Women Participation in Business at Top Positions

(Case Study in Bahawalpur)

Researched By

Hasnain Ali Shah (03)

Noman Aslam (08)
Muhammad Ibrahim (18)

M.com-II

Supervised by

Dr. Ayesha Shaukat

Assistant Professor

Department of Commerce

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur

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Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Research Background ............................................................................................................................... 3
Research Gap ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Problem Statement .................................................................................................................................... 4
Research Questions ................................................................................................................................... 4
Research Objective ................................................................................................................................... 4
Research Significance ............................................................................................................................... 5
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................................... 5
Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................................. 9
Research Design.......................................................................................................................................... 10
Data Analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 11
Correlation .............................................................................................................................................. 11
Regression ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Discussion.................................................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Recommendation ........................................................................................................................................ 14

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Introduction
According to the Population census results of 2017 of Pakistan the population of women
is 48.76% that is a major part of population. According to the World Bank Statistics, Pakistan is
one of the bottom 10 countries with regards to the participation of women in the workplace.
Women are very important part of our society. They have the equal abilities as a man have to
cope with a problem or an important decision making. So they should be encouraged by the
society to do work side by side with their men. A woman is a good manager in his house because
she handles the management of his house very effectively. So she will be assuming as a good
CEO for a firm.
We will try to find about the facts that why the women of Pakistan specially the women
of Bahawalpur is not take equal part as compare to men at top positions of businesses of around
of Bahawalpur.
The women can make her effective contribution in business sector if she will be
encouraged by our society and by government also. The government should provide the suitable
circumstances for women that she can do her work in an easy way. She is allowed that she can
choose suitable hours of working keeping in view her family needs. She is allowed to get leave
during her pregnancy days. She will be provided the safety and security on her office. The other
suitable incentives related to the local culture are given to a woman.
A woman deserves self respect on office as well as her house. So she will be treated with
respect on her office by her colleagues.

Research Background
As per the study of an Article “Women in Top Management” by Vickie Elmer, we
observe that the participation of women at top positions of business in different parts of the
world like Europe and Africa is not sufficient. The author proves it with the help of a report of
“Women In S&P Companies” published by “Pyramid”.
The author further discussed that there are some barriers that may hamper the
participation of a women in business sector like family structure, behavior, labels, and invisible
biases (glass ceiling) of society for a woman that can be barriers for a woman to get progress in a
business.
In many cultures it is assumed that the leadership is a male gender passion. The women
have not the ability to lead a business. It is also a big psychological issue of some countries.
The author also disclose that the HR departments and finance department are hardly lead
by a women. He gives the reference “Bloomberg Analysis” that only 42% of women climbing
the ladder held those operating jobs and more than 09 in 10 Standard & Poor’s 500 CEOs held
line or operating jobs just before they were promoted.

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 The author further says that women are facing more challenges of jobs in the days of her
pregnancy. He gave the reference of problems of women of USA during her pregnancy that she
was fired or demoted in case of her pregnancy.
The author also finds that the women at top position in business are less paid as compare
to men. He quotes that senior male managers make more than their female counterparts. Women
in management jobs earn on average 75.8% of what men are paid. A bigger pay gap than the
82,1 cents women earn overall for every $1 men earn, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

Research Gap
As we analyze the relevant articles on women participation in business at top
positions we find that their ratio of participation in business at higher positions is not
sufficient. We will do our findings in the region of Bahawalpur to discover whether the
women of Bahawalpur are facing the same problem as the women of the rest of the
world.

Problem Statement
As per the study of Women participation in S&P 500 Companies published by pyramid
on April 3, 2015, which tells that only 4.6% women are involved in top positions of management
and only 19.2% are board members which show that women in the field of business are facing
more problems to reach at top level of management than men. It seems that they have to face
some invisible biases (glass ceiling) in the way of progress. In Pakistan women may have to face
the same problems. We will collect the data from Bahawalpur and try to analyze that whether the
women of Pakistan especially Bahawalpur are facing the same problems.

Research Questions

1. What are the reasons caused For Women that they cannot get top positions in Business in
Bahawalpur?
2. What are the chances of Progress in Bahawalpur Region for women?

Research Objective
The objective of our research is to get the opinion of the sample population of women
that participate in business at top positions in Bahawalpur. We also try to find out the reasons
that why the contribution of women in business is very less if it true. We will also try to find out
the factors that may hamper the participation of women in business at top positions.

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Research Significance
Our topic of research is very important because it is related to the major part of our
population that is underutilized. The skills of our women are being wasted due to some barriers
that may decrease the participation of a skilled woman in the field of business and there are less
chances of promotion of a woman in this field that may be due to biased behavior of opposite
gender.

Source: “Women in S&P 500 Companies by Race/Ethnicity,” Catalyst, March 2015,

http://tinyurl.com/mbqk94z
The above statistical data shows that women in the region of Asia are under utilized to a great extent.

Literature Review
We have reviewed 10 articles related to our topic “Women Participation in Business at Top
Positions”. We find the relevant points of our topic discussed by different scholars of the world related
to the problems of women in the sector of business. We will discuss some important points of these
articles that show that women in the field of business is facing more and more problems to reach the
higher positions in business.

In the article “Women in Top Management” the author Vickie Elmer quoted some experts
opinion related to the issues of women in business at top positions. We quote these opinions in the
following:

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 “We still have these very traditional models about men and women, at least in the family
structure. It's inhibiting change,” says Catherine H. Tinsley, a professor of management at Georgetown
University's McDonough School of Business.

“The barriers (behaviors, labels, biases …) that prohibit the progression of women to the top are
deep-rooted, pernicious, and ubiquitous … and much more prevalent than we imagine and recognize,”
said Ludo Van der Heyden, a professor of corporate governance at INSEAD, the French business school.

Women and academics have long believed female workers were blocked from top jobs by the
glass ceiling, a term popularized by The Wall Street Journal in a special report in March 1986. It refers to
the invisible barriers of “corporate tradition and prejudice” that stop women from landing executive
suite (also known as C-level or C-suite) jobs.

“In many places, executive presence or leadership traits are decidedly masculine—or positive
for men and bitchy bossy for women,” says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of several books on women's
success and chief executive of the Center for Talent Innovation, a New York group that combines
research and action on gender and generational issues.

“The meatier, risker projects go to men; the safer ones go to women,” says Sreedhari Desai, a
University of North Carolina assistant professor of organizational behavior who studies gender topics.

Women's aspirations to C-level jobs start strong, but over time drop by more than 60 percent
while men's remain unchanged. They lack

role models and feel a lack of support from their supervisors, according to a report by consulting firm
Bain & Co.

“There's no doubt that it's easier for men to succeed in business than women,” says Tinsley at
Georgetown.

Source: “Pyramid: Women in S&P 500 Companies,” Catalyst, April 3, 2015, http://tinyurl.com/qcnwko5

Women fill one-fourth of executive or senior-level roles and about 19 percent of board seats at Standard
and Poor's 500 largest companies, although they make up 45 percent of the workforce, according to the
women's workplace advocate Catalyst. Less than 5 percent of S&P 500 Company CEOs are female.

The above points discussed by the author Vickie Elmer shows that there are so many problems for
women to survive in the field of business at top positions than men.

In the article of “Advancing women in business Organizations Key leadership roles and behaviors of
senior leaders and middle managers” by Mary C. Mattis has quoted that How to Go to Work when Your
Husband is Against It, Your Children Aren't Old Enough, and There's Nothing You Can Do Anyway (Simon
and Schuster, 1972); What to Do with The Rest of Your Life: The Catalyst Women's Guide to Successful
Resumes and Interviews (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1980); Making the Most of Your First Job (G.P. Putnam' s
Sons, 1981); and Upward Mobility: A Comprehensive Career Advancement Plan for Women Determined
to Succeed in a Working World (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981) ± reflect the fact that up until the
1960s, few women had actually prepared themselves for careers, especially careers in business.

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In the article ““Girl Power”: Female Participation in Top Management and Firm Performance” by Cristian
L. Dezső (UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND*) and David Gaddis Ross (COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL†), the
authors display their feelings related to women empowerment in the following quotes.

“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being
she is said to imitate the male” (de Beauvoir, 1952, pg: 51).

“What the world needs today is not more competition but woman’s native genius for sympathetic co-
operation” (Meyer, 1953, pg: 397). The authors also share the following facts

“As women have continued to make inroads into domains traditionally dominated by men, attention has
focused on the relatively small number of women in senior management positions in large corporations.
While females account for over a third of managers overall (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2007)”

In the article “Gender diversity in compensation committees and CEO pay: evidence from China”
by Muhammad Usman, Junrui Zhang, Fangjun Wang and Junqin Sun

School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, and Muhammad Abdul Majid Makki
Department of Commerce, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur,

Bahawalpur,Pakistan, the authors share their views relted to women empowerment.

The authors find evidence that gender-diverse compensation committees limit CEOs’ total cash
compensation and strengthen the link between CEO pay and firm performance, but only independent
female directors have a significant impact, indicating that the monitoring effect outweighs the executive
effect. Moreover, compensation committees with a critical mass of female directors have more impact
on CEOs’ total pay and the link between CEO pay and firm performance than do committees with a
single female director. Finally, gender-diverse compensation committees are more effective in setting
CEOs’ compensation in state-controlled firms, where agency issues are more severe.

In the article “female leadership advantage and disadvantage: resolving the contradictions” by
Alice H. Eagly (Northwestern University) the author share his experience with us in the following related
to women empowerment:

“After years of analyzing what makes leaders most effective and figuring out who’s got the Right
Stuff, management gurus now know how to boost the odds of getting a great executive: Hire a female”
(Sharpe, 2000, p. 74).

Not only did Business Week announce that women have the “Right Stuff,” but also Fast
Company maintained that “[t]he future of business depends on women” (Heffernan, 2002, p. 9)

In the aticle “Do women in top management affect firm performance? A panel study of 2,500
Danish firms” by Nina Smith, Valdemar Smith and Mette Verner Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus,
Denmark, they express their opinion in the article about women empowerment:

“The results in this paper show that the proportion of women in top management jobs

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tends to have positive effects on firm performance, even after controlling for numerous characteristics
of the firm and direction of causality. The results show that the positive effects of women in top
management strongly depend on the qualifications of female top managers”

In the ariticle “A DECADE OF CORPORATE WOMEN: SOME PROGRESS IN THE BOARDROOM, NONE IN
THE EXECUTIVE SUITE” by CATHERINE M. DAILY*, S. TREVIS CERTO AND DAN R. DALTON Kelley School of
Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, I. the authors view are given below:

“This study examines the extent to which women have circumvented the glass ceiling empirically
examining whether there has been an increase in women's representation corporate boards and CEO
positions over the 10-year period from 1987 to 1996. Results indicate greatly increased representation
on corporate boards”

In the article “Leveling the Playing Field for Women of Color in Corporate Management:

Is the Business Case Enough?” by Katherine Giscombe and Mary C. Mattis, the findings of authors are
given below:

“Over time, there are proportionately fewer new entrants to the labor pool representing U.S. born white
males, while more new entrants are coming from a pool of white women, people of color, and
immigrants (U.S. Department of Labor, 1991).”

In the article “A business case for women” by Georges Desvaux, Sandrine Devillard- Hoellinger, and
Mary C. Meaney the authors tell us about women empowerment in these words “Companies that hire
and retain more women not only are doing the right thing but can also gain a competitive edge. They
can take several basic steps to achieve even greater parity. These companies will be able to draw from a
broader pool of talent in an era of talent shortages. What’s more, research shows a correlation between
high numbers of female senior executives and stronger financial performance..”

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 Theoretical Framework

Permission for Independent

work

Behaviors
Barriers
Labels

Biases

Ability of Job

Experience Nature of Job

Risky or Safe

Dependent
Family
Support Women at Top Positions in Business
Supervisor

Enough Time Family

Responsibilities
Pregnancy

Change Job
GOVERNMENT
Self Decision
Take Steps for SUPPORT
Advancement Moderating

Less Paid at top

level
Pay Gap
Less Reward

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 Research Design

Measurement and
Purpose Of Extent OF Study Setting Research measures
The Study Researcher Strategies:
Interference Data
Analysis
Descriptive Operational
Women Participation In Business At Top Positions

Minimal: definitions
Survey
Studying as Non Contrive
Research
they normally
occur

Goodness of
data
Data
Unit of analysis Sampling Collection
(Population to Design method
be studied)

Non- Questionnaires
Individual Probability

Convenience
sampling

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Data Analysis

Our target population is the Women who are at the top positions in business sector of
Bahawalpur so we get the opinion of 25 women of academic and banking sector who are at Top
positions in the field of business in Bahawalpur through close ended questionnaires.
All the women agree that the participation of women at top positions of business in
Bahawalpur is less than men.
In our questionnaires we try to focus on the possible barriers that can reduce the women
participation and get their opinion that which one of them affects the most to them to reach at
higher positions as a lady.

The nature of our research is descriptive because we try to discuss the possible reasons
that may reduce the participation of women at top positions in business. We also discuss the
impact of supporting factors that can increase the participation of women in business at top
positions.
To check the relation between dependent (Women Participation in Business at Top
Positions) and independent variables (barriers and supporting factors for a women to reach at top
positions in business) we find the correlation between these variables.
Our research topic requires a very large area of knowledge, experience and time to get the
goodness of data from the available resources. So we try our best to get into the fact that why the
women of Bahawalpur are less in the field of business.
We use 5 point likert scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree points) and itemize rating
scale in our questionnaires. The response we get from the women at top positions is collected
and processed in excel for analyzing the true picture of the data. We find the correlation between
variables to check the relationship between these variables.
We put our sample data into MS excel for getting the relationship between our data and find the
following results.
We find correlation between our dependent and independent variables.
The results show that ………..

Barrier Supporting PWTP

Correlation Factors
Barrier 1
Supporting -0.01751 1
Factors
PWTP -0.10205 0.285891 1

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Regression

Regression Statistics
Multiple R 0.301918391
R Square 0.091154715
Adjusted R Square 0.008532416
Standard Error 0.474059756
Observations 25

There is a positive relationship between women participation and supporting factors and negative
relationship between barriers and women participation in business.
Our topic may be extended to a lot of ways and our finding is very limited because of the
nature of research and the selected region is not as rational as the big cities of Pakistan like
Lahore and Karachi. The sample size is very small so we can only find the relationship between
our chosen variables among a lot of independent variables that may increase or decrease the
participation of women in the field of business.

Discussion
When we analyzed the opinions of our sample population, we come to the point that the nature
of work for a woman is strongly affects on his participation in business such as when we asked from the
ladies of the academic institutions that what your opinion is about that women can do risky job or not?
All their replies show that they can do risky work.

The lack of support by executives does not exist in our region because both sectors of ladies
(academic and banking) tell us that they are not facing such situations. Pay gap does not exist as we
extract from their responses.

The major factors that agreed them by our questions are government support and family
responsibilities. They all agree that the personal life of a woman is being affected by participation at top
positions. So it is a major challenge for a woman of Bahawalpur that is may be a reason for less
participation at top positions. On the other hand they also agree that the government support in this
regard may increase the participation of women at top positions.

Conclusion

As we get the opinion of experienced women that enjoy the higher positions in
business sector so according the given response by them through questionnaires,
we conclude the following results.

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 Pregnancy
2%
Barriers
Society
17%

Family
45%
Baises
36%

The females that are at the top positions in Academic Institutions like HODs of
department and principals of schools told that their major problem in the way of
progress is bias behavior on workplace by others.

The women of banking sector share their opinion about barriers that

Pregnancy
Barriers
12%

Society
40%

Family Baises
47% 1%

According to them their major barrier is society in the way to success in the
business sector.

The participation of women in Bahawalpur can be increased by reducing these barriers

and increasing the government’s supporting policies in this regard as in France, Norway,
Germany and other European countries, companies must meet mandated quotas until women fill
30 to 40 percent of corporate board seats. The quota assigning policy for women is also an
initiative step to increase the participation of women at top positions. The merit base
appointment also can facilitate the competent women to reach at top positions.

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Recommendation
In our research the target audience is the empowered women of Bahawalpur City
only, the research may be conducted on the Province level or country wise level
for the better understandings of this research topic.
The further study may be carried on….
 The participation of women in Politics
 The Effect on per capita income of Pakistan due to Participation of Women in Business
 The Government Role in Participation of women in business at CEO level

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 Department of Commerce
Women Participation in Business at Top Positions
(Case study in Bahawalpur)
Thank you for agreeing to take this survey. The survey is being done by
Mr.Hasnain Ali Shah, Mr.Noman Aslam and Mr. Muhammad Ibrahim, the students of
M.com in second semester at The Islamia University of Bahawalpur. The purpose of the
survey is to collect opinions from the women of Bahawalpur, who are participating in
Business at top positions, related to problems as a woman at top position. .
All of the answers you provide in this survey will be kept confidential. No
identifying information will be provided in the research report. The survey data will be
reported in a summary fashion only and will not identify any individual person. This
survey will take about few minutes to complete.
Please indicate your opinion from the given answers.
1. Gender
a. Male b. Female

2. Age
a. 20-30 b. 31-40
c. 41-50 d. 51-above

3. Income
a. 20,000-50,000 b. 51,000-80,000
c. 81,000-110,000 d. 110,000-above

4. Place of working
a. Academic b. Management
c. Industry d. Banking
e. Any Other
5. The participation of women of Bahawalpur in Business at top positions is
less than Men’s participation.
a. Agree b. Disagree
 If agree please go to next question

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  If disagree please go to question No.16
6. Grade form 1 to 4 as per intensity the reason which could be responsible
for lake of women participation in Business at top positions.
a. Society b. Family
c. Office labels d. Biases

Indicate your opinion in the following as per agree to disagree intensity pointed
below:

1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

1 2 3 4 5

7. Does a woman face lake of support by

top executives?

8. Does pregnancy is a barrier in the way

of success for a woman?

9. Does a woman is unable to complete

a risky project?

10. Is a woman less rewarded than man?

11. Is there a big difference in salaries of

men and women at top positions in Business?

12. Is it true that there are more chances of

promotion for men than women?
13. Is there any gender bias exist at top level
management?
14. Is the personal life of a woman affected by
participating at top level of management?
15. Is the government support can increase the
participation of women in business at top positions?

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Grade from 1 (min) to 7 (max) the following questions:-
Minimum Maximum
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
16.Do men and women enjoy the
same right on top management?
17.Can the women better perform
than men on top level of management
18.Are the women more strict to their
job than men?
19.Are the women good decision
makers than men?

20. Do women make more persuasive

of their job responsibilities as
compared to men ?

21.Is women leadership in business

more reliable than men?
22.Is it the need for Pakistan that
women participation should be
more than current participation
of women at top positions?
23.Is the personal life of a lady is
affected by participating in Business?
24.Is our culture favorable for a
women to take part in business
at top position?
25.Can the government policies
facilitate the participation of a woman

in business at top positions?

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