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

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.

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.

By the year 2000 women will constitute more than 50 percent of the workforce in the United States, yet their representation in top management and executive-level positions continues to hover in the single digits. This “glass ceiling,” which is conceptualized as limiting women's advancement into these roles, has been the subject of much debate and research over the last fifteen years. As both an equal rights and key competitive issue, the topic of women and leadership is gaining ever-increasing emphasis and momentum in American corporations. Although leadership skills have been advocated as a key human capital/person-centered variable leading to managerial ascendancy for women, the empirical research directly investigating this link is virtually non-existent. This longitudinal study proposed to measure the strength of this relationship using a matched sample of male and female managers. Eighty-five subjects, from the same U.S. based health-care products corporation, had previously participated in a multirater assessment process where seven different facets of their leadership skills were evaluated. Time two data were collected on four objective measures of ascendancy: percent change in salary, number of promotions (job moves) either offered or accepted, change in number of direct reports, and change in number of indirect reports. Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that perceived leadership ability did lead to increased ascendancy, specifically in terms of percent salary change, for the female managers, but not for the males. Multiple regressions indicated that the female managers were not rewarded, necessarily, for gender congruent behavior in this organization, while male managers did appear to be rewarded more so on that particular dimension. Implications of these findings for female managers in the workplace were discussed.

Syfte: Stereotyper försvårar för kvinnor att nå ledande positioner, de kvinnor som når ledande positioner har tagit sig över barriärer för att ta sig till sin position. Vi vill ta reda på hur de lyckats ta sig över barriärerna. Syftet med vår studie är att öka förståelsen för hur kvinnliga ledamöter i aktiebolag upplever och hanterar barriären stereotyper. Syftet ska besvaras med hjälp av följande forskningsfrågor: På vilket sätt upplever kvinnor att barriären stereotyper påverkar möjligheterna att nå högre positioner? På vilket sätt kan kvinnorna påverka barriären stereotyper? Metod: Studien har utförts på ett kvalitativt vis och datan är insamlad genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Totalt har 10 kvinnliga ledamöter från svenska aktiebolag intervjuats, sex från Uppsala, tre från Bollnäs och en från Gävle. Den insamlade datan har sedan analyserats med hjälp av en tematisk analys. Resultat &amp; slutsats: Studien visar att kvinnor upplever stereotyphot i form av barriärer men att de klarar av att ta sig igenom dessa. Barriärerna försvårar för kvinnorna att nå ledande positioner och kvinnorna hanterar dessa barriärer genom att läsa på mer och bevisa att dem kan, envishet är en viktig egenskap för att lyckas. Kvotering som är ett lagförslag från regeringen med syfte att få in fler kvinnor i styrelser är ingen bra idé. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Efter denna studie genomförts anser vi att det är nödvändigt att studera hur organisationer kan arbeta för att skapa en medvetenhet kring stereotyphot och hur de ska arbeta för att eliminera dem. Uppsatsens bidrag: Studiens bidrag till forskningen är att vi har kunnat namnge vissa av de barriärer som kvinnor möter i arbetslivet. Vi har undersökt hur kvinnorna upplevt dem och även bidragit med svar på hur de har hanterat barriären stereotyper. Studien har skapat en medvetenhet hos kvinnorna om stereotyper. / Aim: Stereotypes makes it difficult for women to reach senior positions, the women who does reach leadership positions have crossed barriers to get into that position. We want to find out how they managed to cross the barriers. The aim of this study is to create a greater understanding for the way female board members in registered companies perceives and manage the barrier stereotype. The purpose should be answered using the following research questions: In which way do women perceive that the barrier stereotypes affect their possibilities to reach higher positions? How can women affect the barrier stereotypes? Method: The study has been conducted in a qualitative way, and data is collected through semi-structured interviews. A total of 10 female members of Swedish companies was interviewed, six from Uppsala, three from Bollnas and one from Gavle. The collected data has been analyzed by a thematic analysis. Result &amp; Conclusions: The study shows that women experience stereotype threat in the form of barriers, but they manage to get through these. The barriers make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and women deal with these barriers by reading more and prove that they can, persistence is an important characteristic for success. Affirmative is a draft law from the government in order to get more women on boards is not a good idea. Suggestions for future research: After this study carried out, we believe it is necessary to study how organizations can work to create awareness about the stereotype and how they should work to eliminate them. Contribution of the thesis: The study's contribution to research is that we have been able to name some of the barriers that women face in the workplace. We have investigated how women have experienced the barriers. We have also contributed with answers to how they handle the barrier stereotypes. The study has created an awareness among women about stereotypes.