Women at the Top – Challenges, Choice and Changes

Citation

Arar, K. (2012), "Women at the Top – Challenges, Choice and Changes", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 702-704. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211265269

Coleman's new book on women in leadership explores the career paths of 60 successful women describing the challenges they have faced on the way to fulfillment, and most importantly the coping strategies that they employ to meet these challenges. Coleman describes the women's determination and enthusiasm that drive them to reconcile the conflicting demands of family and work. Mentoring and networking appear to be vital tools for their success, when contending with what is often an entrenched masculine work culture.

Coleman is at her best when she brings her vast knowledge about women's leadership, to paint the contexts in which change becomes possible for women: she describes the historical progress of women's status at work in modern times, tracing the work and achievements of three waves of feminist movements, then indicates pointers for the advancement of individual women and the organizations that employ them:

However, a decade into the twenty first century, women still face particular challenges if they wish to be leaders at work. First the image of a leader or a manager remains resolutely male […] this image influences those who are responsible for making appointments to senior roles (p. 1).

Also: “for women, having both children and a demanding leadership role involves some difficult and constrained choices forcing her to prioritize one or the other” (p. 2).

In order to interpret the interviewees’ stories, and put them into a global perspective Coleman draws upon sources from international literature concerning women and work. With the assistance of these sources she describes the general context in which women leaders forge their professional paths, relating specifically to women leaders in the UK, but with obvious relevance for women leaders in other developed countries.

Drawing on feminist literature and recognizing that there are “skewed differentials deeply embedded in our culture, with societies tending to favor men over women, and that in the interest of social justice, positive action on behalf of women might be needed” (p. 11), Coleman tries successfully through her interpretation of in‐depth interviews with 60 high‐flying women to answer the question: Why are there so few women in “top jobs”? She identifies the challenges that women face in order to build a successful career including the masculine work culture, gender stereotypes which cast men as leaders and women as supporters and the impact of family responsibilities on women's ability to lead; she points up the choices that her interviewees have made and the changes they lead.

The first chapter establishes: “why men outnumber women in leadership in virtually every walk of life” (p. 15), detailing theories that underpin the changing views about women leading and managing at work.

The remaining chapters open with particularly apposite quotations from the interviews. Chapter 2 focusses on “what they perceive to be the problem‐ the career challenges and difficulties that have been barriers to their progress” (p. 18). The stereotype of the male leader remains strong, and the interviewees indicate that it is harder for women to obtain leadership positions than the man (p. 35). The way in which leadership is stereotyped also creates a challenge for women and indeed for many men who don’t want to lead in stereotypically masculine ways. This chapter tries to point to the “things that can be done; the ways in which they feel that they have been able to counteract and handle the challenges they identify” (p. 18). One of the most important challenges for women is that of managing to combine family and career, an issue considered in greater depth in Chapter 5.

Chapter 3 tries to discover “the factors that have helped these women to overcome the challenges and to succeed in their careers?” (p. 16); Coleman's discussion of this issue begins first with an examination of factors dependent on the individual, their own agency and determination, their love of their chosen career and their hard work and ability. “Many of the women from all work sectors identified the importance of their own high levels of determination in helping them build their career. Key words and phrases that emerged from the interviews were ‘drive’, ‘determination’, ‘single minded’, ‘persistent’, ‘dogged’, ‘proactive’ and having a ‘positive mindset’” (p. 47). However, the women also gave credit to the mentors who helped them through coaching. Mentoring and coaching have a combined influence and are not confined to the early years of the woman's career. Formal coaching had been used by some of the women to help them over a particular difficulty.

Chapter 4 follows up on the women's indication that mentoring and coaching are important and notes the support available through networking as additional means of support and development, providing emotional and instrumental support through these networks. Coleman concludes “that anything and everything could happen to a women who connects with another women in this space. She could get a new job, a business tip‐off or the promise of an introduction to a useful contact; or she might hear an inspiring story of female success […]” (p. 91).

Chapter 5 focusses on the influence of gender on life choices for example: the choice of a discipline to study in high school and pursue in higher education or choice of a career. Coleman notes how the decision whether or not to have a family considerably affects women's career progress. The interviewed women, who were mothers, had used various approaches to plan the timing of the birth of their children, including waiting until their career was well established, or having their children early, before they began to build a career (p. 97). The difficulties of taking maternity leave in one's late 20s or early 30s are well represented in the women's stories.

Chapter 6 presents the individual stories of six women managers from different work areas, contrasting their experiences over time to see how they overcome the challenges they face, describing the choices that they make concerning family and career, and detailing the changes that the interviewees perceive affecting women at work. Of course each woman has made her own individual choices, used her own particular strategies to cope with challenges and envisages change in her own way, and it would be unwise to generalize from such a small number of interviewees. However, there are some commonalities between the “stories.” Some recall overt sexism, while all of them recognize difficulties such as stereotyping that face women at work. Nevertheless they demonstrate the possibility that hard work and fulfilling their responsibilities may lead to progress and success. As already noted most of them mentioned the assistance gained from mentoring as having been important for their success and most belong to a women's network (p. 146).

Chapter 7 focusses on the changes that the women noticed occurring in the present and those they envisage for the future. On the positive side, the women interviewed have been successful in the current context and the chapter ends by providing a review of factors derived from the interviewees that an individual women should consider if she want to make it to the top of her chosen profession, including recommendations for employers who wish to work toward gender equity. Yet the comment of a woman in broadcasting indicates that there is still much to be done to create the ideal context for women's advancement: “things are still tough for women, but more under the surface than in the open. I still find it is not easy. I don’t know how to help ourselves” (p. 148).

Women at the Top – is likely to be a valuable adjunct to previous literature on gender and leadership in different university majors. The vignettes in particular offer a rich source of field work data for discussion, and the accompanying contextual details and sociological interpretation provide readers both in developed and developing societies with sufficient details to understand the barriers women face in their career path, the dilemmas they cope with when they wish to develop a career, act as working women and continue to fulfill their responsibilities for a family. Coleman has annotated the book with relevant and useful bibliography, classified by subject areas and provides a rich list of recommended further reading. The book may stimulate thought in gender equity policy frameworks. Similarly, the women's rich narratives, despite the special context are a potentially valuable source of data for new and aspiring women leaders in different arenas.