CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION:

The discrimination women face in the labour market has long been a subject of study with the increase in labour force participation of women. Large number of women has over the years entered into the male dominated workplaces mainly due to societal changes. A broad distinction between men’s work in the public sphere and women’s work in the private has been drawn, and the public is further divided by gender.

Occupational segregation and discrimination reflects not only in the assigning of what kind of job women do, but also in discrimination such as wage differential, restricted career opportunities and the kind of reward accruing to the occupational opportunity of women. Feminist scholars highlighted the relationship between women gender based responsibility, child care and their disadvantaged positioning the labour market.

Whilst some women have moved into managerial positions and are making waves, many others experience barriers in progressing to higher position of authority in firms. Another major challenge woman in authority face is the difficulty for male subordinates, counterparts and superior officers to accept their authority and opinion. Some other reasons why women experience such barriers also include home commitments, traditional and cultural beliefs (Fontyn, 2002).

The affirmative action by the federal Government accounts for much change, motivated by the level of development of women and of the Nation after the United Nations declaration of 1976-1985 as the Nigerian Decade for women. The political Bureau recommended in 1987, that five percent decision making positions in the country should be reserved for women in all spheres of government (Akande, 1996).

This has been utilized extensively both in developing and developed countries and in turn has resulted in larger number of women participation in paid labour (UNDP, 1999). Even with women participation, the ratio of women compared with their male counterpart still remains low. This is actually due to late entry of women into paid labour force and also some constraint within such organisation they find themselves.

The increase though not appreciable has afforded women the opportunity to optimally utilize their potentials. However, the fact still remains that traditional beliefs about the appropriate roles for women and men exert a major influence on employment opportunities and experience of women at work.

In countries where agricultural sector employs important part of the labour force, the female labour increases very slowly outside the agricultural sector (Horton, 1999) and the labour force participation of women is also influenced by many intertwining

demographical and social factors, these includes those related to women‘s responsibility at home. This is not caused by the insufficiency of paid work outside the home but also by the patriarchal mentality which are unfavorable to women’s work. In contemporary African society, cultural values, pre-existing gender roles and subsequent social discrimination still determine women’s position in the labour market whether they are qualified or not. 

Indispensability of domestic labour and prevalent cultural norms defining women’s primary role as mother and housewife explain their disadvantaged and subordinate position in the labour market. A large number of women cannot leave the domestic sphere and those who are educated and work as skilled personnel still face various forms of discrimination at work.

These traits and behaviours stereotypically viewed as appropriate and possessed by men and women and these is believed to have influence on their performance at work:

Men                                                                                                    Women

Forceful                                                                                              Intuitive

Independent                                                                                    Spontaneous

Logical                                                                                                Caring

Manipulative                                                                                    Cooperative

Competitive                                                                                     Flexible

Resilient                                                                                           Emotional

Decisive                                                                                             Thorough

Source: G Morgan .images of organsation, cited in Traves op.cit, p.145.

All traits inherent in men are believed not to be in women and as such they are not suited for certain positions especially those involving leadership and professional or technical skills (Worell & Rener 1996). On the other hand stereotyped traits and behaviours seen as appropriate for women are associated with a more narrow range of occupation clustered into care taking, low status job and so on. Thus, the myths about the female and male managers, and beliefs about appropriate roles for women and men are formally and informally instituted into many employment structures.

Although changes in women moving up the management cadre have began to erode the stereotype of cooperate women as low in status and relegated to clerical or support position, these have not been as profound as they seem especially in male dominated work environment. Male dominated work environment refers to the process by which cultural norms are actively reinforced by members of the prevailing power elite and outsiders are repelled

There is a gender bias in predisposition to certain occupations. Gender bias in this context according to Zunker, (1996) includes any factor, which depends solely on the bias of being female or male. Thus gender based discrimination is institutionalized in many political, economic, educational, occupational and religious systems (Worell & Rener, 1996). Although overt sex discrimination in employment practices is prohibited by law in many Nations including Nigeria, such practices still overtly and covertly exist. These external negative message is being stereotyped and the existing structural barriers impact on women’s perception of themselves and their environment, and these internal perception influence their career related choice and behaviour (Marshall, 1995). These to a large extent have sharpened their experience at work

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Women as a group have long been denied the access to and benefit from development in many societies. This might be due to the fact that such policies were built on male perspectives (Boserup, 1970). She drew attention to sexual division of labour and underlined the different impact of development on men and women. She also challenged the controversy of modernisation school that development was a gender neutral process, her study pointed to the fact that many development projects not only ignored women but actually undermined their economic opportunities and independence.

According to ILO estimates, Over 600 million women are engaged in economic activity, constituting about 35% of the total labour force (Korchounoya, 1983). In Nigeria, the national female labour rate is 45.1 percent (Okojie, 2002) but they are more likely to be found in lower level occupations, very few women have reached management level and decision making positions in these services. Women have achieved higher levels of education than ever before, yet their share of management positions remains unacceptably low, just a tiny proportion of the global workforce (40 per cent) have successfully succeeded in breaking through the glass ceiling (ILO, 1998). The lack of adequate education, training and experience in the past to some extent, explain the difficulties women experienced in obtaining management jobs. Today a large and increasing proportion of women in many countries are well qualified. This has resulted to better gender distribution of jobs, but occupational segregation both horizontally and vertically, remains a major problem. Increasing number of women who now hold management post tends to be clustered in less vital areas. In most cases, their access to top management jobs remains severely restricted. Women hold 1 per cent to 5 per cent top executive position according to ILO data, and women managers tend to be concentrated in certain sectors like hotel and catering sectors, but women are increasingly entering management in non traditional sectors such as manufacturing industries

It is extremely difficult to move laterally into strategic positions and then upwards through the central pathways to key executive positions in the pyramidal structure that is characteristic of large organizations.

Various institutions – legal, social, political and economic support the institution of patriarchy. This limits the economic participation of women in paid labour, because women’s decision to work outside the home depends largely on their husband’s permission and it’s generally under their control. Some women have been able to wangle their way into paid labour not into just any but into those organisation and positions termed as ‘men only’ such persons more often than not face one form of discrimination or another.

Although there is little empirical work on executive and managerial women, Lyness & Thompson (1997), suggested that women’s experiences are probably different from those of their male counterparts. If males see female as being different from them, then females in male dominated occupations would report a different experience from men. O’Farrell & Halan (1982) reported that women may not be accepted by male coworkers and male supervisors and this may be displayed by male supervisor and colleagues treating women differently to men. Consequently, all these may impede on women’s progress towards parity with men and their experience may be different from their male counterpart. Major forms of discrimination suffered in the work place are

-          Differential in pay/ earnings gap between female and male managers.

-          Uneven and slow progress for women to management position compared to their male counterpart

-          Undue antagonism against women and disregard for authority of women by

their subordinates.

Since the experience of women are probably different from those of men in female dominated occupations, in what is a mirror of occupational segregation patterns, women managers tend to be concentrated in certain sectors. Most women are found in the hotel and catering sector and clerical work but women are increasingly entering management in non traditional sectors such as manufacturing, insurance and banking and hardly do we find women in areas such as production, contracting, real estates etc.

In large organization where women have managed to reach level of managerial positions, they are often restricted to areas less central to the organisation such as administration and it’s extremely difficult to move laterally through the pathways and to key executive positions, sometimes these barriers are referred to as glass walls.

Illustration: fig 1 the glass ceiling and glass walls in the organisational pyramid.

glass ceiling.

Men

Women

Support staff

Women

(Majority women)

Fig 1

Source: ILO: Economically active population, 1950- 2010 (Geneva 1997), pp23, 26and 29

The male/female differences in management largely contribute to earnings differentials. Earnings gap or pay differential may also reflect differences in seniority and the concentration of women in low paid management positions. This hurdle facing women aspiring to management position makes them formidable that they abandon efforts to make it to the top of large firms, they often concentrate their energy and know how to more flexible and smaller firms or set up their own business

Another principal constraint on the level and type of labour market participation of women is the responsibility to care for and raise children, which definitely requires taking time off (maternity leave) to nurture and care for them at a tender age, also performing household chores takes their attention. A very important feature of professional and especially managerial work is extended working hours that seem to be required for recognition, efficiency and eventual promotion which on the one hand might be practically impossible for women to reconcile the long hours often required of management staff with the amount of time needed to care for a home and children. Yet, the availability of part-time managerial work is rare. In this context time is a gender issue. Women who desire both domains (career and family), those who opt for part- time work early in their career may find their advancement hampered , Even after their return to full- time employment in case of time off work due to maternity leave, since their male counterpart will have invested heavily in career building during the same period.

The gender division of time between work and family is probably the most significant gender issue of all and explain many of the differences between the work patterns and job types of men and women. Time use studies show that women work longer than men in nearly every country. According to 1995 UNDP report, women perform an average of 53 per cent of total amount of paid and unpaid work in developing countries

and 51 per cent in industrialized countries. But over two thirds of women’s time is spent on unpaid activities and one- third on paid activities, women spend more time on personal care for their family. While it’s easier for men to have both family and a career, some career women forgo their marriage and children to devout themselves to a career because their seem not to be progress in striking balance between the two: family and work.

In view of the foregoing, this study is designed to carefully examine and to provide answers to the following questions:

1.      How have gender differences been generated by the subjective conditions of work, particularly attitudes of senior workers/ co-workers towards female employment.

2.      In spite of the structural hindrances, how did some women get into supposedly male occupations, especially, manufacturing industries with it rigors and how they have been able to progress

1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF STUDY

Through this study, better ways of curbing / reducing gender discrimination would be suggested which will help improve productivity in organisation through fare or most importantly equal treatment of both sexes in work environment. This in the long run will create a sense of belonging in organisation and as such erase the ‘male’ ‘female’ work segregation.

Secondly it will examine the relationship between work input and women’s lower wages and also try to establish a balance between their ability to break through the glass ceiling compared to their male counterpart.

There seem to be much disparity between sex and rate / level of effectiveness or rather work output, this study will try to weigh a balance between the two as to if there is a variance in what an individual is able to accomplish based on their gender. This will be with regards to level of individual effectiveness on their job.

To establish the factors that have an impact on promoting women into top managerial positions in the private sector, and also to identify the effects of gender discrimination in the workplace.

1.4  RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study are;

1.   To Assess the extent to which gender is an organising feature of the management structure of these firms.

2.   To examine whether patterns of achievement in these organisations exists along professional lines.

3.    To investigate the level of acceptance of female managers by their males and females subordinates in these firms.

4.   To assess if there are traits which are associated with gender of manager and how these relates to their performance at work.

1.5 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES

-There is no relationship between gender bias and the acquisition of skill necessary for

managerial position.

-  There is no relationship between gender stereotype and the ability of women to reach management positions in organisation as rapidly as men.

-     There is no association between marital status of women and the access to management positions in organisation,