Gender in Management: An Investigation In The Pakistani Corporate World

Abstract

John Gray presents interesting metaphor for men and women in his best seller title “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus” as men are warrior; protector of fields and territory while women are the symbols of love, beauty and fertility in a society. If summed up the characteristics of men and women in single word for each, explained by Gray, most probably the men are ‘tuff’ and women are ‘fragile’. Are they really so? The claim of Gray can not be out rightly rejected. Although most of the researches in the field of ‘gender and management’ did not endorse the Gray’s analogy but accepted a few differences in the management and leaderships styles of men and women at the work place. In Pakistan too, gender equality or inequality is being debated like anywhere in the world. Pakistani organizations are predominantly managed by men. Few women can be seen at the top slot of management in the Pakistani corporate organizations. It is generally perceived that management is a masculine role, though management role is not a single role rather management roles are further classified into various sub roles, whereas some are perceived masculine and others are perceived as feminine roles. Being an active part of the corporate world, the researchers have observed differences in the managerial styles between men and women and wanted to find out through scientific method whether in Pakistani corporate culture, is management still associated with men only or its sub roles are more/less associated with men and women; both?