Abstract
This article reports on an empirical study that investigated factors influencing women’s career success. Statistics relating to the field of women in management indicate that, worldwide, women are underrepresented in executive and decision-making positions. Women face unique challenges in their career pursuit that may prevent them from moving up to executive positions. A framework to investigate the factors influencing career success indicates that factors such as demographics, personality, culture, barriers, external and internal support impact on the career success of women. This study surveyed a sample of 301 professional and business women in South Africa. The results of the empirical survey showed that there are statistical significant relationships between groups of women based on their demographics and their perceptions of the factors that influence their career success.
Highlights
The South African Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (South Africa, 1998) affirms women’s right to equal employment opportunities; yet the representation of South African women in top management has declined from 3.9 per cent in 2008 to 3.6 per cent in 2012 (BWA, 2012)
Manova was conducted with 17 demographic variables as independent variables with the factors influencing career success such as personality, culture, career barriers, internal support and external support as dependent variables
Significant relationships were found between the hierarchical level to which respondents aspire (p=.012), their birth order (p=.000), their profession (p=.000), marital status (p=.000), children aged 7-12 (p=.015) and children older than 18 (p=.000). These results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in how respondents aspiring to different hierarchical levels perceived the factors that influenced their career success
Summary
The South African Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (South Africa, 1998) affirms women’s right to equal employment opportunities; yet the representation of South African women in top management has declined from 3.9 per cent in 2008 to 3.6 per cent in 2012 (BWA, 2012). Studies (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Paton, 2008; Yáñez & Moreno, 2008) show that women’s leadership style ensure their suitability for management positions, women are still under-represented in these positions. The discourse on women’s position in society evolved out of feminist rhetoric and can be traced back to the nineteenth century (Murgolo-Poore, 2006). It was only during the past two decades that the research focus shifted to women in business and management (Bilimoria & Piderit, 2007). Research within the domain of women in management attributes the under-representation of women at the executive level to a multitude of barriers inhibiting women’s progress beyond the so-called glass ceiling The disproportionate number of males in leadership positions perpetuates socialised patriarchal norms, thereby maintaining this invisible barrier (Falk & Grizard, 2003)
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