyed employed female CEOs. There were no statistics to show what levels women occupied in information and communications technology, operations and supply chain management. Despite gender equality statistics in South Africa showing improvement and with enabling legislation in place the disparity between the number of men and women holding senior management positions still exists, alluding to the existence of the glass ceiling.
Position 1 3 6 15 16 21 23 33 37 Country Thailand Russia China South Africa Australia Brazil UK Global average USA India Percentage 45 36 34 27 27 24 23 20 15 9

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Source: Adapted from Grant Thornton International Business Report (2011)

Table I. Global women in management

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As long as the glass ceiling is perceived to exist in organisations, women will be deprived of reaching their full potential in the workplace. This study will identify the barriers impeding the progress of women in the workplace and provide recommendations to facilitate their upward mobility. Research methodology Whilst South Africa is placed 15th in the International Business Report (2011) survey in terms of women holding senior management positions, the survey highlights that 73 per cent of senior management positions are still held by men. The reasons for this disparity is unclear therefore, the aim of the study was to determine whether the existence of the glass ceiling is a reality or a myth as seen from the eyes of females seeking higher ofce. The objectives of this study were to identify whether personal, situational and social roles hindered the vertical progression of women to senior management positions, and to determine if personal traits inuenced vertical progression. A quantitative study was conducted to satisfy the aim and objectives. Purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. To be part of this study, respondents had to conform to the following specications: they had to: be female, have the desire to progress in their careers, be employed in a multi-level organisation, and be involved in some form of decision making. Initially the Business Womens Association KwaZulu-Natal (BWASA-KZN) membership database was considered as a source for the sampling frame. This option, however, posed a problem as a major portion of BWASA-KZN members included entrepreneurs who would have been at a senior management position already. Furthermore, the membership would have included people outside of Durban. Due to the difculty in nding another sampling frame of women in management in Durban, the researcher selected women at random who tted the prole of the ideal respondent. Due to easy access, about a third of female MBA students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal also participated in the study. In order to obtain a statistically signicant response, snowball sampling was used to increase the number of respondents. A self administered electronic questionnaire was developed and distributed to all the prospective respondents. The questionnaire was hosted on QuestionPro. A ve point Likert type scale with end-points anchored by strongly disagree and strongly agree was used. A pilot study was conducted where spelling, grammar and ambiguities were identied and rectied before commencing the live survey. Data was analysed using QuestionPros analytical tools and SPSS. In order to determine the reliability of the data a Cronbachs a coefcient was generated which produced a 0.701 which according to Hardy and Bryman (2009) suggests strong internal reliability of the instrument. The greater the reliability of the instrument, the greater is the reliability of the data collected. Results and discussion The results will be presented according to the three theories which formed the broad themes of this study namely: situational barriers (situation/organisation theory), social role barriers (social role theory) and personal barriers (person centred theory). 290 people viewed the questionnaire; however, only 117 completed the survey. The participants were all women. Table II illustrates the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

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Description Age Under 25 25-34 35-44 45 and over Marital status Married Single Widowed Divorced/separated Race Whites Blacks Indians Coloureds Level of education Matric Diploma Bachelors Masters Doctorate Other Level in organisation Senior manager Middle manager First line manager Other Work experience Under ve years Five to ten years Over ten years

Percentage 1 34 54 11 69 25 1 5 41 34 23 2 9 24 36 25 6 27 47 22 4 7 29 64

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Table II. Demographics

The demographic prole of the respondents is summarised as follows: 88 per cent were aged 25-44, 69 per cent were married, 85 per cent held qualications ranging from diplomas to postgraduate qualications, 93 per cent had more than ve years work experience. The racial prole of the respondents was 41 per cent White, 34 per cent Black, 23 per cent Indian and 2 per cent Coloured. The majority of the respondents (47 per cent) held middle management positions and 64 per cent had more than ten years work experience. It is evident that the respondents were fairly young, had the necessary qualications and several years of experience to be considered for promotion. These results are closely linked to the ndings of Mathur-Helm (2006), where education was identied as necessary for upward mobility. However, whilst the respondents were adequately qualied, only 27 per cent held senior management positions. The results related to the objectives of this study will be presented using a three point scale instead of the ve point scale used to collect the data. Strongly disagree and disagree will be combined to show disagreement, undecided will remain the same and agree and strongly agree will be combined to show agreement with the statements. Furthermore, some of the statements in the questionnaire have been reworded to retain the original meaning but to read more clearly than the original.

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Situational barriers According to April et al. (2007), based on the situation centred theory the workplace and the work environment can be a barrier to the progress of women which is illustrated in Table III. The seven barriers listed in Table III were constructs that were adapted from the works of Powell and Buttereld (2003), April et al. (2007), Singh and Terjesen (2008) and Harris (2010b). It is evident from Table III that of the seven situational barriers which contribute to the glass ceiling, the rst four were not experienced by the respondents which means that the majority of the respondents felt fairly evaluated (74 per cent), that career opportunities (70 per cent) were available to them and gender discrimination whilst prevalent (28 per cent) was not experienced by 59 per cent of the respondents, similarly, whilst some respondents (53 per cent) were assigned to high visibility positions more than a third (38 per cent) were not. However, lack of recognition (53 per cent), support (59 per cent) and respect (78 per cent) were overtly experienced by the respondents. The ndings of a study conducted by Ragin et al. (1998 cited in Mok Kim Man et al., 2009), found that women regarded undertaking high visibility projects as an important career success factor, however, they had to actively seek out such projects more than their male counterparts did. According to one respondent in the current study, assigning women to high visibility positions could be taken to mean that organisations are embracing the concept of diversity as a key strategy driver and are thus actively recruiting women to ll key company positions. A corporate culture that is supportive of women gives them the exibility to adjust their work schedules while at the same time providing them avenues to make meaningful contributions to both the organisation and their families by allowing the effective reconciliation of their multiple roles. If organisational support to balance professional and domestic responsibilities is nonexistent; a womans career advancement can be negatively impacted (Mok Kim Man et al., 2009; Jain and Mukherji, 2010). Social role barriers Social roles theory suggests that roles played by women such as wife, motherhood, single breadwinner, etc. create self imposed barriers to progress. According to the ndings of Hede and Ralston (1993) females who expressed reluctance to relocate geographically; were also reluctant to change organisations in order to take higher ofce. Hede and Ralston concluded that family obligations presented a career barrier to female executives particularly those with dependants. According to Har-Even (2004), one of the requirements for advancement for executives is mobility. This study supports the ndings of Hede and Ralston, and Har-Even as 40 per cent of the married

Disagree My work performance is fairly evaluated There are career opportunities for me There is gender discrimination in my workplace I am not assigned to high visibility positions I have to work extra hard to be recognised I am not given support to balance multiple roles I am not respected by male colleagues 19 28 59 53 35 34 9

Undecided 7 2 13 9 12 7 13

Agree 74 70 28 38 53 59 78

Table III. Situational barriers faced by women

respondents who sought promotion were unwilling to relocate (Table IV). However, 41 per cent of the respondents were willing to relocate even though they had family responsibilities. The results suggest that married women are creating their own barriers to career advancement; however, the respondents spouses may not have the exibility to follow their wives careers at the expense of their own. Furthermore, the benets of the promotion and consequent relocation may not signicantly outweigh the combined spousal benets of the wife remaining in the same position. According to Mooney and Ryan (2009, p. 202) It is more difcult being mobile while factoring in a husband or childrens needs. Based on the ndings of Hede and Ralston, and Har-Even it could be inferred that unmarried women would be more able to relocate, however, of the unmarried women (32 per cent), only 18 per cent single and 3 per cent divorced were willing to relocate. Personal barriers Person centred theories have found that women lacked the basic traits and skills to succeed in leadership positions as they lacked ambition and condence as opposed to men who were more assertive and displayed inuential behaviour which are critical qualities for leadership (Singh and Terjesen, 2008). The ndings of this study illustrated in Table V contradict the premise of person centred theories of leadership. It is evident from Table V that over 80 per cent responded that they were: condent, emotionally suited for senior roles, competitive, high achievers and they considered themselves as leaders. A large portion (90 per cent) also believed that they enjoyed the support of their subordinates. Feelings of competitiveness were signicant ( p 0.000) as the respondents advanced in age. The majority (53 per cent) of respondents who
Relocation if required by job Undecided Unwilling 6 1 0 0 7 9 40 6 1 3 50 50

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Willing Marital status Married Single Widowed Divorced Total (%) Family responsibility (%) 22 18 0 3 43 41

Total (%) 68 25 1 6 100 100

Table IV. Willingness to relocate if required for promotion

Response to statement (%) Disagree Undecided Agree I am condent in my abilities I am emotionally suited to be a senior manager I am competitive My subordinates have condence in my leadership I am a high achiever I consider myself a leader 6 4 6 2 1 2 10 11 4 8 5 4 84 85 90 90 94 94

Table V. Traits and characteristics of respondents

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indicated that they were competitive were aged between 35 and 44 years, this could be attributed to their experience, maturity and their level of education. Broadbridge (2001) found that women who did not receive organisational support, career advice and felt that their organisations did not support their ambitions often lacked condence and hence did not apply for promotion positions. However, this study has found that whilst the majority (47 per cent) of the respondents did not receive adequate support to balance their multiple roles, they were nevertheless condent in their abilities and sought promotion (Table VI). It is evident that organisational support did not affect the respondents condence, which could be attributed to the fact that the respondents were either intrinsically motivated and/or that their condence was based on other factors such as education, experience and maturity. These contributing factors, however, were not tested. This study has identied the enabling and disabling factors which impact on the upward mobility of women in management in Durban. It is evident that social role and situational barriers exist. However, there were no personal barriers identied that impacted on the respondents promotability. Recommendations Factors that enabled the vertical career progression of respondents in this study was: fair evaluation of their work, existence of career opportunities, having to work twice as hard as men to prove their worth, respondents having extensive work experience and high levels of education. Lack of respect from male colleagues, not being assigned to high visibility positions and insufcient support for multiple roles of women played a part in hampering their upward mobility. Some respondents did not progress due to self imposed barriers such as the unwillingness to relocate. What is evident is that the respondents did not conform to the stereotypes as identied in other studies in that their personal traits showed that they were ready and willing to move upward within their organisations. Whilst these are positive ndings, the reality in organisations is that there are too few women holding senior management positions in corporate South Africa. What can the government and business do to increase these numbers? Gender discrimination Whilst only 28 per cent of the respondents felt that gender discrimination existed, more than three quarters believed that they were not respected by male colleagues which, is a form of gender discrimination. Overt or covert discrimination cannot be totally eradicated from the workplace. However, organisations could develop rules, regulations and disciplinary codes to effectively manage workplace

Disagree

I am condent in my job Undecided Agree

Total (%) 33 8 59 100

Table VI. Crosstabulation between support and condence

There is inadequate organisational support provided to balance multiple roles Disagree 3 30 Undecided 3 5 Agree 6 6 47 Total (%) 6 12 82

gender discrimination. Alternate dispute resolution mechanisms could be introduced to ensure that minor and unintended offences are treated less punitively and with the intention to correct the offenders behaviour. Balancing multiple roles Employers, who are committed to growing the number of women in senior management, must create an enabling environment for the female employee to balance her multiple roles. Organisations should introduce exible work hours and a exible workplace (Mathur-Helm, 2006; Mooney and Ryan, 2009). Women who return from maternity leave should be re-orientated through re-skilling programmes, training and development. Women should be allowed exitime to take care of family responsibilities. Organisations that have the nancial means and physical space should provide child care facilities at the workplace. An argument could be made that child care facilities could be underutilised as children grow and go to school, sharing facilities with neighbouring organisations or allowing a certain quota of paying outsiders children would ensure that the facility is properly utilised at all times. It would be unfair for employees working at a retailers headquarters to have child care facilities, but staff working at a store for the same retail company will not. Financially it would not make sense for the company to establish child care facilities at each outlet. Therefore, malls should establish child care centres which could be subsidised by employers of staff working in the mall. For government employees, the government should establish a number of child care centres within a 5 kilometre radius in urban and industrial areas. Women should be entitled to twice the family responsibility leave given to men. Whilst this may seem discriminatory, mothers are in most cases the primary care giver, especially if they are breastfeeding. However, in single male parent families or in homosexual families, males should be allowed the same parenting benets. Insufciency of support systems for employee family commitments will indirectly lead to strengthening the existence of the glass ceiling. Relocation In order to overcome the limited mobility of women, organisations need to consider alternatives to relocation for the sake of promotion. Tele-work and computer mediated interactions should be introduced. Technology such as e-mail, teleconferencing software, online chat, mobile applications and more recently social networks can facilitate remote working. In the event that personal meetings need to be held, most South African cities are no more than one hour apart by air, as such, women executives could y when needed rather than having to relocate. This solution, however, is limited. In industries such as mining, manufacturing, and agriculture where one is needed to manage by walking about or is required to conduct regular on site inspections, relocation would be necessary. Women working harder than men Due to the nature of the questionnaire, it is not clear whether women actually have to work harder than men to be promoted, or whether this is merely a perception. However, in order to prevent women having to work harder than men to be promoted, work study exercises should be conducted by professionals to ensure that equitable workloads and job descriptions are provided to all employees immaterial of gender or any other classication. Furthermore, promotion criteria should be objective, measurable and

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should have no gender bias. Promotion committees should be gender balanced to ensure that women are considered fairly. Limited visibility Being visible and being involved in projects where decision makers can see hard working employees is crucial to ones promotion prospects. Whilst respondents are saying that they need to be assigned to highly visible positions, this is difcult to control as it could be seen as favouritism and could be another form of discrimination, especially if only certain groups benetted. Effective performance management and talent management programmes should be used to ensure that top performers immaterial of gender are properly rewarded. Appropriate qualications Whilst it has been established that the respondents were well qualied, Mathur-Helm (2006) raises the question of whether their qualications are appropriate. In organisations where a womans qualications are found to be inadequate or inappropriate to be considered for promotion, the organisation needs to make this known to the employee in order that she can take action. Furthermore, organisations that can afford to should sponsor women employees studies. If women employees exhibit skills deciencies, South African companies can access funding from the Skills Development Fund, to train them. Employment equity Whilst this recommendation does not directly emanate from the questionnaire, the government has a role to play in breaking the glass ceiling. The South African Government needs to closely monitor equity plans against actual transformation taking place. Window dressing to meet BEE scorecards is not a sustainable means of integrating women into senior management positions. Incentives could be put in place to encourage proactive searches for talented women and for developing women to take up senior positions based on merit. Taxes could be levied on organisations that make no efforts to transform. As a part of transparent governance, organisations should be compelled to disclose in their annual reports the efforts and the results of gender equity programmes. A limitation of this study is that only women in management were invited to participate. As such some of the personal characteristics which were identied in Table V could have been biased and would probably paint a different picture if in future studies subordinates, both male and female, had to evaluate their female managers on their leadership characteristics. Conclusion In order to achieve the aim of this study a direct question do you believe that a glass ceiling exists in your organisation? would have established whether the glass ceiling is a reality or a myth. However, the questions were posed in a manner that has identied barriers without asking a direct question. It is evident that certain elements of the situational/organisational theory of the glass ceiling existed. Gender discrimination, lack of respect from males and insufcient support of womens multiple roles were directly identied as barriers to women progressing in the workplace. However, social roles which are largely a matter of choice also inhibited the growth of women. Whilst the

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glass ceiling seems to be breaking, in that career opportunities exist for women and that they are being fairly evaluated, it is still very much a reality in Durban organisations which needs a multi-pronged, multi-stakeholder approach to bring about true gender equity in senior management.
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Jain, M. and Mukherji, S. (2010), The perception of glass ceiling in Indian organisations: an exploratory study, South Asian Journal of Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 23-42. Kreitner, R. and Kinicki, A. (2008), Organisational Behaviour, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Mathur-Helm, B. (2006), Women and the glass ceiling in South African banks: an illusion or reality?, Women in Management Review, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 311-26. Maume, D.J. Jr (2004), Is the glass ceiling a unique form of inequality? Evidence from a random-effects model of managerial attainment, Work and Occupations, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 250-74. Mok Kim Man, M., Skerlavaj, M. and Dimovski, V. (2009), Is there a glass ceiling for mid-level female managers?, International Journal of Management and Innovation, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 1-13. Mooney, S. and Ryan, I. (2009), A womans place in hotel management: upstairs or downstairs?, Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 195-210. Powell, G.N. and Buttereld, D.A. (2003), Gender, gender identity, and aspirations to top management, Women In Management Review, Vol. 18 Nos 1/2, pp. 88-96. SA Business Women Beat Global Counterparts (2011), Mail & Guardian Online, available at: http://mg.co.za/article/2011-03-08-sa-business-women-beat-global-counterparts (accessed 26 February 2012). Singh, V. and Terjesen, S. (2008), Female presence on corporate boards: a multi-country study of environment context, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 83 No. 1, pp. 55-63. Taylor, L.J. and Waggoner, J. (2008), Goldratts thinking process applied to the problems associated with the glass ceiling effect, Proceedings of the Allied Academies International Conference on Organisational Culture, Communications and Conict, Vol. 1. Further reading Blair, D.D. and Stanley, J.R. (1991), Personal relationships and legislative power: male and female perceptions, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 495-507, Comparative Legislative Research Center, available at: www.jstor.org/stable/440014 Linehan, M. and Walsh, J.S. (2001), Key issues in the senior female international career move: a qualitative study in a European context, British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, pp. 85-95. About the authors Risper Enid Kiaye is a Food Scientist/Technologist and has worked in Food Production as: Quality Assurance Manager Fruits Division at East African Growers Ltd; and Senior Quality Control Analyst at Laboratory and Allied Ltd She has recently completed her MBA dissertation on the Glass Ceiling. Anesh Maniraj Singh is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business & Leadership of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Anesh Maniraj Singh is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: singham@ukzn.ac.za

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