Gender Stereotypes and Women in Management The Case of Banking Sector of Pakistan

Abstract

The role of women worldwide is undergoing a dramatic change as women today share the spotlight with men in almost all fields.About 15% of the government ministers are women in all 192 countries in the world compared with 11.7% in 1997.In 20 countries, constituting less than 10%, there are women heads of the states. These trends are also reflected in the private and public sector organizations be it the manufacturing or service industry women as a rule are seen at the bottom of the mountain as reported at World Economic Forum in Davos (2011). This continuous shortfall of women in leading positions in organizations leads to loss in productivity both at the individual and organizational level, ultimately leading to loss at the societal level. The paper presents the findings of a research study conducted in the Banking Sector of Pakistan to find the influence of gender stereotypes to explore the underrepresentation of women bankers in management positions. As gender stereotypes are one of the most cited reasons for women deterrence to advancing in career, its impact was studied using a comprehensive model ‘ Gender, Organization and System’ (GOS) (Fagenson, 1995, Jabeen, 2001). The findings helped to conclude that while the three levels - Individual, Organizational and Societal on the basis of which the GOS Model has been developed are inter-related the societal level is the utmost importance. Societal factors impact both the individual and organization levels in perpetuating the existing stereotypes against both genderswhich ultimately harm the advancement of females in their careers especially in management as is the case in present study. Since equitable representation of women in organizations is an important issue of human resource management the paper offers useful recommendations towards improving the situation.

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