Female Executives

S. Congress, 1993, p. 18). A survey of 200 chief executives during the country's top firms revealed that only 16 percent thought that they would be succeeded by a female CEO during the following decade and only 18 percent believed that a woman would be chosen to run their corporations in the following two decades (U.S. Congress, 1993, p. 46).

The glass ceiling can also be a fixture during the nation's largest employer, the federal government. Women maintain almost half of all white collar work in government, but only 1 in four federal supervisors are women and only one in ten senior federal executives are women (U.S. Congress, 1993, p. 9). At Congressional hearings on the existence of glass ceilings in federal agencies, testimony revealed an entrenched pattern of discriminatory practices aimed at impairing the advancement of women to senior-level positions: "Supervisors who ultimately pick candidates to fill jobs normally designate the needs that candidates must satisfy. In so doing, these supervisors, who are usually white males, exercise discretion entrusted them by the agencies that permits them to tailor career requirements to the credentials of friends and acquaintances" (U.S. Congress, 1991, p. 140).

Minority women have an even harder time making it up the corporate ladder than their white counterparts. In 1992, black women and Hispanic women represented only 7.1 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively, of all women managers (Fagenson and Jackson, 1994, p. 393). N

 

Tucker (1994) cites a survey conducted by the U.S. Equal Job Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of 38,000 organizations where black women created up a smaller amount than 6 percent of all professionals and 5 percent of all officers and managers (p. 60). Granted, black women increased their representation in management by 64 percent between 1982 and 1992, but they tended being pigeonholed into peripheral positions as opposed to the core organization from the companies. Black women in management are still considered trailblazers. As a single executive notes, "I'm uncomfortable with the concept that following all these years that I still is a 'first.' At Southern California Edison, I'm the first female and first black corporate exec" (Tucker, 1994, p. 61).

Fagenson, E., and Jackson, J. (1994). The status of women managers inside the United States. In N. Adler and D. Izraeli (Eds.), Competitive frontiers: Women managers inside a global economy (pp. 388-404). Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers.

Negative stereotyping interferes with female executives' potential to forge certain relationships, a key strategy inside the quest for professional success. It is significant for women to attain access to the male-dominated social culture on the business world: "Men have usually had mentors to help them from the behavioral minefield with the workplace, but for women, mentors are sometimes hard to find" (Driscoll and Goldberg, 1993, p. 146). Quite a few male executives express discomfort in dealing with social relationships with women and subsequently exclude them from their peer group; other males are additional supportive. As a single female executive describes it, "There is an enlightened group of CEOs coming along, men with daughters. We must concentrate on them" (Driscoll and Goldberg, 1993, p. 146).

Women are even far more scarce in the boardroom than they're during the executive suite. As of 1995, approximately 40 percent from the Fortune 1000 corporate boards had no women directors; women preserve a smaller amount than 7 percent.

Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.