Women's career in theory and practice: time for change?

Sharon Mavin

Introduction
Thomas and Pullen (2000, p. 1) argue that research into organisation and management is almost exclusively from a gender-neutral position but point out that criticisms of this lack of gender awareness are not new. Management theory, Hearn (1994, p. 195) argues, has tended to neglect gender issues throughout the twentieth century. He comments that it is truly amazing how men's domination of management has not become a serious topic of concern in management theory and management thought. The result of the domination of management as being male paradigm is that women managers are out of place, in foreign territory, ``travellers in a male world'' (Marshall, 1984, quoted in Wajcman, 1998, p. 50). The model of the successful manager has traditionally been masculine and, while these stereotypes remain, they succeed in perpetuating the dominant place for men in management. This domination of management as being male paradigm is evident in both the theory underpinning and the actual experience of career in management. Indeed, women's career development does not simply lag behind that of men but may proceed in a completely different manner (Larwood and Gutek, 1987) and to date only a few career models attempt to incorporate women's varying life experiences (Still and Timms, 1998). In relation to career in theory and practice there are two important issues to consider; first that the traditional working pattern of education, full-time career, retirement, is based on the typical working lives of men and, second, that there is no single typical working pattern for modern women. However, society and organisations continue to force women to conform to the traditional stereotype for male workers (Flanders, 1994). It is clear, that while traditional male career models and approaches remain and women continue to step off the fast track to meet family responsibilities, they will continue to be at a competitive disadvantage in career advancement, as it is currently structured in organisations (Rix and Stone, 1984). Therefore the importance of offering new
The author would like to thank the referee for the constructive feedback in relation to the paper. Received: January 2000 Revised/accepted: February 2001

The author Sharon Mavin is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Business School, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Keywords Careers, Management theory, Women, Restructuring, Organization Abstract 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. Electronic access The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft
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conceptions of career, drawn from a framework of career based on women and from an understanding that women's experiences are different from men, cannot be underestimated (O'Leary, 1997). This paper reviews the literature concerning women and career, identifies areas for further research and highlights points of consideration for management and organisations.

Timms, 1998). Promotions and demotions represent changes in status within an organisation and important events in the careers of most people and it is probably safe to say that promotions and lateral transfers have represented the most common form of mobility for most employees (Larwood and Gattiker, 1987). Indeed, the traditional idea of a career in the management world has meant to most people a series of almost automatic promotions to bigger and better jobs inside a company (Kanter, 1989).

Career
Still and Timms (1998) point out that one of the most significant social changes in the post-war years has been the growing centrality of work in the lives of women. Research confirms that work is particularly meaningful for educated women with careers (Levinson and Levinson, 1996; Reeves and Darville, 1994), although work may have a different meaning for career women compared with men with careers (Holahan, 1994). While there have been challenges to the rather limited concept of a career (Allred et al., 1996; Arthur and Rousseau, 1996; Brousseau et al., 1996; Hall, 1996), the traditional male career model has remained the normative standard for judging career progress in organisations. However, as organisations develop alternative approaches to career in order to manage fewer personnel within flatter structures, there is an opportunity to call into question the generalisability of traditional male models of career, especially as far as women are concerned. Given the large numbers of women entering management and the potential opportunity for women to strive to reach top management positions, it is important to understand the career psychology of women (White, 1995). Careers have traditionally been thought of as a meaningful progression through a series of related jobs (White, 1995). Career is traditionally defined as an ordered sequence of development extending over a period of years and the introduction of progressively more responsible roles within an occupation. Underlying this definition is the assumption of linear upward progression (movement from a position of relatively low status, responsibility and remuneration, to a higher position). The image is usually one of ``climbing a career ladder'', an image which assumes the centrality of paid work (Still and

Career development
Career development has traditionally been conceptualised in a broader context, entailing a successive and systematic sequence of attitudes and behaviours associated with work-related experiences, which acknowledges the individual's personal life over the entire span of the life cycle (White et al., 1992). However, much of the existing research on career development remains limited by outdated conceptualisations of women at work. Theory is based to a large extent on research which employed samples of white middle class males and has focused on effects of age and career stage on individual job attitudes and performances. O'Leary (1997) points out that this is a result of researchers tacitly agreeing with the assessment that women were merely casual workers who entered the workforce only until they married and had children. It is argued that traditional corpocratic career development models have largely been premissed on male workplace experiences, values and goals. The result is that much of what we know about the stages through which an individual passes, as he prepares to find his place in the world of work, might appropriately be labelled ``the vocational development of middle class males'' (Tyler, 1977). This may explain why career development models have tended to describe linear or stage progression career paths, in which the individual moves in a predictable, ordered manner through a series of related jobs and each one provides him with greater prestige and financial remuneration (O'Leary, 1997). The issue of women being more likely than men to require a job which allows them flexibility, such as career breaks to have children or look after elderly relatives, appears

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to be generally ignored in such career models (Flanders, 1994). Larwood and Gutek (1987) point out that the modal pattern of men's careers is unlikely to ever provide a good fit for the modal pattern of women's careers. Gilligan (1982) argues that women find their identity within their relationships with others and are subject to numerous and diverse influences, factors and constraints in making decisions about our careers and relationships with others. Indeed, relationships external to work play an important and influential part in any career decisions women make (Larwood and Gutek, 1987). O'Leary (1997) argues that traditional career development models construct the career-ambitious individual as fiercely competitive, viewing career as a series of tournaments; each one has an allocated winner who moves up to the next career ladder rung and a loser who stays where they are. By viewing careers through the lens of traditional masculine career development models, those who prefer to work in an atmosphere of camaraderie, support and encouragement, where co-operative enterprise replaces the idea of winners and losers, are merely constructed as someone who has little if any career ambition (O'Leary, 1997). If these people are most likely to be women, then they may perceive themselves to be less than adequate in the career stakes and this reinforces the negative stereotypes of women and careers. Cox (1996) reinforces this view when commenting, ``as women we too often fail to recognise that our feelings of discomfort or feelings of inadequacy come from behavioural definitions made within masculine paradigms''. Therefore when women begin to view our career priorities, ambitions and successes from within a woman's career development framework, these feelings of inadequacy can be identified for what they are the consequence of viewing and judging oneself through the lens of masculine paradigms (O'Leary, 1997).

Gender differences in career

The understanding of women's careers requires the acknowledgement that women have fundamentally different experiences and we find ourselves in different situations when developing our careers compared with men. Women have had traditionally less orderly

careers because we have tended to follow husbands' career paths, we have had family and domestic responsibilities and have been subjected to male managers' prejudice (Marshall, 1984). Historically, it has been argued that women have been forced to adapt to limited opportunities by becoming jobrather than career-oriented and to focus on the immediate intrinsic rewards of the task rather than longer-term benefits (Marshall, 1984; Henning and Jardim, 1977). On reviewing the literature, Larwood and Gutek (1987) present two key issues which still divide men and women in terms of career. First, women are said to feel the tug of alternative possibilities. For instance, they suggest that, if a woman finds that her career has plateaued early, she may decide to give up work and start a family and they comment that such a possibility is less viable for a man. This position appears patronising towards women, as it ignores the other variables which influence a woman's choice to start a family, such as the biological and societal variables which lead to this choice. This is not presented as a positive choice, rather it emphasises women as again marking the difference in the reciprocal position with men (Gherardi, 1996). Nor does this position consider the dominant masculine paradigm evident within the essence of UK business, management and Government as that the formal structures, values and attitudes to support men becoming the main carers in society are missing. The second key issue presented is more realistically considered, and that is the discrimination women face, which leads to fewer opportunities and slower progress, making other alternatives more attractive. The typical attitudes, which reflect the assumption that women are far less committed to work than men and far less able to undertake a full-time career, still remain. When it comes to career, given a choice between a man and a woman with equal qualifications, the employer will frequently view the woman as the greater risk:
When it comes to promotion and career development, women are judged not so much on their abilities and achievements, but on assumptions about their family life, responsibilities and future intentions. Men are treated as workers, not parents; but women are always seen as mothers (Flanders, 1994).

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The job model has linked men's work attitudes and behaviour to their occupational experiences, while the ``gender model'', invoked only for women, links our employment relations to family experiences. This model treats the position of women in employment as deviant from a male standard. Therefore by definition only women experience conflict between these roles (Wajcman, 1998, p. 38). A common experience of many employed women is the conflict between work and family roles. Lewis and Cooper (1988) suggest that a large proportion of women experience conflict regarding our ability to play the role of wife, mother and worker simultaneously. Women are often forced to choose between upward mobility in career and family stability in the home, or even a family at all. The structures of organisations can also work against maintaining simultaneous career and family roles and, as women still take responsibility for the main caring roles, it is women who are disadvantaged by these structures (Mavin, 1999). A person's marital status also seems to play a part in upward mobility. Kelly and Marin (1998) point out that corporations look less favourably on married women when it comes to promotion and even married women themselves are less likely to expect advancement than those who are single. They argue that in addition to marital status, as one's rank increases, the likelihood of divorce increases, indicating that conflict over family and work responsibilities as well as the wife's potential job transfers are frequently cited as problems in the marriages of career women. The lack of gender-appropriate career structures in organisations has resulted in women having to join the male paradigm of ``career'' in order to progress in management. This is evidenced by Burke and McKeen (1994), who note that the women in their study, who managed to develop their careers alongside conventional male paths, accrued greater financial rewards and career satisfaction than women whose careers were characterised by interruptions such as career breaks and having children. Fundamentally, Wajcman (1998, p. 105) argues that the shape of the corporate career is itself fundamentally gendered. First, the classic career is predicated on the sexual contract, which supports the male life cycle.

Mothers are not seen as appropriate employees for senior management levels, whereas the family man is the ideal. This is evidenced by family-friendly policies, which have been directed towards women only and, as a result, these have not disrupted male norms or the male standard of a manager. Consequently, such policies may reinforce the sexual contract by treating women as the problem. Second, the effect of gendered organisational processes is to marginalise women and ultimately exclude them from the most senior management levels. Because men still define the job of manager, even if women forgo having children, all women are actively constructed as different within the workplace (Wajcman, 1998, p. 106).

Women's career theories

In contrast, there are a number of women's career theories (see Hall, 1976; Farmer, 1985; Derr, 1986; Powell and Mainiero, 1992; White, 1995; O'Leary, 1997), which focus specifically on the experience of women. However, these are not mainstreamed in management literature, organisation strategy and policy or in career management practice and therefore have little impact on the future careers of women in management. Traditional age linked models of career development, based on the experiences of men, can be combined with issues concerning the integration of work and family life, to produce an age-linked model of women's career development. White (1995) comments on her own study of successful women (this was based largely on the career paths of younger women) that, no matter what the occupation, successful women in this study pass through specific ``life stages'' and showed strength of commitment to their careers. These are based on the decision whether or not to have children and the timing issues associated with becoming a mother and/or having a career. The choice of women in management and in organisation to have children is still not viewed as positive by society and organisation. White (1995) argues that her model of successful women's life span development shows that the majority of successful women displayed high ``career centrality''. These women worked continuously and full-time, fitting their domestic responsibilities around

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work (hence facing the concept of becoming ``superwoman'' and the societal guilt associated with this role) or choosing to remain childless. Continuous full-time employment appears to be a prerequisite for career success and, if women are to achieve genuine equality in organisations, then change is required in the prevailing stereotype of a successful career. In relation to women's career theories, O'Leary (1997) points out that the differences between men and women in terms of career are highlighted when one examines different measures of career success. Various sources point to a tendency for men to use objective measures such as salary, rank or promotion. However, women appear to measure success in both professional and personal arenas through subjective measures such as personal and/or professional satisfaction, perceived quality or sense of growth and development (Powell and Mainiero, 1992; White et al., 1992). Scase and Goffee (1989) argue that this preference for challenge and job satisfaction over promotion could also result from women being less inclined to plan careers consciously and meticulously, being more accustomed to unpredictable experiences such as pregnancy, blocked career paths or moving with a partner's career. And comparative advancement studies of men and women managers indicate that women managers are still less likely to apply for promotion than men (Still, 1994). Evidence also exists to demonstrate that women tend to prefer and to experience lateral rather than vertical career paths. Women put personal job satisfaction first before career aspirations, power and reward (Still, 1994). Findings from White et al.'s (1992) study showed that women expressed a high need for achievement, though this was seen more as attaining progressively more challenging and satisfying positions than progressing to the top of organisational hierarchies. O'Leary (1997) points out that, unlike men, women's career development models are premissed on the notion of achieving a shifting balance between career and other significant relationships. In this context the career-ambitious individual is one who measures success in both professional and personal arenas through subjective measures such as perceived degrees of challenge, satisfaction or sense of growth or development. Here the only competition

evident is that associated with the challenge to the individual. Given the fact that women give birth to children, the life stages of women and men are different. White (1995) and Hirsh and Jackson (1990) suggest that careers should be accommodated around the reality of women's lives, allowing them to make a meaningful investment in both occupational and family roles.

Contemporary women's careers

Women have become big players in the UK economy partly because of deep-rooted changes over the past few decades. Women now make up a majority of the electorate and will soon make up a majority of the workforce, even though most institutions from Parliament to big employers have yet to adapt to this new reality (Wilkinson and Howard, 1997). It is evident that women are gradually making inroads into the corridors of power and there are now more women who are directors of companies and sitting on boards of top companies than ever before (Holton et al., 1993). Higher educated groups of women have benefited the most from this expansion and their advance within the professions looks almost irreversible (Henley Centre, 1996). Indeed, professional jobs are growing faster than with any other occupational group and women were forecast to fill about 44 per cent of all professional posts by 2001 (Institute of Economic Research, 1994). During the past two decades there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women who are pursuing managerial and professional careers (Davidson and Cooper, 1992; 1993). Many of these women have prepared themselves for careers by undertaking university education, where they now comprise almost half of the graduates of professional schools, such as accounting, business and law. Research suggests that these graduates enter the workforce at levels comparable with their male colleagues and with similar credentials and expectations but it seems that women's and men's corporate experience and career paths begin to diverge soon after that point (Morrison et al., 1987). It is evident that, although managerial and professional women are at least as well educated and trained as our male counterparts and are being hired by

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organisations in approximately equal numbers, we are not entering the ranks of senior management at comparable rates (Davidson and Burke, 1994). Women are gaining the necessary experience but still encounter a glass ceiling (Morrison and Von Glinow, 1990). The situation currently demonstrates that on the whole, while women themselves are better qualified and are motivated to enter organisations (which appear to be able to successfully recruit and hire capable women), organisations have difficulty in developing and retaining managerial women and advancing them into the ranks of senior management. The glass ceiling that women encounter refers to a subtle, almost invisible but strong barrier that prevents women from moving up to senior management (Davidson and Burke, 1994). It is also apparent that women experience prejudice the moment they enter organisations. Scwartz (1992) argues that it is the impact of these subtle and not so subtle experiences that limits women's career opportunities. One very public example of this is the report of Sir Alan Sheppard of Grand Metropolitan commenting:
I would dearly love to appoint a woman with the qualities of Sir John Harvey-Jones or Sir Dick Giordano (two of his most famous nonexecutives). But any women seeking to match them would have to have an operation (Sheppard, 1992).

existing sex ratio of groups, tokenism, the lack of mentors and sponsors and the denial of access to challenging assignments. It is argued that the lack of appropriate organisational approaches to career experience, development and advancement for women can be added to this explanation.

Traditional career and the new organisation

In 1979, Berthould questioned the traditional career, commenting that the changing context of career, the combined effect of organisational decentralisation, delayering and increased risk of redundancy indicate that individuals can no longer assume that they will have an uninterrupted lifelong career path. Scase and Goffee (1989) questioned again whether the assumptions which underpinned the notion of ``orderly, predictable career paths'' would be tenable in the 1990s. Traditionally career is often perceived as following a predetermined pattern, rather like the Civil Service, where such a bureaucratic career was defined by the logic of advancement. Here growth is equated with promotion to a position of higher rank that brings with it greater benefits and where progress means advancement within the hierarchy (Kanter, 1989). In 1999, with restructuring, mergers between Government departments and the move to efficient and lean operations, those working within this public sector setting can verify how limited the opportunities are for this type of traditional career advancement. Also the recognition by organisations that transformational behaviours and leadership styles (perceived as more explicitly feminine) are necessary for survival may lead to the explicit development of women managers and our careers in organisations. We are witnessing the breakdown of traditional career structures and this provides an important opportunity to revisit the concept of career in terms of gender. Organisational changes over the past decade have certainly shaped the career conditions of many employees; middle managers have lost their jobs and survivors face a change both in their job roles and in career opportunities. Cooper and Davidson (1984) argue that women are more likely to advance in the new leaner and flatter organisations but there has

In general those holding this type of stereotypical view are likely to perceive women as ineffective managers and leaders in jobs incongruent with women's more traditionally passive sex role (Ferrario, 1991). Davidson and Burke (1994) offer explanations as to why the glass ceiling in organisations has remained impenetrable and kept most women from senior levels of management. These include men's and women's differences, relying on women lacking the appropriate attitudes, behaviours, skills, education etc. for managerial and professional jobs and the prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping of women as managers. Another explanation emphasises structural and systematic discrimination, as revealed in organisational policies and practices which affect the treatment of women and limit our advancement. These policies and practices include women's lack of opportunity and power in organisations, the

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been little research to date regarding how women fare in different organisational structures. Do the changes in career opportunities have gender implications and will women be more vulnerable in the lottery of organisational restructuring? Woodall et al.'s (1995) study of a public sector organisation found that restructuring had opened up opportunities for women through an increase in the number of managerial jobs and through changes in the objective requirements of managerial work. The study reported that in principle the de-emphasising of technical expertise relative to business analysis, planning and performance management should enable women to compete for managerial positions on that famous level playing-field.

Women's careers the business case

In the UK women have come a long way in the last two decades, with steady advances in the workplace, in the professions and in business and a continuing spread of feminist values throughout the population. Today a clear business case can be made for increasing women's participation at all levels in the workforce. The business case for expanding the numbers and elevating the positions of women in management is rooted in the context of managing employee diversity as a vital resource (Vinnicombe and Colwill, 1995). Diversity is defined as the state of being different or varied (Oxford English Dictionary) and in this sense managing diversity should be a management approach, through which gender differences are valued in organisations. In the simplest terms managing diversity can be perceived as a concept which indicates ``do'' and favours the positive, when equal opportunities indicates ``don't'' and favours the negative. Managing diversity is therefore perceived as a concept where all individuals can work in an environment which facilitates development, releases potential and encourages individuals to ``do'' all they can to progress the organisation as a result of the differences. Kandola and Fullerton (1994) promote the idea of diversity as consisting of visible and non-visible differences which include factors such as sex, age, background, race, disability, personality and work style. They propose that harnessing these

differences will create a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, where talents are being fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. The concept of managing diversity includes everyone in the workplace; everyone therefore has a vested interest in understanding diversity and participating in identifying ways to be most effective across differences. Therefore, the underlying philosophy of managing diversity implies that an organisation can gain competitive advantage enhance performance through human capital. It rests on the premiss that the organisation will be able to serve increasingly diverse customers, meet increasingly complex business and management problems by actively seeking and managing a diverse workforce (Stephenson and Lewis, 1996; Cox, 1991). Employers who do little to encourage women into higher positions in management are seriously restricting the resources and the diversity of skills and experience available to them, by failing to make the best use of existing female employees. Women who feel that they are not being given a fair chance soon start looking for an alternative employer (Flanders, 1994). In contrast with the studies discussed earlier, the women and men in Wajcman's (1998) study were found to have similar career patterns and be equally motivated. The resulting question from this research is why, in general, women's experience of organisational life is so different from men's (Wajcman, 1998, p. 8). Indeed, Marshall's (1995) study concerning women managers moving on and out of organisations signals a level of resistance to the male model of career, as does the increasing publicity surrounding those high profile senior women in multinational organisations, who are choosing to leave organisations to fulfil their role as mother rather than continuing in the role of superwoman. This media coverage appears to promote these decisions either as positive choices for women and/or as damning indictments on the organisations themselves for failing to change the male dominated paradigm of senior management and therefore losing one of their most valuable assets. Understanding the experiences of women as a large and growing segment of the workforce in whom education, effort and hopes have been invested is critical for

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economic survival. Organisations cannot afford to under-utilise or lose this talent. Educators need to understand the barriers encountered by women both in the organisations employing them and in our own educational institutions and managerial and professional women need to understand why they are encountering particular work experiences (Davidson and Burke, 1994). Awareness of managing diversity as a managerial approach is growing in organisations due to the clear business rather than social and moral arguments of valuing differences. Is this a way forward for the management of women's different career experiences?

Implications
It is evident from the brief review presented in this paper that a number of misconceptions in relation to women and careers in management remain, but there are also real differences between men and women with respect to experiences of work and career. This paper has argued that traditional approaches and models of career in organisations are based on the experiences of men, despite evidence to demonstrate the growing importance of women in organisations and in management, thus indicating a lack of incorporation of the experiences of women in the existing ``male stream'' models of career and therefore in organisations. Clearly there is a need to move women's career theories into the mainstream and to highlight women's experiences of careers to allow research to inform organisational practice. This could also be expected to facilitate a paradigm shift in approaches to career, away from the traditional male model. A report by Demos in the UK states that, if current trends continue, women in 2010 will be more numerous (there are already 1.2 million more women than men in the UK); older (by 2030 a quarter of women will be over 65); more independent (one-fifth of women born in the 1960s are predicted to remain childless); more likely to be living alone; more likely to be divorced; more likely to be in management or the professions; more dependent on technologies, ranging from intelligent tags to mobile phone; more androgynous (31 per cent of women are now

at ease with flexible gender roles); more likely to be from an ethnic minority and better educated, with one-third of each new age cohort going through university (Wilkinson and Howard, 1997). These predicted demographic changes indicate that women themselves will challenge the traditional malestream corporate approaches to career in organisations, as our needs and demands of organisation change. If the Demos predictions are reliable, women will move further away from the stereotypes currently used to manage and constrain them in male-dominated organisations and societies. These predictions have implications for managerial and organisational practice and may drive the changes necessary to support women's careers in management. An immediate driver of change in organisations is to ask women about our career experiences to date, rather than assuming career experiences in organisations as being male or gender-neutral. This process of ``giving women a voice'' in our own organisations allows the resulting experiences to be analysed against current organisational and structural career practice and policy. One approach to understanding women's career experiences is to use Nicholson's (1987) transition cycle, which represents the cyclical nature of career development and can be used as a framework for analysis. Organisations can gain information about the way women ``prepare for career''; how we experience the encounter (a change in role); how we ``adjust to the encounter'' (personal and role development) and our experience of ``stabilisation'' (commitment as a result of successful coping and preparation for further change). This process may then result in a more realistic picture of women's careers in organisations. As a result organisations can build gender issues, specific to their own context, into approaches to career management and development. It is evident that there are still a number of misconceptions in relation to women and our careers in management, but there are also real differences between men and women with respect to experiences of work and of career. Organisational initiatives relating to familyfriendly policies should be directed at both men and women in organisations in order to facilitate culture change and changes in the expectations and stereotyping relating to women as the main domestic carers. The

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introduction of work-life balance programmes aimed at all people in the organisation should underpin organisational cultures, as they move away from the male model of management and organisation. These should support managing diversity initiatives in order that organisational structures, managerial styles and expectations and the concept of career are more representative of diverse societal changes. The current restructuring of organisations and the impact on traditional career patterns also provide an important opportunity for organisations to address the needs of women who want a career in management. Those involved in the management of change, organisational culture and organisational development should consider how restructuring impacts on women in management and organisations and, when redesigning human resource approaches to support operational changes, should consider gender in the analysis and implementation of organisational engineering. These include the recruitment and selection, performance management, promotion and planning, training and development aspects of restructuring and changing organisation. Further research is needed into the impact of organisational restructuring on the careers of both men and women. This would lead to the development of new approaches that incorporate issues pertinent to both genders. The business case for these processes of change, integration and mainstreaming is clear; organisations which wish to retain and utilise the full potential and talent of their human resources will need to address these issues when redesigning approaches to career structures and management. Undertaking the change processes outlined should result in the exposure of the subtle and not so subtle factors, the organisational truths and untruths about gender which create the glass ceiling for women in organisations and constrain them in the strait-jacket of male-stream career frameworks.

References and further reading

Allred, B., Snow, C. and Miles, R. (1996), ``Characteristics of managerial careers in the twenty-first century'', The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 17-27.

Arthur, M. and Rousseau, D. (1996), ``A new career lexicon for the twenty-first century'', The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 28-39. Brousseau, K., Driver, M., Eneroth, K. and Larsson, R. (1996), ``Career pandemonium: realigning organisations and individuals'', The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 52-66. Burke, R. and McKeen, C. (1994), ``Effect of employment gaps on satisfactions and career prospects of managerial and professional women'', International Journal of Career Management, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 52-66. Cooper, C.L. and Davidson, M.J. (Eds) (1984), Women in Management, Heinemann, Oxford. Cox, E. (1996), Leading Women: Tactics for Making the Difference, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW. Cox, J.T. Jr (1991), ``The multi-cultural organisation'', Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 5 No. 2. Davidson, M. and Burke, R.J. (Eds) (1994), Women in Management Current Research Issues, Paul Chapman Publishing, London. Davidson, M.J. and Cooper, C.L. (1992), Shattering the Glass Ceiling: The Woman Manager, Paul Chapman Publishing, London. Davidson, M.J. and Cooper, C.L. (1993), European Women in Business and Management, Paul Chapman, London. Derr, C.B. (1986), Managing the New Careerist, JosseyBass, San Francisco, CA. Farmer, H.S. (1985), ``Models of career and achievement: motivation for men and women'', Journal of Counselling Psychology, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 363-90. Ferrario, M. (1991), ``Sex differences in leadership style: myth or reality?'', Women in Management Review & Abstracts, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 16-21. Flanders, M.L. (1994), Breakthrough: The Career Woman's Guide to Shattering the Glass Ceiling, Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd, London. Gattiker, U.E. and Larwood, L. (1988), ``Predictors for managers' career mobility, success, and satisfaction'', Human Relations, Vol. 41 No. 8, pp. 569-91. Gherardi, S. (1996), ``Gendered organisational cultures: narratives of women travellers in a male world'', Gender Work and Organization, Vol. 3 No. 4, October, pp. 187-201, Gilligan, C. (1982), In a Different Voice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Hall, D. (1996), ``Protean careers of the twenty-first century'', The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 8-16. Hall, D.T. (1976), Careers in Organisations, Goodyear, Santa Monica, CA. Hearn, J. (1994), ``Changing men and changing managements: social change, social research and social action'', in Davidson, M. and Burke, R.J. (Eds), Women in Management: Current Research Issues, Paul Chapman, London, Ch. 13. Henley Centre (1996), ``The future is female'', in Planning for Social Change 1996-7, London. Henning, M. and Jardim, A. (1977), The Managerial Woman, Anchor Press, Garden City, New York, NY. Hirsh, W. and Jackson, C. (1990), ``Women into management: issues influencing the entry of women

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