The aim of the study is to investigate the glass ceiling and the gender wage gap and reasons behind gender inequality in the banking sector of Sweden and Pakistan. / <p>Please find the attached master thesis pdf file.</p>

In the South Africa mining industry women have been subjected to unfair discrimination due to their gender or sex, for thousands of years. The aim of this study is to establish if women discrimination still exists in this sector by exploring the experiences of women in this mining sector. More and more women are being employed in the mines, but it is not clear if they are subjected to discrimination or not. The research method for this study consists of a literature review and an empirical study. The aim of the literature review was to discuss the research done by others on the subject matter and their findings. Information gathered is used as a base for compiling the questionnaire which is used in the interviews that are conducted during the study. A qualitative phenomenological research method was used for the empirical study because of its effectiveness in identifying intangible factors, such as social norms, socioeconomic status, gender roles, and ethnicity, which are imperative for this study. The results of the study confirm that discrimination still exists in the mining industry. The evidence of this form of discrimination is in men's negative attitudes which are a problem that women have to deal with on daily basis. Men's negative attitudes create a hostile work environment for women that comprise of: disrespecting women, undermining of their capabilities, unequal treatment of women versus men, physically and verbally harass and I or abuse them, sex segregation and glass ceilings Few discrimination cases are reported to management because of fear of victimisation, fear of being seen as cry babies and because there is a perception that management is not supportive to women, therefore it's no use reporting a case because nothing will be done to discipline the perpetrator. The conclusion reached is that most mining organisations are faced with challenges of effectively implementing and managing change. Transformation policies are implemented but there is no internal and external (from government) monitoring, evaluation and verification systems. There is also limited buy in from people (middle and lower management) who are supposed to implement the policies. For effective transformation to happens these are the key issues that must be addressed. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

In the South Africa mining industry women have been subjected to unfair discrimination due to their gender or sex, for thousands of years. The aim of this study is to establish if women discrimination still exists in this sector by exploring the experiences of women in this mining sector. More and more women are being employed in the mines, but it is not clear if they are subjected to discrimination or not. The research method for this study consists of a literature review and an empirical study. The aim of the literature review was to discuss the research done by others on the subject matter and their findings. Information gathered is used as a base for compiling the questionnaire which is used in the interviews that are conducted during the study. A qualitative phenomenological research method was used for the empirical study because of its effectiveness in identifying intangible factors, such as social norms, socioeconomic status, gender roles, and ethnicity, which are imperative for this study. The results of the study confirm that discrimination still exists in the mining industry. The evidence of this form of discrimination is in men's negative attitudes which are a problem that women have to deal with on daily basis. Men's negative attitudes create a hostile work environment for women that comprise of: disrespecting women, undermining of their capabilities, unequal treatment of women versus men, physically and verbally harass and I or abuse them, sex segregation and glass ceilings Few discrimination cases are reported to management because of fear of victimisation, fear of being seen as cry babies and because there is a perception that management is not supportive to women, therefore it's no use reporting a case because nothing will be done to discipline the perpetrator. The conclusion reached is that most mining organisations are faced with challenges of effectively implementing and managing change. Transformation policies are implemented but there is no internal and external (from government) monitoring, evaluation and verification systems. There is also limited buy in from people (middle and lower management) who are supposed to implement the policies. For effective transformation to happens these are the key issues that must be addressed. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

This PhD thesis investigates power relationships within a corporate Finance Department employing a Foucauldian approach to explaining corporate hierarchies and resistance and the implications.Research was conducted in the form of a case study and observation of a corporate finance department, referred to as the 'Finance Department', at the 'Company', referred to as such for confidentiality purposes. The Company is a large Dutch based mail and logistics entity that operates internationally across over 200 countries and has its corporate head office just outside of Amsterdam. The Company's Finance Department was in the throws of change, particularly around hierarchies as a result of the reengineering process with the purpose of creating efficiencies. The aim of the research was to evaluate the power relationships that existed within the hierarchies between management and workers who worked either for the Finance Department or closely with it, and to analyse the outcomes of these power relationships in terms of resistance.The case study is a Foucauldian insight into the different individuals who worked either within the Finance Department or closely with it, with an evaluation of their roles and how their differing power structures impacted upon the workflow within the Finance Department.The outcome of this research is an evaluation of those individuals and their relationships at a particular point in time, which was impacted by so many different factors. The research could give readers an understanding of power relationships and framework for contextual Foucauldian evaluation.The significance of the contribution arising from this particular piece of research is that it involves the combination of a case study method with a Foucauldian perspective. The combination of these two elements allows the research to be done both from the top down and also from the bottom up. Increasing in use as a research tool (Hamel, 1992), the case study contributes uniquely to our body of knowledge of individual, organisational, social and political phenomena (Yin, 1994). The Foucauldian perspective plays an important part in terms of an understanding of power, despite the fact that it is often difficult to fully comprehend the meanings behind Foucault's work (McHoul & Grace, 1993).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Drake University. / Doctor of Education. Bibliography: leaves 159-168.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Drake University. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-168). Also available via the Internet.

Women face barriers to advancement in male-dominated fields (Glass Ceiling) and in female-dominated fields (Glass Escalator). More research is needed to elucidate the causes of these barriers in order to reduce the negative effects on women’s advancement. This study attempted to broaden the literature through the experimental examination of the glass escalator to further understand the gender inequalities that are seen in female-dominated fields. It employed a factorial design to examine the impact of gender, gender make up of an occupation, and level of authority within that occupation on a supervisor’s evaluation of an employee and decision to offer promotion, mentoring, and increase income and vacation time. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were just over half women, predominantly White and heterosexual, had a bachelor’s degree or higher, currently engaged in full-time employment, and half indicated their household income to be between $25,000 and $74,999. Each participant was presented with a single vignette of an employee file who was eligible for a promotion from a female-dominated (nurse), male-dominated (engineer), or gender neutral (accountant) occupation. They evaluated the employee’s performance and made recommendations for promotion, increasing raise and vacation days, and offered mentoring. Participants also completed the Gender Attitude Inventory (GAI; Ashmore, Del Boca, & Bilder, 1995) to better understand the role that gender attitudes play in gender bias in promotion decision-making. Multiple analysis of covariance was utilized to examine main effects and interaction effects of target employee gender, gender-type of occupation, and level of authority of the occupation. Hypotheses that men will be more likely to be promoted into positions with more authority, and women will be viewed as most competent in positions that are female-typed with the least amount of authority were not supported. Results showed that gender attitudes were weakly related to an employee’s performance evaluation, raise, and mentoring. Significant differences were found on the GAI where participants identifying as women, gay, and with a graduate degree had more liberal gender attitudes. Possible explanations for the predominantly insignificant results and future directions are discussed. Suggestions are provided for increasing the strength of the manipulation and factors that possibly decreased the salience of gender. Future experimental and continued qualitative studies in applied settings are recommended to identify causal influences of the glass escalator that examine factors of race, SES, and sexual orientation.

The subject of female leadership has been widely discussed during the last decades and previous studies has shown that the management is unequal in terms of gender. Previous studies regarding female leadership has often been compared to management administered by male leaders. In this study we want to eliminate the thoughts and norms about male leadership and instead focus on differences within a group of female leaders. Therefore, is the aim of this essay to examine how six female leaders experience their leadership and determine if age and former experiences have an effect. The method follows a qualitative research design based on six semi structured interviews. To unveil potential social differences and distinctions between diverse generations, we have compared responses form three older female leaders with at least 25 years of experience, with three younger leaders with less experience. The applied theories in this paper cover gender roles, leadership, habitus and different kinds of recruitment processes. The outcome shows that the differences between the two age groups are relative small. Despite this, the results shows that the perceived gender roles and its obstacles tend to diminish with increased age and experience. / Kvinnligt ledarskap har sedan flera årtionden tillbaka varit ett omtalat ämne där majoriteten av tidigare forskning studerat kvinnligt ledarskap i relation till det manliga. Eftersom samhället successivt förändras, i en riktning där allt fler kvinnliga ledare träder fram, har vi valt att inrikta oss på kvinnligt ledarskap. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka kvinnliga ledares upplevelser av hur det är att arbeta i en ledande position inom den privata sektorn. Vi har valt att jämföra äldre kvinnliga ledare med minst 25 års erfarenhet med yngre kvinnliga ledare med mindre erfarenhet av ledarskap. Anledningen till detta är för att undersöka om eventuella samhälls- och generationsskillnader har en inverkan. Studien tar utgångspunkt i ledarskapsteorier, genusteorier, Bourdieus habitusbegrepp samt olika rekryteringsstrategier. Då fokus har varit att studera kvinnornas upplevelser har vi valt en kvalitativ metod där vi genomfört sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studien visade att det är en förvånansvärt liten skillnad i upplevelsen av ledarskap mellan yngre och äldre kvinnliga ledare. Det går dock att konstatera att ökad erfarenhet samt ökande ålder minskar upplevelsen av könsstrukturernas begränsningar.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze selected causes of the current debt ceiling crisis in the United States, which culminated in 2011. The first part deals with the development of the debt ceiling in the U.S. and the historically important increases in the limit. Selected expenditure items of the U.S federal budget are analyzed for their creation of the high deficit and debt limit crises in the country, with focus on the costs of the health and social security systems. The second part analyzes the inefficiencies of these systems and the economic measures accepted from 2004 -2012 associated with the debt ceiling increases, which led to the analyzed crisis in 2011.

Yes / Over the past 30 years, the term the ‘glass ceiling’ has come to be known as a metaphor for vertical segregation, symbolising an invisible barrier that prevents women from progressing in their careers. Increasingly women are found in higher level positions and mentoring has often been touted as an important way to help women break through the glass ceiling. This paper explores the continued relevance of the glass ceiling and the use of mentoring programs as a means to help women to overcome it. The findings suggest that although some women have penetrated the glass ceiling, further work is needed if a more equitable number of women are to advance to senior level positions. Whilst mentoring can play an important role in helping women to achieve more senior positions, mentoring is not a panacea but only one of many strategies that must be adopted to effectively address the phenomena of glass ceiling.