TITLE: Gender based barriers in top management: impact of glass

ceiling on firm’s performance

Fizza Zehra (59661)

MBA FALL, 2016

RESEARCH PROBLEM

In Pakistan, literacy rate of females in urban areas is increasing day by day. In order to reduce
the gender based barriers in top management due to the stereotype about the female style of
management and work, it is important to practice gender equality so that female also get the
equal opportunity to come up the senior management position and break the glass ceiling. (nighat
Ansari, 2016)

About 51% of the world population is women which could be a part of human capital and the
work force diversity to get the competitive advantage. In previous literatures, our social
stereotypes label the women as ‘nurturer and care taker’ and men are characterized as ‘ambitious
and decision maker’ and hence consider man as fit for managerial positions (parson and
Bales,1956)

In South Asia, concept of respectability is one of the barriers in carrier development of a woman
which does not allow women to be a ‘successful carrierist’ (Fernando and Cohen,2013) Man
being the moral guardian and woman being the good housekeepers is a symbol of colonial legacy
along with domesticity (Whiteside, 2007,p.26)

RESEARCH QUESTION

What are the impacts of gender based barriers on firms performance?

MOTIVE

It is aimed to solve the problem of gender disparity among the corporate sector of Pakistan as
female/male ratio of enrollment in higher education is improved and these educated women can
contribute to the welfare of the economy of Pakistan and come up with great ideas in future.
Equal employment opportunities will give a chance to carrier-oriented women to prove
themselves and pay a contribution to the growth in economy.

In order to create a long term change in the corporate world which would lead to the
flourishment of business by the passage of time, it is required to talk about gender disparity and
gender based barriers as it is perceived that women do have made a mark in society through their
hard work and desperation.

BACKGROUND:
As many as 238 gold medals were awarded during the ceremony of convocation 2016 at
University of Karachi; about 80% of the medals were received by female students as announced
by the KU registrar Professor Dr. Moazzam Ali Khan. (Express Tribune)

For the first time, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two female Assistant Superintendent of Police are
appointed in 2016, who are expected to perform a job in maintaining law and order situation in a
province that is facing war against coercion.

There are much more examples in Pakistan as well as from around the world like sultana
Siddique the CEO of hum TV network who broke the glass ceiling and have attained the leading
position in the corporate world.

LITERALTURE REVIEW:

Significant increase in the participation of women in formal sector employment shows that the
economy has grown steadily and urbanization has occurred in Bangladesh. Economy needs
skilled workers and the middle class women who have taken initiative to acquire appropriate
degrees for employment in Bangladesh. This is leading the image of Bangladeshi women from a
typical household person to a ‘carrier woman.’ Although, the concept of work-life balance in
Bangladesh is not yet accepted wholly, still women are working hard to make them shine in
different sectors of industry. The author suggests that it has become a necessity for emerging
economy to set standards and best practices for formal institutions (FaridaChowdhuryKhan,
2016, p. 4).

In top level management female representation is increasing day by day, even in some countries
it is being mandatory in corporations to include at least one female in the board. For example in
Norway it is mandatory to have minimum 40% female in the board (Randoy et al.,2006; Rose,
2007; Carter et al.,2010)

In turkey, it is evident that recruitment of competent female on board is promoted in order to

develop the firms through gender diversity and impact of gender diversity on firm’s financial
performance is measured to assess the relationship between gender diversity and firm’s
performance. In general, in developing and developed countries, women are underrated in the
boardrooms of companies. Causal relationship is built up between gender diversity and firm’s
performance. (Kuzey, 2016, p. 3)

There are two categories of diversity: demographic which include gender, age, ethnicity and
race; and cognitive which is concerned with knowledge, education, values and perception.
(Erhardt et al., 2003). The research is more concerned with the demographic diversity and its
effects.
Board diversity can increase profitability and value of the company through distinguishing
problem solving abilities and varying talent on board (Carter et al., 2008). Secondly, varying
perspectives can bring in the best alternatives to the decision makers. (Cater et al., 2003)

Although, it is an area of enormous research to find out the impact of gender diversity on firm’s
performance, there are both positive and negative impacts observed. (Kuzey, 2016)

It is also evident that men earn more than a woman for comparable work and progress more
easily up the career ladder. Board diversity has a place in corporate sector but still for a woman it
is difficult to break the glass ceiling. (Ansari, 2016, p. 3)

One of the biggest barriers in the carrier growth of a woman is the socio-cultural norms and
historiographic gendered properties that restrict a woman to be a ‘housekeeper’ and man to be a
‘moneymaker’ in south Asian culture while in western society these norms are apparently
outdated and obsolete (Fernando & Cohen, 2013)

It is incumbent to reveal the obstacles in the career growth of women in south Asian culture as
achieving career success and moving up to the managerial position is more difficult. (Ansari,
2016, p. 6) It is evident from the literature that women have to put more effort to create an image
of being hard working and career oriented. And not just creating an image they have to be more
vigilant in maintaining the image at work place. (Ansari, 2016, p. 8)

With the increasing participation of women in the total work force of Pakistan, women’s
parliamentarian representation is also improved and they now hold 21% of parliamentary seats.
(Ansari, 2016, p. 12). This implies the purpose of the research in the sector of gender disparity is
significant to improve the work environment and the stereotypes related to female working for
corporate sector.

Keeping the societal prescription of female image in mind, limited networking and limited access
to the key resources reduces the visibility of female as the social capital and decreases their
chances of progressing towards the desired levels of their career. (Ansari, 2016, p. 14)

It is also observed that women lack career success even when engaged in full time employment
due to major responsibilities at home and household chore. (Harkness, 2003 cited by Crompton
& Lyonette, 2011: pg. 233). These are the responsibilities that can never be compromised in a
south Asian culture due to which a woman is bound to focus more on the household
responsibilities rather than their career growth. Or if she is doing a job she should be at home by
a reasonable timing. Domesticity creates an impression that female are less passionate about their
career growth as compare to man. These are the few reasons which pull a woman down the
ladder in career growth. (Ansari, 2016, p. 17)

Corporate image of women needs to be built up and the stereotype about their leadership styles
should be excluded from the mindset in order to give a woman a chance to attain managerial
positions. (Gabaldon, 2016, p. 8) Although there are examples all around the world where it is
proved that women can be at a leadership post, but these examples are considered rare and
exceptional.

By giving a chance to women to come up and practice their own way of managing the workplace
tasks will lead them to perfection and even being equally responsible at home they can manage
and create work-life balance.

From a survey of U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (2010), representation of women in
corporate leadership role is highly rated as compared to men. (Choudhary, 2016, p. 4). Supply
side of female graduates is getting strengthen day by day could improve the productivity but lack
of mentoring and support affect the mobility of women.

HYPOTHESIS

H1 a: The presence of competent females in top management significantly positively impact

firm’s performance.

H1 b: Gender diversity has a significant positive impact on firm’s performance

H1 c: high performance companies tend to recruit more females on board

KNOWLEDGE GAP

Gender diversity and its impact on firm’s performance could contribute to bridge the gap
between the societal images of women in Pakistan and the career women who can bring
improvement in the firm’s performance and structure with her knowledge and skill she has
gained through her degree.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Age, Senior Return on

Firm’s
management investment,
performance,
tenure, Years Return on
independent Dependent Job
of education, Assets , Results
variables variables commitment,
No. of Return on
Career
children, Net Equity, Return
opportunities
income on sales

(Choudhary, 2016), (Kuzey, 2016)

METHODS
Data of dependent and independent variables will be collected through questionnaire and
interviews after which descriptive and correlation analysis of data set will be done to evaluate
and come up to the desired results. Mean, median, standard deviation and skewness will also be
calculated to create a correlation among the variables. Referred to (Choudhary, 2016, p. 6) and
appendix 2 and 3.

CONTRIBUTION

The concept of career women is still quite unacceptable in Pakistani society and women have to
face hurdles in proving her respectable reputation at workplace. Through the results of this
research, it can be evident that either gender based barriers are the main reasons for limiting the
image of a career woman or there are other factors involved.