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Provides a review of the position of women in management in a number of countries. Describes how in almost all countries, management positions are dominated by men. Concludes that, although many similarities were found in women’s work experience across cultures, cultural factors accounted for the unique experiences of women in a given country.

Proportions of women in executive, managerial, and administrative positions in the USA are increasing rapidly. The presence of women in these positions has helped them in their climb up the corporate ladder and allowed them to begin to break through the “glass ceiling”. However, entrance into these upper‐management positions has not come without costs to women. Isolation and loneliness, owing to token status, sex‐segregated work, and sexual harassment, commonly occur among women. Factors that cause these experiences and measures that may mitigate loneliness, such as networking and mentoring, are discussed.

This work considers women who have left jobs within organizations to set up their own businesses. The project thus explores two worlds: the world of the organization and the world of the small business owner/manager. However, it is not sufficient to limit the scope of the research to these two contexts; equally important are the spaces in‐between. An examination of the transition from employment to self‐employment is crucial in understanding the experience as a whole. Two case studies are used to illustrate how particular women managed the transition. It is then considered how this experience can be conceptualized theoretically, assessing the extent to which existing theories offer adequate frameworks for understanding. Implications for further research and the development of a more relevant conceptual model are addressed.

Recent projections by social scientists indicate that by the year 2000 almost half the work force will be comprised of women. Information systems (IS) literature reports that women are underrepresented: only about one‐third of IS employees are female. This may suggest that IS women professionals may be engaging in practices that restrict their entry, promotion and retention. Attempts to examine the career success outcomes of men and women in IS using the human‐capital paradigm. Presents results, based on the survey responses of about 348 employees in the IS field, which suggest that significant gender differences exist. For instance, women were found, on average, to be somewhat younger and less experienced then were men in lower‐level positions and to receive lower salaries than do men even when age, work experience and job level were controlled. Moreover, women have fewer opportunities to interact with people outside their departmental boundaries. Discusses the relevance of these results and presents viable options for fostering the careers and improving the retention of women in the IS field.

Women’s career development does not simply lag behind that of men, but may proceed in a completely different manner, and yet, to date, only a few career models attempt to incorporate women’s varying life experiences. Indeed, the traditional working pattern of education, full‐time career and retirement, is based on the typical working lives of men and there is no single typical working pattern for modern women. It is clear that while traditional male career development models remain, and while women are the ones to step off the fast track to meet family responsibilities, they will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage in career advancement. Reviews the literature on these themes, and areas for further research are highlighted. Argues that the importance of offering new conceptions of career based on an understanding that women’s experiences are different from men’s, cannot be underestimated.

One result of domination of management as being male paradigm is that women managers are out of place, in foreign territory, “travellers in a male world”. The model of the successful manager has traditionally been masculine and while these stereotypes remain, they succeed in maintaining the dominant place for men in management. This is evident in both the theory underpinning and the actual experience of career in management. Indeed, the traditional working pattern of education, full‐time career and retirement is based on the typical working lives of men. There is no single typical working pattern for modern women. It is clear that, while male career models remain and women are the ones to step off the fast track to meet family responsibilities, they will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage in career advancement. Reviews the literature concerning women and career and argues that the importance of offering new conceptions of career based on an understanding that women’s experiences are different from men cannot be underestimated. Areas for further research and the implications for organisations are also highlighted.

This paper seeks to examine the career experiences of seven women who have developed successful careers in the Chinese information technology (IT) industry, focusing on the way they managed their careers and the implications this has for women's career theory in China.

Personal narrative method is used to explore the women's cumulated experiences of career management in order to draw out their feelings and attitudes.

Findings demonstrated convergence between western career theory and the situation of these successful Chinese women in IT, especially in family/career role management. Nevertheless, the paper argues that deeply embedded values in China encourage a rejection of planning and proactivity in women's career management resulting in a lack of applicability of western theory.

Findings are based on a small sample size. Personal narrative method is highly subjective and “contaminated” by selective recall of information due to the deterioration or concealment of certain key factors. However, this finding in itself contains interesting implications for international career research.

The career experiences of these women could provide role‐modelling to other women who are also pursuing careers in the IT industry in China.

The paper contributes to the developing discourse of women's career experiences within Chinese society. It highlights constraints and limitations of applying western models and traditional research techniques. It advocates a broad, contextualised approach that incorporates a stronger emphasis on internal and social values.

Explores the concept “career ambitious” in the contexts of traditional corpocratic “male” and more recent “female” career development models. Traditional corpocratic career development models are premissed on the notion of linear hierarchical progression and, accordingly, encourage competition, this being the vehicle through which the individual reaches the much‐prized top rung of the career ladder. In this context, the career ambitious individual is fiercely competitive, viewing her or his career as a series of tournaments, and measuring her or his career success by objective measures such as salary, rank or promotion. In contrast, when adopting a more holistic women’s career development framework, in which the interplay between work, significant others, organizational factors and various life stages is acknowledged, the career ambitious individual is one who measures her or his success in both professional and personal arenas through subjective measures such as perceived degree of challenge, satisfaction or sense of growth or development.

A general philosophy is presented in which all the modules within the computational cycle are parallelised and executed on parallel computer hardware, thereby avoiding the creation of computational bottlenecks. In particular, unstructured mesh generation with adaptation, computational fluid dynamics and computational electromagnetic solvers and the visualisation of grid and solution data are all performed in parallel. In addition, all these modules are embedded within a parallel problem solving environment. This paper will provide an overview of these developments. In particular, details of the parallel mesh generator, which has been used to generate meshes in excess of 100 million elements, will be given. A brief overview will be presented of the approach used to parallelise the solvers and how large data sets are interrogated and visualised on distributed computer platforms. Details of the parallel adaptation algorithm will be presented. These parallel component modules are linked using CORBA communication to provide an integrated parallel approach for large scale simulations. Several examples are given of the approach applied to the simulation of large aerospace calculations in the field of aerodynamics and electromagnetics.

This study evaluated the effects of two employment practices, namely work flexibility and firm internal labor markets on affective and continuance organizational commitment. In addition, it examined whether such effects were gender‐specific. Survey data were obtained from a sample of 772 business executives in Hong Kong. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, although the two employment practices had significant and positive effects on both affective and continuance organizational commitment, they are not affected by gender.