AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE BARRIERS TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN MANAGERS

Although the percentage of employed women is increasing in most countries, the number in management remains disproportionately low, and the number holding executive positions remains negligible almost everywhere. This pattern holds across oriental and occidental cultures, across communist, socialist, and capitalist systems, and among both economically developed and developing countries. Evidence suggests that the under-representation, under-utilisation, and skewed distribution of women managers is neither coincidental nor random, but rather a function of systemic cultural sanctions, educational barriers, legal restrictions, and corporate practices.