Gender Role Perception in Society and Attitude towards Women Managers in Bangladesh

Atm Jahiruddin,Shahanaz Akter,Mir Sohrab Hossain,Mehedi Hasan Md Hefzur Rahman

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v15n12p122

Abstract

This study investigates employees&rsquo; attitudes towards women managers in different types of organizations in the context of Bangladesh. Two groups of respondents &ndash; supervisors of the women managers and other employees who report to the women managers were selected for data collection through a multistage procedure. The study found that employees, on the whole, have an indifferent attitude towards women managers at the workplace. Among different aspects pertinent to women&#39;s leadership, the employees demonstrated a favorable attitude about the women managers&rsquo; knowledge and skill, while the employees feel that maternity and other feminine issues make women less desirable in the managerial positions. As the differences were investigated among the respondents of different demographic groups, significant differences were found among various groups based on gender, age, and sectors of employment. However, no significant difference was found among the employees based on their reporting relation with (supervisor and sub-ordinate) the women managers.

Highlights

Increasing women’s participation in the workforce has been a key feature globally for the last few decades
Despite some significant achievements with regards to women’s empowerment in Bangladesh during the new millennium, strong patriarchy is believed to be a key feature in this country where women are expected to assume the role of subordination to men (Sultana, 2010; Mostafa, 2005)
As the research evidence suggests that attitude towards women leadership in the workplace may vary based on their demographic differences and sector of the industry, this study investigated if there were any difference among the employees of the different demographic groups with regards to their attitude toward women managers

Summary

Introduction

Increasing women’s participation in the workforce has been a key feature globally for the last few decades. Women’s proportion in the workforce has increased so rapidly in the developed countries in recent years that according to a prediction of the Economist (2009) number of women in the labor force would surpass the number of male in the USA in near future. Reflection on this global trend can be noticed in Bangladesh. Even in sectors that predominantly provide women’s employment (such as the garment), women are mostly employed in low skilled jobs and are paid less than their male counterparts (Khan, 2005)

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion