Women, are we our own barriers
when making careers?
Authors:
Andrea Sarmiento
Julie Sassus
Tutors:
Mikael Lundgren
Philippe Daudi
Program:
Master’s Program in Leadership
and Management in International
Context
Subject:
Gender and Female Leadership,
Business Administration
Level and semester: Masterlevel Spring 2008
Baltic Business School
II
Abstract
The scarcity of female leaders rise curiosity to explore the reasons of the phenomenon. Many attempts have been done to explain the scarcity but somehow it seems that investigations explore the same factors and not what has been seen as a taboo; women’s feelings and thoughts towards each other as obstacles in making careers. Therefore is the aim of this study: to gain knowledge about women’s feelings and thoughts about other women in a corporate environment to be able to draw conclusions whether this matter can be a contribution to the debate concerning obstacles for women to climb in their career.
This research is conducted through an inductive approach with eight qualitative interviews choosing both women leaders and non-leaders. Jealousy and envy between women were discovered, which do not seem to restrain or create obstacles for other women but only or mostly, to women having these feelings and thoughts. Jealousy and envy are just a symptom of the real problem which is poor self-confidence in the corporate environment. We discovered a vicious circle which shows us the connection between jealousy, self-confidence, competition and success. The vicious circle could be an input to the debate to explain obstacles that women could meet in their path to leading positions.
Women have to start believing in themselves with help of society where she is not directly or indirectly restrained for the fact of being a woman.
III
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our preeminent tutor Mikael Lundgren and Philippe Daudi for excellent suggestions. Our interviewees have been a tremendous help in our search for answers and we thank you for your openness and willingness to talk about a sensitive subject. We wish you all the best for
the future.
Our families and friends know our tremendous gratitude for giving us support and inspiration during these months of thesis writing.
Julie thanks Andrea and Andrea thanks Julie for great teamwork and many hours of hard work but also fun.
Julie Sassus Andrea Sarmiento
June 2008 Kalmar, Sweden
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Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________ 1 1.1 The scarcity of female leaders ______________________________________________ 1 1.2 Identifying Reasons for the scarcity__________________________________________ 2 1.3 Objective and purpose of the research________________________________________ 3 1.4 The nature of our research problem __________________________________________ 3 2 RESEARCH DESIGN _______________________________________________ 5 2.1 Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 5
2.1.1 Qualitative research ___________________________________________________________ 5
2.1.2 The Inductive approach _______________________________________________________ 6
2.2 Data sources _____________________________________________________________ 6 2.3 Interviews _______________________________________________________________ 6
2.3.1 Selecting the interviewees ______________________________________________________ 7
2.3.2 Conducting the interviews ______________________________________________________ 7
2.3.3 We as women and interviewers __________________________________________________ 8
2.3.4 Language and place ___________________________________________________________ 8
2.3.5 Structuring and analyzing the interviews ___________________________________________ 9
2.1 Our research _____________________________________________________________ 9 3 THE INTERVIEWEES AND THEIR STORIES________________________ 11 3.1 The interviewees and their organizations - a presentation _______________________ 11
3.1.1 Interviewees one and two _____________________________________________________ 11
3.1.2 Interviewees three and four ____________________________________________________ 12
3.1.3 Interviewees five and six ______________________________________________________ 12
3.1.4 Interview seven and eight _____________________________________________________ 13
3.2 Men and society which do not see women as leaders __________________________ 14 3.3 Women valuing female leaders _____________________________________________ 14 3.4 Difficult to be a woman in a corporate environment! ___________________________ 16 3.5 Better working and communicating with men ________________________________ 17 3.6 Jealousy, envy and malicious competition between women _____________________ 18
3.6.1 You are a Woman – I am a Woman _____________________________________________ 20
3.7 To feel support __________________________________________________________ 21 3.8 What are our obstacles?___________________________________________________ 22
3.8.1 Family ____________________________________________________________________ 22
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3.8.3 Sector and Society ___________________________________________________________ 24
3.9 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 25 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND INTERPRETATION ____________ 26 4.1 Deep level ______________________________________________________________ 26
4.1.1 Jealousy ___________________________________________________________________ 26
4.1.2 Envy _____________________________________________________________________ 28
4.1.3 Self-confidence and self-esteem _________________________________________________ 29
4.2 Middle level ____________________________________________________________ 34
4.2.1 Motivation and ambition ______________________________________________________ 34
4.3 Shallow level ____________________________________________________________ 35
4.3.1 Competition and risk taking ___________________________________________________ 35
4.4 Summary ______________________________________________________________ 38 4.5 The vicious circle ________________________________________________________ 38 5 CONCLUSION ____________________________________________________ 40 5.1 Further research _________________________________________________________ 41 6 LIST OF REFERENCES ____________________________________________ 42 Bibliography ________________________________________________________________ 42 Internet ____________________________________________________________________ 44 7 APPENDICES _____________________________________________________ 46 Interview guides _____________________________________________________________ 46 Swedish quotations of the interviews ____________________________________________ 54
VI
Disposition of the thesis
Thesis: Women, are we our own obstacles when making careers?
1
1
Introduction
This chapter introduces the area and the background for the research. The focus is on the scarcity of female leaders and the difficulty to point out an obvious obstacle that explains the phenomena.
1.1
The scarcity of female leaders
Women are underrepresented both in political and business power positions around the world and can easily be counted. The Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership points to leaders ruling countries or territories such as in; Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, and Canada which have women as Heads of State. Moreover, there are seven female Presidents, in Chile, Finland, Argentina, India, Ireland, The Philippines and Liberia. There are equally many Prime Ministers; indeed there are only six: in Germany, New Zeeland, Ukraine, The Netherlands Antilles, Mozambique, and the Åland Islands. (guide2womenleaders.com) Nevertheless, according to the national statistics in the United Kingdom, men are twice as likely as women to be managers and senior officials (National statistics UK). This fact does not seem to be an exception for other developed countries. Fortune 500 from 2007 which contains the 500 largest corporations in the United States shows that only 12 of these companies are run by women (CNNmoney.com). In other developed countries like France and Netherlands only 9% and 20% respectively of the workforce are female administrators and managers. Although the participation of managers is overall lower in the developing countries, we still find developing countries with a higher percentage than in developed countries. Ecuador and Bahamas are examples of this with 33% female managers. (Onlinewomeninpolitics.org) In 2005, Sweden was identified by the United Nations Development Program, as the third most gender equal country in the world, which proves that women are actively taking part in the work life. However, Sweden is the 39th country in the world in terms of number of female leaders. Anna Wahl (2003) explains that, in 2002, the Swedish government investigated the current situation regarding women in top positions in the business area, studying statistics about women and men in top positions in different countries and different areas. The result of the study was that 87% of the 678 organisations that have been investigated were lead by men, and 42% of the organisations were built up with only men. According to this study, women represent 17% of the working force whereas men represent 83%. In the last few years, one could have seen some progress in advancing gender equity in the world (Wirth, 2001). Women are more active in the work force and they can reach a top position more easily than in the past. Their access to education continues to improve, which gives them the
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knowledge and skills to move into leading positions. Disregarding women’s movements in the world, governments, businesses or organizations that give energy and thought, there is still a persistent gender inequality in the workforce (Wirth 2001). The issue is of great significance since gender inequality affects the gender role which refers to people’s attitudes and behaviors by creating a stereotypical identity and role models. Women do not possess the same role models in their own gender as men do, and because women are underrepresented, the possibility for women to identify themselves with women as leaders has been and still is poor.
1.2
Identifying Reasons for the scarcity
The scarcity of female leaders is a fact, but the real reasons for the phenomenon are not easy to identify. Wirth (2001) explains that obstacles to women's progress into management come from several sources, such as the constraints which are imposed upon them by society, the employers, the family and also women themselves.
According to Garcia-Retamero and López-Zafra (2004) women are perfectly capable to run an organization like the opposite gender and they claim that researchers stress the advantages that female leaders have, but on the other hand they are targets of prejudices. Their research done in Spain illustrates that male leaders were always chosen before female leaders in all the branches, except where the industry was part of the female gender role. Researchers tend to explain this with help of a metaphor called the glass ceiling. According to Burke and Vinnicombe (2005), the glass ceiling is an invisible but impermeable obstacle that limits women’s careers in top positions. But what kinds of obstacles do women meet? According to Eagly (2002), the scarcity of female leaders can be explained by prejudices and discrimination against women, due to their gender. The role of men to explain the scarcity of female leaders is important due to their perception of women’s role but also the perception of male leaders by females could be very different which shows the complexity of the analysis of the phenomenon. Due to powerful positions for males in organizations and society, men could possibly feel resistance to females reaching the same power positions. When women are asked about the reasons justifying their lower representation in a top level, they regard men’s conservative attitudes, the hierarchical structures in working life and traditional organizations as the main obstacles leading to women’s competences not being used to the full. (Wahl, 1995) Numerous studies done by among others Garcia-Retamero and López-Zafra (2004) and Wahl (1995) illustrate that attitudes that men have against women are in many cases an obstacle for women in reaching the top but what about attitudes that women have towards women? For many years there has been a taboo enlighting women’s attitude to each other. Even if research has been
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done in this area the focuses of the studies have not been women’s attitudes towards each other and new studies about female attitudes are also missing in this particular issue. (Mooney 2005) The results of a study done by Garcia-Retamero and López-Zafra (2004) show that contrary to their hypothesis, male participants had a lower tendency than female participants to consider women as less qualified than men to become a leaders. This does not mean that the focus from men being targets as for a change of thoughts about female leaders is eliminated but a new focus is born, namely women’s thoughts and feelings. Women believing that other females are less qualified to become leaders show less encouraging feelings and thoughts towards other women which might lead to their discrediting other women. This opens up another perspective of obstacles that women may encounter when climbing the career ladder. Importance given to men regarding their feelings and thoughts toward women is relevant, trying to establish a more equal and diversified work force but the importance to shed some light on women’s feelings and thoughts about women also becomes vastly relevant and interesting in the search of obstacles for women to climb in their careers. Based upon the above discussion our research problem is women’s feelings and thoughts towards other women which might become an obstacle in reaching managerial positions or making careers.
1.3
Objective and purpose of the research
The aim of this study is to gain knowledge about women’s feelings and thoughts about other women in a corporate environment to be able to draw conclusions whether this matter can be a contribution to the debate concerning obstacles for women to climb in their career.
1.4
The nature of our research problem
Feelings and thoughts are complex subjects to explore; there are no indicators that tell us what are being explored are specifically feelings and thought and not something else as for example expressions. Therefore, it is an interesting subject but at the same time a delicate subject which requires our consciousness about the area. Discovering feelings and thoughts as a result, cannot be assured from our part as authors, when making our research but instead this would be up to the reader to evaluate. We may be able to explore feelings and thoughts and, or only, expressions concerning our research problem. It will be complex or rather unfeasible to know if our research is able to maple out feelings and thoughts and to prove the opposite, that our research does not illustrate feelings and thoughts may also be a complex matter. We consider that expressions may be
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in many cases and also in this particularly research, an insight of feelings and thoughts. We will not aim to discover if these feelings and thoughts exist but to hear and interpret what is expressed regarding our research problem, this will be called feelings and thoughts.
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2
Research Design
This chapter explains our choice of methodology to study women’s feelings and thoughts in Sweden. As we use qualitative research, we want to justify this choice in this chapter, but also present the process to obtain data collection,
and to introduce how to answer our research question.
2.1
Introduction
Methodology is a tool which helps the researchers to approach problems and to solve them, or at least, to find some answers. It is essential since it structures the research, giving a direction to determine the methods used, but also to build the analysis of the research question (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984). This stated, we put emphasis on relevant methodology for our research through considering the different options to answer our research issue and the choices we made in a satisfactorily way.
2.1.1
Qualitative research
André Lalande (1988), a French philosopher, argues that quantity is just one characteristic of quality. That means quantity is a way to measure quality. In this perspective, it is very difficult to dissociate qualitative research from quantitative research. Nevertheless, qualitative and quantitative methods are useful for different problems. Strauss and Corbin (1990) explained that qualitative research can be used to research people’s lives, stories and behavior, but also organizational functions, social movements, or interactional relationships, contrary to quantitative research which is more often used when it is possible to measure what is studied. Our aim is not to be able to generalize or quantify. Since we wish to study feeling and thoughts, a qualitative research method is more suitable.
According to Walliman (2001), qualitative research is used to evaluate attitudes and behaviors with results that come from several different answers. Those answers are usually unique, full of details, and absolutely not standardized, which makes the analysis more complex. In our case, it would be difficult to really measure, from a mathematical or statistical point of view, the consequences of women
’s feelings and thoughts as a possible obstacle for other women. In view of what is mentioned above, the qualitative approach is the better choice for our research.
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2.1.2
The Inductive approach
According to Patton (1990) qualitative methods can be both inductive and deductive. It is also possible to merge these two approaches then called the abductive approach.
The deductive or top-down approach, starts from the theory and then empirical studies confirm or do not confirm the original theory. It means to start with the more general and move to the more specific. On the other hand, the inductive or bottom-up approach starts with specific observations leading to simplifications that enable the researcher to state a theory. Since the aim of the thesis is to enlighten women’s feelings and thoughts, we first observed the phenomena starting from an empirical level to advance to the theory aspiring to generate a theoretical model. Previous studies were used as inspiration for asking questions but not in the sense that they are used as a theory confirming the findings, which would make it deductive research.
2.2
Data sources
There are two types of data sources: primary and secondary. According to Patton (1990), primary data are collected at the source, directly by the researchers and will then also have greater validity since the data are collected for a specific research study. Secondary data can take the form of research articles, other documents and also other books related to our topic. These data have been collected in previous studies, but are still valuable for our study completing our primary data. When primary data needs to be completed for a better understanding or evaluation, secondary data will be used as a supplement. Likewise secondary data are used to back up primary data to give more credence to the primary data (Thietart 2001).
2.3
Interviews
According to Ritchie and Lewis (2003) an in-depth interview is the main method to collect relevant primary data when the aim is to find out about feelings, thoughts, experiences, in other words stories without a yes or no answer. Our approach was to conduct a general interview in which the significance of a guided conversation is stressed (Patton 1990).
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2.3.1
Selecting the interviewees
It is relevant to our research to collect information from women who are in a process of becoming leaders, are leaders or have experience in the subject, to study what kinds of resistance and obstacles they feel and what their feelings and thoughts are about other women around them. The goal with selecting interviewees was to gather people with different stories which was done by selecting people with different backgrounds, ages and work places, since the aim is not to have a representative sample but a strategic selection. The intention is never to be able to quantify or to mention how many interviewees provided a certain answer but instead we aimed at diversity to be able to explore the field. According to Ritchie and Lewis (2003), qualitative research is synonymous of small samples. The important thing was to feel satisfied with the number of interviews when the answers did not add any more relevant information to our research. Time was also a factor for deciding on the number of interviewees and we did not want to go for quantity at the cost of quality. Therefore a sample of eight people was selected and interviewed individually to assure discretion for the given answers. To gather deeper understanding about what happens in the company and feelings and thoughts from the interviewees, two women were chosen from each organization. To protect the anonymity of the interviewees neither names from the interviewees nor the organization they are working for are mentioned. A description of different women and their working place is provided but without giving the possibility to connect them to their stories or reveal the company names. The anonymous treatment was appreciated and also strongly emphasized by our interviewees and furthermore sometimes a prerequisite for becoming a respondent for our research study.
2.3.2
Conducting the interviews
The first contact taken with the interviewees was through e-mail where they were informed generally about the subject and time for the interview and also about the anonymous treatment of their answers.
According to Jan Trost (1993), qualitative interviews are more seldom performed with help of a questionnaire. Instead question guides are used for the reason that the interviewee should decide the order and the concentration. A short question guide was made with help of secondary data used for the introduction to be able not to lose the thread and guide the interview (See Appendix: Interview Guides). There are disadvantages and advantages with recording the interviews. The advantages are that the interview can be listened to more than once and the possibilities to print it out and therefore not lose any data. The concentration will only be on the interviewee instead and not on writing down the interview. Disadvantages are a bothered or nervous interviewee and the time to print out
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the interviews. As an interviewer it is preferable to have the interviews recorded if the interviewee gives her consent. (Trost, 1993) The interviews were printed out but we also experienced nervous or uncomfortable interviewees where it was not possible to use recorder. Therefore, in one occasion the recorder was turned off during the interview and in another occasion the recorder was not used at all; in these cases notes were taken.
2.3.3
We as women and interviewers
If the subject is of a sensitive character it is important to be able to feel empathy and the gender of the interviewer may be important. Being able to identify ourselves with the interviewees, understand the interviewees’ feelings and thoughts could be an advantage in feeling empathy. (Trost 1993) During the interviews this has been a significant matter since the interviewees were women talking about feelings and thoughts that may be seen as taboo or may have caused the interviewee bad conscience if the interviewer would not have felt empathy. Nevertheless, it might be a disadvantage for the study to have female interviewers touching a taboo subject among women. This was however never seen as a problem since the way the interviewees expressed themselves was relating to the interviewer as a woman and researcher and not a competitor to them. On many occasions, the interviews seemed to be normal conversations between two people that were able to feel and think the same and understands these feelings and thoughts. Being women interviewing women was considered as an advantage and seen as an important factor for women opening up.
2.3.4
Language and place
The interviewees live in Sweden and were given the choice to conduct the interview in Swedish or English. We stressed the importance for the interviewee of feeling comfortable with us as interviewers but also not having any language obstacles and feeling free to speak from her heart. This can be difficult if the interviewee’s first language is not English or she does not feel comfortable with another language than Swedish. This was feasible since one of the authors of this study is fluent in the Swedish language. A minority of the interviewees chose to conduct the interview in English. Therefore in most cases only one interviewer was present with the interviewee in their office or another quiet room in their work place. Due to the majority choosing Swedish as the interviewee language some quotations are translations and are to be found at the end of the document in the appendix called Swedish quotations of the interviews. Original English quotations are to be found in Swedish, in order not to reveal the people choosing English as the interview language.
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2.3.5
Structuring and analyzing the interviews
The open coding is a part of the grounded theory which is concerned with the analyzing part of research. The main idea is to identify, name and categorize what was found in the research, in our case, in our interviews and then be able to describe the phenomena. To be able to accomplish this, it is crucial to always ask yourself the questions; What is this about? What is being referenced here? (Strauss and Corbin 1990). In this study, this was possible to achieve due to the printed out interviews and tapes. The description of the empirical findings is named according to the interviewees’ feelings and thoughts and thereafter categorized in the interpretation part in three different levels. The classification in three levels is based on the easiness to measure the role of those criteria. Furthermore, this will be used for drawing conclusions and describing the phenomena with the aim of generating a theory. This strategy of analyzing interviews can, according to Patton (2003), be called cross-case analysis which refers to group answers together from different people to common questions.
Due to the requested anonymity and the leaders and the non-leaders being from the same company and aware of the interviews being made, a specific number is never given when illustrating how many stated one specific thing. Terms such as; “a majority” and “a minority” are used. This not to fall into the trap and reveal the interviewees by using words such as “all” which would reveal the person (s). A presentation of the interviewees is though given and also the company but when quoting the interviewees, it will be possible to follow the person and her position but without knowing from which company. This is due to the high anonymity required.
2.1
Our research
In qualitative research the trustworthiness of the study can be divided into four criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. (Bryman & Bell, 2007)
The credibility criterion refers to how believable the findings of an investigation are. A high degree of credibility is achieved by for example using more than one source of data and a theoretical perspective. Our findings do not originate from one source but from eight respondents. Through our approach of different perspectives on one issue in the theoretical framework we can claim to have more than one theoretical perspective.
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The transferability criterion refers to whether the findings can be applied to other situations or social environments. If the study does not have high transferability the results of our study would only be applicable to this specific area. We consider that our findings can be applicable not only to an organizational group but also other groups where a hierarchy is decided or chosen, consciously or unconsciously. Feelings and thoughts may stay the same or change. It is more likely that feelings and thoughts change since it may be seen as a generation issue. On the other hand these matters concern the issue of the interviewees and who they are. This study has a broad selection of eight interviewees with different backgrounds, ages and experiences of the subject. In this way we interpret our study as having an accepted degree of transferability since the same kind of respondents would probably give the same or similar empirical findings.
The dependability criterion is concerned with the study in its different processes and the possibility for questioning the study. Due to the anonymity from our interviewees we try to keep high dependability by; describing the interviewees as much as allowed and illustrating our research process. The degree of dependability may decrease from the fact that we do have printed documents of the interviews but which are not accessible records.
Confirmability refers to whether the investigator has allowed his or her values to intrude to a high degree. Any credible research requires that the researcher should not set out to prove a particular perspective or manipulate the data to arrive at predisposed truths. (Patton 1990) We started this research with no theory to prove and no predetermined results to support. Our aim was to understand the issue as it is and to be open to complexities and multiple perspectives as they emerge.
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3
The Interviewees and their Stories
This chapter presents our interviewees and their organizations. It continues with an illustration of the interviews in form of direct quotations and a justification why they are important for our research study.
3.1
The interviewees and their organizations - a presentation
Considering the anonymity of our interviewees we present them by giving them a random number to explain their background and organization they are currently working in. When the interviewees are quoted they are given a random letter to give the possibility to follow the interviewee throughout the chapter. Capital letters represent leaders and minuscule letters represent non-leaders. Every presentation starts describing the organization to then continue with the interviewees working for the company.3.1.1
Interviewees one and two
The organization
The small Swedish organization with around 20 employees is owned by the municipality and also belongs to a big group with other Managing Directors which are all men. The company in matter has a work force consisting of 66% women.
The leader
The leader is a Managing Director in one of these companies belonging to the group. She has been working abroad for a long period of time with tourism and sales which was followed by eight years in the insurance branch in Sweden, where she also had a position as a manager during three years. After this period of work she decided to study and graduated with a bachelor degree. The position as a Managing Director is her first position in the company and she has been working there a bit over one year.
The member of the staff
She has an educational background which consists on an upper secondary school graduation in economics. With many years of administrational experience she has been working in several
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different private organizations. In this particular company she has been working since 1981 with just one interruption.
3.1.2
Interviewees three and four
The organization
The organization is part of a bigger association which is owned by the Swedish government. The whole organization has 800 employees with a woman as a leader. The department where the interviewed leader and employee work has around 90 employees which represent good sexual gender equality. Although the positions are unequal distributed between men and women since mostly of the administrative positions are taken by female.
The leader
The head of the organization is a woman with greatly experience in different areas. She has worked as recreation leader, teacher in basic school and as accountant before she came to this organization. Her first employment was not the position she has today as head of the organization but other manager position which also included coordinating the employees. Her educational background includes a postgraduate exam.
The member of the staff
This young woman has a bachelor degree and this organization is her first employment after graduating. She has several duties; among other she gathers the basic data for decision-making and therefore working close to the head of the organization. Before this work position she had other employments but not relevant for her education and also no leader jobs.
3.1.3
Interviewees five and six
The organization
The organization owned by the government has 377 local offices around Sweden with over 5 000 employees where 60% of the staff are women. Two of these 377 local offices were visited. The chosen leader’s workplace is an office with over 50 employees and consists of mostly women. The interviewed employee belongs to another middle size office with around 40 employees where the equality is one of the best compared with the rest of the 377 offices around Sweden.
13 The leader
The leader is a young woman with leader positions from a very young age. After graduating with a bachelor degree she has had three qualified leadership positions within and outside the mentioned organization with its offices. Every work position has always meant more responsibility and been a climb for her in the career. Since around half a year she is the director of one office, having the head of the total organization as only person above her.
The member of the staff
The chosen employee is a woman with an international background and has three university degrees from two different countries. She has experiences in different areas such as in library, teaching and tutoring. She has been working as an intermediary since around three years and has a woman as leader.
3.1.4
Interview seven and eight
The organization
This private joint stock company is a technical oriented company and very male dominated with over 75% male workers. The company is situated in two different parts of Sweden. The interviewees are working in the production part of the company which has around 300 employees.
The leader
The leader is a woman that has a master degree and is today working as a Production manager. In this company she has also worked as controller which gave her good opportunities to climb. She is only working with male managers and co-workers besides few exceptions.
The member of the staff
She is a young woman on her first work place after graduating with a degree as engineer. She has not had any leadership positions or qualified work places concerning her university degree. She has stayed in the same position for almost three years but her responsibilities are increasing.
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3.2
Men and society which do not see women as leaders
A majority of the interviewees seem to agree that society and men do not see women as leaders. Society which does not see women as leaders has been discussed in the introduction chapter and seems to be a common thought among our interviewees. The following two quotations, one from a young non-leader and the second from an experienced leader, illustrate their thoughts and feelings regarding how society sees them;
“He would have been seen as leader more than I… he is a man… “He should lead here” would many have unconsciously thought. Nobody would think about me as a leader because I am a woman.” i A
”We have a tradition of older men being bosses. We associate leadership with men in a suit and that becomes natural for us and then I think, it becomes more natural to listen to one of those… totally unconsciousness because a person that doesn’t fit in that picture does not get natural authority.” ii B
The above quoted leader continues by saying;
“Especially by older men, I can feel that they think I am a little bit too weak” iii A
This leader was not alone in feeling that men might see women as weaker and not able to carry through their tasks as good as men.
It is clear that the majority of our interviewees do not feel that society gives them a push in making careers or see them as competitive and potential leaders.
3.3
Women valuing female leaders
The interviewees own thoughts about female leaders were an important part in our interviews since not only does the majority feel difficulties with society and men but they might see female leaders as a disadvantage as well. It would be a contradiction to see women as less competitive when they wish to see more women in top positions or strive for a top position themselves, which characterize our interviewees.
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“Before I have had X female leaders through the years that have had a evasive way, nice, sweet and smile but that doesn’t lead you anywhere, I don’t believe in that.” iv c
“… it can happen that if you have a difficult task that you unconsciously hire a man because you think he is more capable to do it than a woman. To put all work that is needed, because a man put more time and energy on his work but a woman wants to have more leisure time. Then maybe you would rather hire a man...” v f
“…sometimes can a negative part of a female boss be this consideration for other people and that I think it is a female thing, everybody has to feel good and at work you want to have your colleagues with you and you have to think on everybody and then it can be difficult to take decision which do not gain everybody. There I think a man can be more definitive and decide that this is the way it should be and there are some who do not like it but that is fine for him while a woman have more difficulties with it and tries to compromise as much as possible and that can be seen as a fussy leadership, that is neither that or this… but what is most right I don’t know… it depends on the situation but sometimes it can be good with straight decisions and know what is valid and that it is equal for everybody.” vi e
“Some may have really difficult to take orders from a female boss but if it would come from a man it would be more right, it is like former times that it is better to be lead by a man...” vii f
A majority sees positive aspects, starting with a leader;
”We demand more, we give more and we demand more. We have a completely different way of working.” viii B
The majority of our non-leaders continue giving positive examples by saying;
”Before it was like this… you were on a factory and you had to work in a certain way and had a position, now it is more a team that has to work and that is also so that everybody feels good and that comes from a woman. You want everybody to feel good, have the colleagues with of course everybody can’t be part of the decision making, that doesn’t work.” ix d
“In a company you often make sure that you become a team, you have to work together and I think female leaders see that, in former times it was mostly male leaders because you saw that the man had
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more determined way and it was more one-track decisions and then I think it is more for men, women are more open.” x e
“You think that a female boss would be a little more soft and handle personnel issues better but that is only because you have that view about women… but that women are little softer makes it possible for them to have more employees in their charge… that is just an advantage.” xi f
”If you would have a female boss and she would not be this envious type, then it would only be advantages having a female boss.” xii f
A big majority stresses the significance of the leader’s personality and due to that makes it impossible to say which the best leader is; a man or a woman. However, this big majority has also discussed leadership in terms of female and male leadership; here follow two quotations from non-leaders;
”It is personality but in some cases it can be a bit easier to have a man (as a leader) for me as a woman.” xiii d
“Either the chemistry fits or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t it also don’t matter if it is a man or a woman it just won’t work.” xiv c
The majority of our interviewees express positive thoughts about female leaders and the negative or concerned thoughts and feelings seem to be a kind of passivity in women leaders or insecurity. Our interviewees also seem to put female leaders in a more modern world and male bosses are seen as more old fashioned. Not being able for our interviewees to show who the better boss is indicates the importance of personality instead of the gender.
3.4
Difficult to be a woman in a corporate environment!
One frequent feeling was expressing difficulties about being a woman and even worse to be a young woman in a leading position. Three leaders expressed some difficulties by saying;
” I don’t know why there is such a view on women but I have a feeling that, and that is not only when talking about leadership, but women must perform a little more to maybe come up to the same level or
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become appreciated on the same level as male colleagues and that can be rooted in old traditions and the role of the woman.” xv A
“Some persons that shows what they want and show that they want to work are not always appreciated by co-workers. That has not to do with gender but can be even worse if a woman shows what she wants.” xvi G
”If you have older men working with men all the time then it is very difficult to get in. We have to perform more and show that we exist and so on.” xvii B
These feelings show us situations that men also may encounter but somehow are felt from our interviewees more difficult to handle because they are women. Having a feeling of showing yourself better than men was a common feeling among our interviewees. This feeling may be grounded in self-confidence and that the work places are very often male dominated in higher positions.
3.5
Better working and communicating with men
The majority of the interviewees stressed the easiness to work and to communicate with men. Positive factors mentioned regarding this are among others straightness, directness, less fussy and can be illustrated by the following quotations from two non-leaders;
“… you can have a straighter conversation and don’t need to go around the subject, you have to do that sometimes with female colleagues… think a little bit not to hurt her when you say that what she is doing could actually be done better and there I think a man can take better.” xviii e
“…easier to have a woman as a co-worker but at the same time it can be harder if something goes wrong, if you don’t get the personality to work it can be harder to work with a woman than with a man.” xix d
It was also mentioned by leaders and one example is the following;
“Women are more demanding in all respects and we have an ability to fuss… it is a lot of energy that are put into female groups when I am working with female groups and male groups… I feel that it is more demanding to work with women.” xx B
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Not only does the majority of the interviewees says that they work better and communicate better with men but some also mentioned that they think that women in general work and communicate better with men.
A young minority also says that it is faster to communicate with women and even emphasize age difference among women but also different personalities as one non-leader and leader explained;
“… I think that it is easier to communicate with women, you find each other easier than with men but when you have got to know the man then it is fine.” xxi f
“… I can feel that it is also easier to communicate with younger women than with women around 50 years so I think it has a little to do with age. It can also be personalities and then nothing to do with age. But my experience is that I communicate easier with young women that with older.” xxii H
It is to assume that when someone works and communicates best with a kind of people it also wishes to have them around themselves which would lead to women choosing men. Regardless of what they have felt about working and communicating with women, a big majority stressed the significance of having mixed groups of men and women but also of age and background.
3.6
Jealousy, envy and malicious competition between women
Talking about envy, jealousy and malicious competition between women was intricate in the sense of understanding the situation that they were discussing and the level of seriousness but also that the interviewees could many times give the impression of contradicting themselves. We are though interested in their thoughts and feelings about the issue and this contradiction shows that it is not an easy matter. Female jealousy, envy and malicious competition might cause obstacles for women and therefore becomes vastly relevant for our research study.A big majority has experienced themselves or noticed jealousy among women in their working place, it is also very common that the interviewees compare female jealousy and rivalry with male jealousy and rivalry and see differences which are difficult to explain for them. A majority also mentions malicious competition as something that women have from nature. The following chosen quotations from leaders and non-leaders touch this subject;
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“We women are jealous… well men can be jealous too but not in the same way… women can be a little bit more spiteful.” xxiii B
“Women could be very... a little bit... sometimes they envy you if you have another position that perhaps they would like to, they long for the same position and so on… men also envy, but in a different way I think. They….it is a very tricky way of discussing this because it is just a feeling you have…. I can feel a little bit more… the envy from women I think is worst, and that is personal because I think when... you fight or what do you say against men, you can... I have done it because I am a woman, and it strengths you, but if you fight against another woman, it is more like we are equal in some sense, so, it is harder to put her away, if I can use that word.” xxiv A
“Between women, we can expose each other for a lot... you can see that on children in all ages that girls are very hard towards each other and in competitive situations, to be seen and get verification is important. If we are three bosses that want the same amount of verification than you almost have a rival, you are rivals.” xxv B
“But that kind of competition between women is to be seen in other departments among other women… normally little older women… so I know that it exists. But I don’t feel it here; I don’t have any experience about that. But I absolutely think that it can be that way that you should be alert.” xxvi F
“Women have it easier to be mad at another woman. It is like we talked before that you are a little bit mean as a woman, when a woman feels bad in her work place it is mostly because of another woman, you often think that it is men because you hear about sexual harassment and so but I think that this spitefulness and meanness are coming from women and that is a kind of envy, you are rivals in another way.” xxvii d
When asked why the interviewee felt that she had to change work to be able to climb in the organization and be a leader for her colleagues she answered;
“Unfortunately it is a woman characteristic. We do not encourage each other to go forward but get jealous and envy each other and can many times depreciate. Men are better at lifting up each other and like: “good work you nailed it!” while a woman or a girl is more like: “well, now she thinks that she is something”.” xxviii e
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At the same time there is a minority that emphasizes the importance of having a good self-confidence to not see many competitors.
”As a girl you often do not have self-confidence and that comes with you because a person that is secure in herself and has an own self-confidence is not afraid of competitors because if you don’t have that with you all the others will then be rivals. I think that guys have better self-confidence in general.” xxix H
A minority has almost not experienced, felt or seen jealousy among women, as one leader says.
“I can’t say that I have noticed it, I know that it can exist but I haven’t seen it in my surroundings… no I haven’t. I really haven’t experienced it.” xxx H
The majority of the interviewees were not talking about jealousy, envy and competition between women as something positive that would strengthen them but rather the contrary. If it does not strengthen it might be seen as something negative and therefore become an obstacle for women wanting to make careers or simply feel good at work.
3.6.1
You are a Woman – I am a Woman
A majority of the interviewees mentioned the ability to compare themselves with other women and therefore makes it easier to compete with them and feel envy but also to help other women.
”You compare yourself with other girls. If guys would be better than I, I would just accept it but if the girls would have been better than I then you start to ask yourself why…” xxxi f
“You are never like a man, a woman and a woman are the same and then it is like: “yes I am better” or “I want to be better”, it is easier to compare yourself and that you don’t do with a man” xxxii e
“It is easier to compare yourself with other women and then they are a bigger competitor that is clear… if there would be more men maybe you can stick out and set off yourself as a woman.” xxxiii G
“I have sometimes thought if I wouldn’t have got the position, if one of the males has got it, what my feelings have been. And I would probably have accepted it quite well because they have higher education and they are men. I am not sure how it could be competing with another woman; perhaps I have been more… I really don’t like it, because we are more the same.” xxxiv A
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A leader in minority of our interviewees expresses the connection between identification and helping by saying;
“I can identify myself more with a young girl that is in her career then with a guy so it is funnier to push her.” xxxv H
The ability for our interviewees to identify themselves with other women seems to be a factor for feeling envy and jealousy but also positive feelings. Nevertheless, the possibility to identify and compare oneself and therefore having negative feelings as a result might be a matter of poor self-confidence.
3.7
To feel support
Although that the majority has experienced or is conscious about envy, jealousy and malicious competition among women, they seem to feel support from each other which can be seen as a contradiction. These support feelings though, tend to sometimes come with a “but”. It can depend if women are competing for the same position, which brings less support or if women are not in the same business or work division, which brings more support towards each other. The interviewees stress that a man would have got more support both from male and female than they would have got when climbing in the organization. Two non-leaders and one leader express their feelings and thoughts concerning this issue;
”You are a group that supports each other no matter what you think about each other I think that women somehow back up each other because we know in which situation, position we are in…. another kind of support at least an understanding for woman as leader.” xxxvi d
“My colleagues here would support me if I would go further, absolutely but I think it would be tougher to become a leader for them here when you have been counted as equal to them, then it would have been easier to have it more mixed… more men.” xxxvii c
“I think women are more supportive, they can be more… try to cheer you up more often than men, whatever the position she has. So I think that is another reason why I feel more comfort from my female workers than from my male workers.” xxxviii A
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One leader answered the question from whom, man or women, she feels more support;
“I can’t say there is a difference, perhaps a little bit more from women. But I have had some support from men as well.” xxxix A
Another leader answered the following when talking about supporting other women;
“I don’t know... I think that… this thing about giving other persons a push… I try to think about that myself, to have capacity and ability and tell it to them no matter boys or girls but to be honest, I think it is funnier to tell it to girls because I think it is a group that maybe keep it low a bit… it doesn’t come so often so it is funnier to say it to a girl that she has capacity, but I say it to everybody. Because I can identify myself more with a young girl that is in her career than with a guy so it is funnier to push her.” xl H
Are women supporting each other or are they pulling each other down and therefore become an obstacle for them? The complexity of this matter is again here showed. Feeling jealousy and envy seems not to be a reason to not support other women in making careers.
3.8
What are our obstacles?
The interviewees were asked which obstacles could possibly exist when a woman wishes to become a leader. A majority answered family and themselves. Also to mention is that family was seen as the main obstacle when first asked about obstacles but when giving advices on how to become a leader it seems to be that the obstacle to overcome is oneself.
3.8.1
Family
The family issue seemed not to be a problem put by the employer but that women still have to choose between family and making careers. One non-leader and some leaders express their thoughts and feelings on this matter out of their own experience by saying;
”A women’s role is more about family matters and she is going to have maternity leave and be there when the children are sick and a boss always have to be present. So then it is mostly older women or young women that do not emphasize the family that gets up.” xli B
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”I think that a big part is that you break up in the middle of your life with children, you are home a couple of years from work, get back on part time, you take a bigger responsibility at home even if it is more on a equal footing nowadays, for the most. But I think you come behind because you are not enough to make careers and home and at work.” xlii c
“It takes so much time and energy to be a leader. And I think women think more about having a life at their home, with family and so on...I have read some statistics that it is not unusual that women on top positions have no children or have fewer children than other women in the same age, and I think it’s a price they have to pay. It’s very hard to combine a good family life with children and all the work that takes, and sitting, in a high positions because you have to be available, you have to be ready to work very much, even late hours, and be away for quite some time, and I don’t think you really feel good about it if you have small children at home. I think women… abandon top position because they want to be more with their family.” xliii A
3.8.2
Not believing and not daring!
A big majority saw the lack of initiative and believes in themselves as an obstacle. This may also be a product of poor self-confidence as it also was stated by some interviewees. One leader and non-leader expressed this by saying;
“Her own acting, she has to have self-confidence, that she is good enough. If she doesn’t have it then she can back and slow down instead. And then there are men around her that get those positions“ xliv d
“It is the men that dominate. But when you finally are there, women do a good job that is why more female bosses create more and more attention. The more which gets in the easier it is going to be for women, it was more difficult when there were few. It is also personality… you have a little extra job to get that position. If you don’t have the self confidence and think that you are very good for this, because that is what you have to think when you are standing in front of a man that thinks that he is really good.” xlv B
Another non-leader saw it different but still ended up in the same issue - poor self-confidence;
“I think that the biggest obstacle is in you. That you don’t dare to take the step is probably based on our culture or tradition to not dare… already from school it is like boys are louder and take more place
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so I think that the biggest obstacle is in ourselves and that is sad. You think that you are not good enough.” xlvi f
Feelings that you will not manage a task can be related to not believing in yourself, as our next non-leader expresses;
“I think that what keeps a woman back towards a man is that the man thinks better of himself than a woman does, they feel more… they have easier to believe on themselves which you should do and a woman often don’t do then it is easier to back, they have easier to feel; “no, maybe I am not so good…” or “Do I manage this?” But a man thinks: “I manage this” they have easier to move forward, I guess that is what makes them go forward easier.” xlvii e
A leader confirmed the previous statement by saying;
”If there is any obstacle then it is this about believing in you, that you actually can do it and actually are accepted as female leader as male leader.” xlviii G
It was surprisingly to discover that leaders and non-leaders had the same feelings regarding the importance in believing in you and daring. This seems to be a rooted issue for women grounded in poor self-confidence.
3.8.3
Sector and Society
Some interviewees also mentioned other things like the following quotations said by a leader and non-leader;
“I think it depends on what kind of business you are working in because I think there are some businesses where it’s hard to be a women, if you are running a bus company, or more the kind of male branches.” xlix A
”I think that the society does not see women as leader. When you think about a leader you think about a man that rules, leader and woman still does not fit unconsciously among people. You try to change it but it still lives on.” l e
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Our findings in this particular chapter are of a great interest for our study since the interviewees expressed specific what their obstacles are. In the introduction it was mainly stated that obstacles felt from women were men’s conservative attitudes, the hierarchical structures in working life and traditional organizations. Although men’s attitudes were brought up, it was never mentioned as an obstacle but a difficulty, is it the same? What seems to be obvious obstacles are instead traditional roles played in the family or family duties, society and a feeling of not daring and believing in yourself.
3.9
Summary
Our findings show us a big diversification in answers and the possibility to explore feelings and thoughts in the search of seeing women as an obstacle for themselves. Self-confidence seems to be an important and repeating issue that is sometimes seen as the product of or reason for a cause or feeling. Although women seem to have negative feelings and thoughts towards each other they feel and give support. Leaving this chapter we can verify that much was discovered and left for interpretation.
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4
Theoretical Framework and Interpretation
The major subjects mentioned in the previous chapter about our empirical findings are described in this chapter and are; jealousy, envy, self-confidence, ambition and competition. We here also present an interpretation of our empirical
findings wit help of our theoretical framework.
This chapter is divided in three different levels. In the first one; the deep level which is more difficult to measure or see; we focus on jealousy, envy and self-confidence. The deep level is more based on beliefs and therefore less concrete. In the second one, the middle level, ambition and motivation are described, and in the last one, the shallow level, we focus on competition and risk-taking.
4.1
Deep level
4.1.1
Jealousy
There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other. (Madeleine Albright, cited in Marklund & Snickare, 2004, p. 5)
The difficulties that women meet with each other when it is time to reach a higher position are taboo. The feeling of threat among women is usually a factor that releases jealousy, which is often synonymous of sabotage or talk behind one’s another back. Then, the feeling of begrudging when another woman gets a better position is common (Mooney 2005). This jealousy seems to be confirmed by many, among other also Gustafsson (2004).
Jealousy is a feeling, like fear or anger for example, and nobody is immune to this feeling. When someone feels threatened, insecure or vulnerable, jealousy becomes very common (Mooney 2005). These feelings might then be a product of being a minority in the work place and also comes from the lack of self-confidence. One can say that one reason for women being jealous in the work place is because of insecurity and minority. If you feel secure and if you are confident enough about yourself, then jealousy will probably decrease. Jealousy might then not be seen as a problem but as a symptom of a problem. The most important for women is to find the origins of this feeling.
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Why do women have the feeling to be more threatened or more vulnerable than men in equal environments or situations? According to Mooney (2005), when a man gets a leading position, his reputation and his legitimacy for this job are acquired. On the contrary, when a woman reaches a top position, she always has to prove to the others that she is able to do her job. Moreover, she has to argue and to justify for her position. Usually, women have to constantly prove that they have the right to be in top position. So, once they pass over the different barriers and obstacles they meet in their way to the top, they also have to manage and deal with some difficulties left in order to legitimate their work. This necessity to always fight to have some recognition of their legitimacy can also be an explanation for jealousy felt by some women. Due to the difficulty to reach higher positions, one can say that it is understandable that a woman become jealous of another one who succeeded.
According to Mooney (2005), feeling threatened heads to jealousy, which makes women talk behind their backs and sabotage for each other. Although some of our interviewees felt this jealousy, it was never mentioned that a direct action of sabotage could be the result. Not encouraging each other may not always be seen as sabotage. If one woman does not encourage another woman, it may not sabotage her chances to climb unless the woman who intends to sabotage makes something against it. This action to sabotage for another woman was not directly mentioned by our interviewees, although it was mentioned the ability to go far in actions when the possibility to get more power is there. Nevertheless, it might be taboo for women to say that direct sabotage was made or experienced. Their feelings though, about supporting others and feeling support might reveal the intentions to help other women. Hence, making sabotage or being sabotage will probably not lead to supporting each other.
Jealousy may be expressed in different ways. Regarding a work environment, women and men have different starting points. Men might be seen as more given for the task and work since they have been more represented in the work place than women. On the other hand, women need to put other kind of efforts that men do not need to. It might then be seen as men possess greater security and see other as a less threat when competing. It might then also be possible that men see women as a weaker competitor but women fear both men and women as competitors. (Gustafsson 2004)
Jealousy does not have the same consequences in work life for men and women because the original conditions are not the same, since men and women are not treated equally in society and especially when it is time to reach top positions. Jealousy is undeniably deeply connected to self-confidence. Moreover, Ellestad and Stets (1998) identified jealousy mainly as a negative emotion that could have
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negative consequences in the path to reach a higher position. Indeed, according to them, jealousy is the result of the absence of a self-verification process, mainly based on self-esteem.
If the feeling from a majority of our interviewees to need to prove themselves more than men and work harder, is coming from the unequal conditions in work life like Gustafsson (2004) claims or if it is a personality or background issue is difficult to say. The reason why a woman may feel that way could have different sources. Jealousy has then different consequences and not encouraging each other may be one and everybody may be seen as threat. When threat is present, jealousy is common according to Gustafsson (2004); this may create a bad circle of jealousy. On the other hand, a feeling of jealousy might keep women efficient, active and motivated in competition (Tracy, 1991 and Kirsch 2007), which was though never mentioned by our interviewees.
According to Redman (1995), leaders are not supposed to be jealous. In this reasoning, that means women do not have to be jealous if they want to reach high positions and stay on the top. Leaders do not pay attention to what the others have or not, because they have to be satisfied with their own emotional and material possessions. And when someone else has something more, or knows some successes, the leader has to just be happy about it without paying attention and wondering who is better, more efficient or smarter.
4.1.2
Envy
Envy is a feeling or an emotion different of jealousy. Envy is a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for possessions or qualities of another (thefreedictionary.com). From a leadership point of view, envy is connected to the idea to reach a better position and enjoy the advantages connected to this high position. Usually, envy is mainly seen as negative, like jealousy. Nevertheless, both, jealousy and envy can lead to positive effects. According to Kirsch (2007), envy is a way to express a discontent. Because it consumes its ‘victims’, envy is seen as a negative and destructive feeling. Usually, jealous and envious people suffer due to these feelings because they notice that they would like to have something they do not have. That highlights the fact they are not able to reach their goals due to a lack of competence, motivation or bad luck. The problem is not that others have more than envious people; the problem is that envious people have less than the others. Women can be envious of other women who achieved a higher position, but women can also be envious of men. They can envy what the job represents for them, which means they could envy the advantages, they could envy the way of life, they could envy
