Female managers in Japan: early indications of career progression

Abstract

Purpose Aims to determine the self‐perceptions of Japanese female white‐collar employees regarding defined aspects of their work environment. Design/methodology/approach The sample consisted of Japanese workers employed in Japanese and foreign (US and European) financial services companies. The self‐perceptions were tested and compared: directly with the self‐perceptions of male counterparts, and within an exclusively female sample divided into two subsets of Japanese and foreign companies operating in Japan. Findings Results show that despite recent employment system changes, clearly segregated gender roles persist in the Japanese workplace with female employees reporting significantly lower self‐evaluations of their training‐received, future prospects and understanding of operations than their male counterparts. However, when female results are subdivided by national origin of their company, Japanese women employed in foreign companies show significantly higher self‐evaluations of training‐received, future prospects than their female counterparts employed in Japanese companies. Research limitations/implications To eliminate cross‐industry interference and erroneous differences the research focuses exclusively on the financial securities industry. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized to other companies operating in other industries in Japan. Practical implications The results suggest that foreign companies are providing a higher degree of gender empowerment and offer important early insights into the hiring, training and creation of a new cadre of female white‐collar workers in Japan. Originality/value The study extends research into understanding issues surrounding female white‐collar workers in a period of great change in Japanese companies and society itself.

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