WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF CHILEAN EXECUTIVES

ABANTE, Vol. 6, Nº 1, pp. 55-81 (abril 2003)

WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF CHILEAN EXECUTIVES*

NUREYA ABARCA**

NICOLÁS MAJLUF**

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the perceptions of men and women executivesregarding the situation confronted by women working in Chileancorporations. It is based on the administration of a questionnaire to80 executives, 50 women and 30 men. Three main areas were explored:difficulties confronted by women when balancing work and family,constraints in the advancement of their professional careers, and thedifferential management style of men and women. Results show that inChile men and women hold different perceptions on the role of womenand on how to balance work and family. Women at work perceiveconstraints reflected in the salary gap, barriers for hiring women, andthe limits to career development. Women see themselves as more people-oriented, while they see men as more task-oriented. Finally, to succeed,they suggest that they have to inhibit their differential traits and actmore like men do in executive positions.

Keywords: Perceptions, Work, Family, Constraints, Career,Development.JEL classification: J16

RESUMEN

Este artículo estudia las percepciones que hombres y mujeres en car-gos ejecutivos tienen acerca de las situaciones que enfrentan las muje-res que trabajan en empresas chilenas. Se basa en las respuestas da-das a un cuestionario por parte de 80 ejecutivos: 50 mujeres y 30 hom-

* This research was partly funded by Fondecyt (# 1971188 ) a Chilean Government researchfund for the sciences and technology, and by “Fondo de Apoyo a la Investigación de laFacultad de Economía y Administración de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile”.We want to thank Soledad Chadwick (1996), a former master student of us who did amagnificent research work in this area. We have used in this paper many of the resultswe obtained in that research. We want to thank also to Sandra Milberg, a visiting professorof the Business School at Universidad Católica, who has provided us with many veryhelpful suggestions and editorial comments.

** Profesores Escuela de Administración y Escuela de Ingeniería de la Pontificia UniversidadCatólica de Chile, respectivamente, [email protected], [email protected]

56 ABANTE, VOL. 6, Nº 1

bres. Se analizan tres áreas de interés: las dificultades que enfrentanlas mujeres al intentar conciliar la vida laboral y la familia; los lími-tes al desarrollo de carrera, y los distintos estilos de liderazgo dehombres y mujeres. Los resultados muestran que en Chile los hombresy mujeres tienen percepciones diferentes acerca del rol de la mujer yla forma de equilibrar el trabajo y la familia. Las mujeres perciben lasrestricciones en su trabajo en lo que se refiere a brecha salarial, ba-rreras para la contratación de mujeres y los límites al desarrollo decarrera. Las mujeres se ven a sí mismas con una mayor orientación alas personas, a la vez que perciben a los hombres más orientados alas tareas. Finalmente, para tener éxito en los cargos ejecutivos, su-gieren que es necesario actuar más parecido a los hombres, inhibiendolos rasgos que las diferencian.

The second half of the 20th century saw the rise of a new trend: in everincreasing numbers, women were moving to out-of-home paid-jobs. At theend of this century, they have become almost half of the U.S labor forceand occupy a significant and growing proportion of entry and mid-levelmanagerial positions. “Today women represent over 40 per cent of theglobal labor force. Approximately 70 per cent of women in developedcountries and 60 per cent in developing countries are engaged in paidemployment. Over the past two decades, the growing participation of womenin paid jobs has been driving employment trends….. Nearly 58 per cent ofwomen in Africa hold paid jobs, 64 per cent in Asia, 46 per cent in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean.”.1 In 1972 women held 17 per cent of mana-gerial positions, and this proportion swelled to 42.7 per cent in 1995 (Ragins,et al., 1998; Gordon and Whelan, 1998).

“Gender gaps in labor force participation have been shrinking, and womenentrepreneurship development has been impressive”.2 Women are increas-ingly filling positions that were traditionally occupied by men, such as en-gineering and management. This is in stark contrast with the previouslyprevailing situation. In the past, women were restricted to stereotypic “womenjobs”, such as secretary, teacher, and nurse (León, 2000). More recently,they are entering professional careers that used to be reserved almostexclusively for men. “Worldwide, more women than ever before are com-pleting higher levels of education”.3 In 1975, Chilean women were only 1.4

1 International Labor Organization, 2003 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/download/women/pdf/factssheet.pdf



WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF CHILEAN EXECUTIVES 57

per cent of graduating engineers, while in 2000 they were over 15 percent.4 In business schools the situation is still more dramatic: they havegone from 13.5 per cent in 1975 to over 50 per cent today.

There are many reasons for this trend, but the most influential ones arethe increasing education of women, and the popularity of ideological move-ments that promoted a greater autonomy and equality for them. Educationbrought a new awareness to women. They looked for new avenues forpersonal development and growth. Family life as a source of satisfaction,with all its richness and enduring values, was not enough. They searchedfor new ways to develop their capabilities out of the home (Subirats, 1998).Some of them experienced discrimination in society as well as in the oppor-tunities afforded to them in firms (Gálvez, 1999).

A. The balance of work and family

“Better jobs opportunities have increased many women independenceand resulted in a new status and role in the family and society.5 Womenjoining the workforce have had a sizable economic and social impact. Theymake a substantial contribution to the family income.6 7 But more impor-tantly, they are confronting challenging personal decisions, trying to balancework, family and personal growth (Hewlett, 2002; Bailyn, 2002; Rapoportet al, 2002; Eaton, 1999).

Balancing these aspects creates tension and stress for women. Thispicture appears to be consistent across several Western cultures and na-tions. When a parent endeavors to meet certain career goals in conjunctionwith family commitments, the pressure from these competing demands canproduce stress and ultimately affect critical career outcomes (Gutek, et al.,1988; Larwood and Gattiker, 1987; Nieva and Gutek, 1981; Stohs, 1992;Thompson and Blau, 1993). As a result of the interface between family and4 Data from Universidad Católica and Universidad de Chile.5 International Labor Organization, 2003 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/download/

women/pdf/factssheet.pdf6 In Chile, the contribution of women to total family income derived purely from wages

is 27%. This is estimated from the participation of women in the workforce (36%) andtheir average income with respect to men (66,4%). Therefore, women’s wages/ men’swages is (0.36x0.664)/(0.64x1)=0.3735. Finally women’s wages/(women’s + men’s) wages= 0.3735/(1+0.3735)=0.272.

7 “A quarter of Chilean families are headed by women…., family income increases in 34.7%by the economic contribution of women…., poverty would increase in 11% without theincome generated by women” in Arriagada, I., (1998), “Realidades y mitos del trabajofemenino urbano en América Latina”, Serie Mujer y Desarrollo N 21, CEPAL.


career opportunities, some women opt to remain childless or delay bearingchildren (Olson, et al., 1990; Ruggiero and Weston, 1988; Wilke, 1981).“Women executives are more likely than men executives to have madeimportant life decisions in order to manage both their careers and theirpersonal lives: 18 per cent of women vs. 9 per cent of men have delayedmarriage, and 3 per cent of women vs. 1 per cent of men have decided notto marry”.8 Other women report experiencing high levels of stress (Ander-son and Leslie, 1991), guilt and shame (Sederer and Seidenberg, 1976).

We are now living in a period in which the old and new family modelscoexist, but there is uncertainty and discomfort for both men and women,regarding their proper identity and family role (Hewlett, 2002; Bailyn, 2002;Rapoport et al, 2002; Eaton, 1999). Long established traditions change withdifficulty. This is a new phenomenon deeply affecting society, organizationsand family life. In this respect, Gordon and Whelan (1998) assert “Thechallenge is keeping it all together and having fun, and not letting it becomeoverwhelmed – to keep the sense of enjoyment of it”.

Under this new setting, the traditional roles of men and women arechanging. Conventional roles link men to the home economic support, andwomen to childcare and household management. “Executives men andwomen have lives at home that are very different from one another: 74 percent of women surveyed have a spouse/partner who is employed full time,while 75 per cent of men surveyed have a spouse/partner who is notemployed.9 As reported by Stohs (2000), women resent this situation. Thisis certainly changing due to the massive entrance of women into theworkforce. Men are also expected to contribute to the management of thehousehold and women to the family income. There is inequity found be-tween partners in the hours devoted to the daily repetitive and necessaryhousehold tasks even though both work full-time (Blair and Jonhson, 1992;Hochschild, 1989; John and Shelton, 1997; Mederer, 1993; Milkie and Peltota,1999; Robinson and Godbey, 1997; Stohs, 1995). Chafetz (1988, 1990)asserts that women in higher status jobs eventually begin to make compari-sons between themselves and their husbands regarding the time spent onhousehold labor because they regard it as a barrier to their career success.Benin and Agostinelli (1988), in their study of highly educated university

8 “Leaders in a Global Economy: A Study of Executive Women and Men”, Families andWork Insti tute, Catalyst Women, The Center for Work and Family, http:/ /www.catalystwomen.org/publications/executive summaries/GlobalLeaders.pdf, 2003.

9 “Leaders in a Global Economy: A Study of Executive Women and Men”, Families andWork Insti tute, Catalyst Women, The Center for Work and Family, http:/ /www.catalystwomen.org/publications/executive summaries/GlobalLeaders.pdf, 2003.


couples, found increased conflict when the husband spends little time inhousehold labor. Rexroat and Shehan (1987) indicate that age may redressthe imbalance in household work, because younger couples share moreevenly these responsibilities.

This situation is somewhat different among Hispanics in the U.S. John,Shelton, and Luschen (1995) state that Hispanic women and men are lessinclined to believe that household labor and providing financial support forthe household should be shared. Along these lines, Hispanic women worksignificantly fewer hours for pay (15.6 per week) than white or blackwomen. In addition, Hispanic men are more inclined than other groups toagree that men should provide the financial support for their families. BothHispanic women and men were less likely than others to see the householddivision of labor as unfair to women.

B. Constraints faced by women at work

Working women face additional constraints and difficulties in their ca-reer development. Research in the 1970s (Bartol, 1978; O´Leary, 1974)suggested that gender biases inhibit recognition of women’s achievementsand contributions. Schneider and Bartol (1980) report that they are deniedopportunities for advancement to positions of legitimate authority and lead-ership. Stroh, et al. (1996) find that female leave their organizations inhigher proportions than males due to career-related concerns, rather than tothe competing demands of work and family (Schwartz, 1989). The study ofRosin and Korabik (1990) also finds that perceived lack of opportunity infuture career opportunities is a strong determinant of female turnover.Moreover, Karambayya and Reilly (1992) find that women and men aremore likely to restructure their individual work-family commitments whenfacing work-family conflicts.

But there are other important factors affecting the careers of men andwomen. “Specifically, being excluded from important networks, having alimited number of role models, having limited opportunities for experiencesin lines or in general management positions, facing gender stereotypes, andbeing in dual-career families”.10 Miree and Frieze (1999) studied the im-pact of young children on the careers of men and women with MBAs.10 “Leaders in a Global Economy: A Study of Executive Women and Men”, Families and

Work Insti tute, Catalyst Women, The Center for Work and Family, http:/ /www.catalystwomen.org/publications/executive summaries/GlobalLeaders.pdf, 2003.


They found that the presence of young children does have an adverseeffect on the careers of women, and a positive effect on the careers ofmen. The presence of children in the family can create conflicting goals ofcareers and motherhood (Sederer and Seidenberg, 1976), negative impacton career progression (Marshall and Jones, 1990), lower job satisfaction,greater intention to quit (Burke and McKeen, 1993), and greater perceivedstress (Tigey, et al., 1996).

Studies on managerial salaries and promotions also show the difficultiesfound by working women. Salary differences between men and womenhave been amply reported (Olson and Frieze, 1986; Olson and Frieze, 1987;Miller and Wheeler, 1992), and there are also significant differences in thejob title, salary level, and number of employees supervised (Phelan, et al.,1993). Regarding promotions, Loden (1985) coined the term “glass ceiling”to describe the invisible barriers to career advancement that many non-traditional executives face. Nieva and Gutek (1981) argue that women donot progress up the organizational hierarchy as rapidly as men and thatwomen are generally less satisfied with their promotion opportunities. Morerecent literature on promotions appears to support this assertion and sug-gests that the glass ceiling continues to be an issue. Morgan, et al. (1993)conducted an analysis of a sample of men and women from a managementdevelopment program in the banking industry and found that men advancedand reached middle management faster than their female counterparts. Coxand Harquail (1991), in a survey of MBAs, found that women in managerialcareers experienced fewer management promotions and lower salary in-creases than comparable males. Landau (1995) examined the impact ofrace and gender on promotion potential and found that both race and genderwere significantly related to having lower promotion potential. Finally, al-though women are flooding the managerial pipeline, they have been hin-dered in their entrance to top-level positions; currently, women hold lessthan 5 per cent of executive positions in the U.S (Ragins, et al., 1998).

The situation is not different in Chile (Table I). Women head of familyearns on average 66.4 per cent of the salary of men. The salary gap ismuch larger for executive women. The top 20 per cent earners have only60.6 per cent of the salary of their men counterparts.


TABLE IWOMEN’S SALARY AS A PERCENTAGE OF MEN’S SALARY

Source: Adapted from “La Inserción Laboral de la Mujer en Chile”, a study bythe Santiago Chamber of Comerce (Cámara de Comercio de Santiago), Septem-

ber, 2000

C. The management style of female leaders

Women that make it to the top of an organization need to be exceptionalto succeed (Sutton and Moore, 1985). Leadership has been viewed tradi-tionally as a male trait (Bass, 1990). But there is a leadership style that hasbeen attributed to women and that is seen as complementary to that ofmen’s. Table II presents a summary of the views advanced by Loden(1985) in her early work about feminine leadership traits. Notwithstanding,in the prevalent situation, the leadership style exhibited by women hasbecome closer to men’s leadership style in order to succeed. Kolb (1997),explored the relationships among gender, gender role, attitude, experienceand leader emergence. The results showed non-significant biological sexeffects. However, support was found for masculine and androgynous indi-viduals emerging as leaders with greater frequency than female or undif-ferentiated individuals. Additionally, a masculine gender characteristic mea-sure proved to be a significant predictor for self-reported leader emergence.Finally, Shimanoff and Jenkins (1991), in their review of research on lead-ership and gender, state that the same leadership behavior is often evalu-ated more positively when attributed to a male than a female. They find thatwomen are less likely to be selected as leaders, though they are equallyeffective and research has demonstrated that there are far more similaritiesthan differences in the leadership behaviors of women and men.

Percentile Women’s salary as a percentage of men’s salary Bottom 20% 82.6% 20% - 40% 86.2% 40% - 60% 75.1% 60% - 80% 77.9% Top 20% 60.6%

Total 66.4%


TABLE IILEADERSHIP STYLE OF MEN AND WOMEN

Source: Adapted from Marilyn Loden (1985)

D. Objectives

The main objective of this paper is to present the results of an explor-atory study of the perceptions men and women have about executive womenin Chile. Three main areas are covered:

1. The balance of work and family2. Constraints faced by executive women at work3. The management style of female leaders

I. METHODOLOGY

This study is based on a sample of 30 firms, selected from a total of 588firms indicated Table III.

TABLE IIITOTAL NUMBER OF FIRMS CONSIDERED IN THE SELECTION

OF THE SAMPLE

Leadership models Feminine Masculine Management style Cooperative Competitive Organizational structure Teamwork Hierarchy Main goal Quality Success Problem solving approach Intuitive Rational Key traits Loose control, empathy, and high

operational standards Rigorous control, formal relations, and high analytical reasoning

* Firms included in “The Chile Inc. Sourcebook 1994: The User’s Guide to Business in Chi-le”, The South Pacific Mail, Santiago, Chile. They are private and public firms, domesticand foreign, in manufacturing, service, and commerce.

Number of firms Largest Corporations included in the SPM500* 500 Pension Funds 10 Financial Institutions 4 Banks 34 General Insurance Companies 10 Life Insurance Companies 20 Health Service and Insurance (Isapres) 10 Total 588


An initial sample of 110 companies was randomly chosen out of thisgroup, restricting the selection to firms based in Santiago. Only 20 womenin executive positions were found. Therefore, the sample was doubled,randomly selecting an additional 110 firms. The final sample was thusincreased to 50 executive women from 30 firms. Also, a sample of 30 menwas conveniently selected from the firms included in the study. They werechosen by the researchers as a relevant member of the executive team,based on the recommendation of women in the sample. The demographicsof the sample are reported in Table IV.

TABLE IVDEMOGRAPHICS OF THE SAMPLE

Table IV.1 Executive positions of women and men in the sample

Table IV.2 Age of women and men in the sample

Table IV.3 Work experience

Vice-President

Director CEO Division Manager

Deputy Manager

Area Head

Staff

Women (n=50) % 4 4 2 44 18 14 10 Men (n=30) % 0 6,7 26 33,3 13,3 13,3 6,7

Age %Women (n= 50)

% Men (n=30)

Over 45 years 16 16,6 Between 35 and 45 years 66 53,3 Under 35 years 18 29,9

Work experience in years

%Women (n=50)

%Men (n=30)

Between 5 and 10 10 20,2 Between 11 and 21 72 46,7 Over 21 18 33,4


Table IV.4 Educational level

Table IV.5 Professional degree

Table IV.6 Marital Status

Table IV.7 Number of Children

Ph.D % Master % Professional degree %

Technical degree%

High school %

Other %

Women (n=50)

0 8 74 12 4 2

Men (n=30)

3,3 20 70 6,7 0 0

% Men (n= 30) % Women (n=50) Civil Industrial Engineer 26,7 18 Business Engineer 50 26 Constructor 6,7 0 Biology 6,7 0 Lawyer 0 6 Information Technology 0 6 None 0 6 Other 9,9 32

% Men (n= 30) % Women (n=50) Single 6,7 20 Married 90 58 Divorced 3,3 20 Widow 0 2

% Men (n= 30) % Women (n=50) Between 0 and 2 20 56 3 or more 80 44


The interviews were based on a questionnaire including open-ended,yes-no, and multiple-choice questions, along with 4-point Likert scales (FullyAgree, Agree, Disagree, Fully Disagree). A different version of the ques-tionnaire was used for women and men in the sample. These questionnaireswere applied in late 1995-early 1996. They were built as part of the re-search, based on the identification of key issues stemming from the biblio-graphic review. For an item to be included in the final questionnaire, a two-step procedure was followed: (1) content validation by a multidisciplinaryresearch team, and (2) pre-test to assess the proper understanding of theitems.

Women executives interviewed were asked about their own reality; whilemen were asked about their perceptions of women executives. They wereadministered individually to each executive by the same person. This wasdone to broaden the exploration of the subject mainly through the open-ended questions, though this methodology has the risk of a bias introducedby the interviewer. This risk was controlled through the proper training ofthe interviewer.

The areas covered by the questionnaire were: (1) Demographic Infor-mation: age, education, marital status, total number of children, professionaltraining; (2) Personal and Family aspects: male and female roles, familybalances, adjustment to job demands (17 items); (3) Salary (8 items); (4)Hiring (7 items); (5) Career Development (19 items); (6) InterpersonalRelations (13 items); and (7) Management Style (38 items).

II. RESULTSTHE BALANCE OF WORK AND FAMILY

A. Women in society: Traditional roles of men and women

As indicated, men have been seen traditionally linked to activities outsidetheir homes. They are expected to be the economic providers of the family.On the other hand, women have been mainly restricted to household man-agement and childcare responsibilities. Their formal education has beencoherent with these roles.

The results shown in Table V may be interpreted to mean that social-ization and self- development of women in Chile is still oriented mainly to


traditional family roles (63 per cent of men and 72 per cent of women agreewith the sentence “Socialization of women prepares them mainly for familylife”). But there is a difference of opinion regarding the importance offamily to the self-development of women. Men are more forceful thanwomen when asserting that the “Self-development of women is derivedmainly from the family” (43 per cent of men vs. 22 per cent of womenagree with the sentence; p<0.05).

Moreover, the sharing of house chores is observed in approximately 74per cent of households (26 per cent of women agree with the sentence “Henever shares household chores with me”). But responsibilities stay mainlywith women, as inferred from the interviews of women responding to thequestionnaire.

TABLE VTRADITIONAL ROLES OF MEN AND WOMEN

SOCIALIZATION, SELF-DEVELOPMENT, AND SHARING OF HOUSEHOLDRESPONSIBILITIES

(% OF AGREEMENT WITH THE STATEMENT MEASURED IN A LIKERT SCALE)

*Level of significance for the null hypothesis that the % of agreement for men and womenis the sameN/A Not applicablen.s. = not significantSample of men = 30

Sample of women = 50

Statement Sample of men

Sample of women

Statistical test*

Socialization of women prepares them mainly for family life

63 72 n.s.

Self -development of women is derived mainly from the family

43 22 p<0.05

He never shares household chores with me N/A 26 N/A If my wife’s job had a workload similar to mine, I would share responsibilities in the household

77 N/A N/A


B. Women at work: Differentiated expectations of men and women

The changes brought about by women having jobs outside their home areperceived and valued differently by men and women. The expectations theyhave regarding the role of women at home and in the job are dissimilar. Thisis observed when men and women in the sample were presented with anopen question requesting their characterization of the “ideal women” inthree areas: family, work, and economic contribution. Table 6 shows themost important issues mentioned by men and women in each one of theseareas. For men, the work of women is not central (30 per cent of menagree that “Any activity is OK if it is satisfactory for women, even volun-tary work”), but if they have an income, they are expected to contribute afair share to the household expenses. For women, the balance betweenwork and family is key (48 per cent of women consider that “Achieving aproper balance between work and family” is the most important familyissue), but this is not shared by men (43 per cent of men thinks that “Beinga good mother and the concern for the family are more important than self-development in the job” is what should receive the utmost attention). Womenagree on sharing household expenses. They see as important for their self-development achieving a college education and becoming a licensed profes-sional (38 per cent of women agree with the sentence “Becoming a gradu-ate from college with a professional degree”).

TABLE VIDIFFERENTIAL EXPECTATIONS REGARDING WOMEN AT WORK

THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR MEN AND WOMEN INDIFFERENT AREAS

Sample of women


Area The most important issue % of preference

Family Achieving a proper balance between work and family

48

Work Becoming a graduate from college with a professional degree

38

Economic Assuming a fair share of household expenses, according to income

56


CONT. TABLE VISample of men

Sample of men = 30

C Personal conflicts for women at work

The results show that for an important percentage of women, theseare challenging times. The challenges to women are clear in the demo-graphic indicators for the samples of executive women and men:

• 58 per cent of women executives were married compared to 90 percent of men executives. The rest were mainly single (20 per cent) ordivorced (20 per cent). In the case of men 6.7 per cent were singleand 3.3 per cent were divorced. (Table IV.6)

• The number of children is between 2 and 3 for women executives andbetween 3 and 4 for men executives. (Table IV.7)

Personal conflicts affect a large percentage of women at work. TableVII shows that for 40 per cent of women, professional development has ahigh family cost. Men put a higher emphasis on this issue, because 63 percent of them consider this cost high. The perceptions of men and womenare significantly different (p<0.05). It is also a telling statistic the 46 percent of women expressing that they regret the lack of attention they giveto their children. Moreover, in 42 per cent of cases women decide to“postpone marriage and maternity”. Finally, though the percentage is lower,it is still a telling statistics the 22 per cent of women that “limit their careerprogress to avoid conflicts with her spouse”11 . All these results point to thedifficulty women have as they try to give the proper attention to both workand family.

Area The most important issue % of preference Family Being a good mother and the concern for the family are

more important than self-development in the job 43

Work Any activity is OK if it is satisfactory for women, even voluntary work

30

Economic Assuming a fair share of household expenses, according to income

57

11 The women included in this sample were in high executive positions, so most of themdid not actually limited their career.


TABLE VIIPERSONAL CONFLICTS FOR WOMEN AT WORK


*Level of significance for the null hypothesis that the % of agreement for men andwomen is the sameN/A Not applicablen.s. = not significantSample of men = 30Sample of women = 50

III. CONSTRAINTS FACED BY EXECUTIVE WOMEN AT WORK

The massive entrance of women to the labor markets and the naturaldevelopment of their careers into higher managerial positions have madeapparent the constraints they face. The main areas of concern are thesalary gap between working women and men, the barriers to hiring women,and the limits to career development of women inside a firm.

A. The salary gap between working women and men

There is a significant difference in the average wages of men andwomen. Three reasons are given to explain this gap:

First, arbitrary discrimination, stemming from cultural and historical rea-sons.

The perception of the salary gap between men and women is signifi-cantly different between them (Table VIII). When confronted with thestatement “Women’s salary is lower than her male counterpart”, 79 percent of men and only 38 per cent of women agree (p<0.001). Also, the 30men and 50 women in the sample were presented with the statement


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Professional development of women at work has a high family cost

63 40 p<0.05

Women limit their career progress to avoid conflicts with her spouse

37 22 n.s.

Women interested in pursuing an executive career postpone marriage and maternity

40 42 n.s.

Guilt feeling from lack of attention to children N/A 46 N/A


“Women accept a lower salary because they have no access to betteropportunities”: 53 per cent of men and 32 per cent of women agree withit (p<0.10).

TABLE VIIIPERCEIVED SALARY GAP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN


Sample of men = 30


Second, labor protection and women rights, mainly related with mater-nity, raises the cost of hiring women. When confronted with the statement“For the firm it is more expensive to hire a woman than a man”, 40 per centof men and 50 per cent of women agree. Some men executives expressedthat more important than the cost were the difficulties for the smoothfunctioning of the firm created by the long absence of women on maternityleave.

Finally, the salary gap may be explained simply by personal choicesmade by women, which are self-imposed constraints on their career devel-opment in the firm. On this matter, men and women show no significantdifference of opinion. Some of the reasons given by men and women toexplain this situation are presented in Table IX. It shows that womanexplain their lower salary because they favor job stability over job rotation(52 per cent). Also they find other sources of self-fulfillment not necessarilyrelated to their jobs (36 per cent of women agree with the statement“Women are willing to accept a lower salary because they get most of theirpersonal gratification from other sources”). Finally, and most importantly,they constrain their career development to avoid added demands for theirtime and new responsibilities coming with a higher hierarchical position inthe organization (62 per cent of women agree with the statement “Womenremain in lower hierarchical positions in the organization”).


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Women’s salary is lower than her male counterpart

79 3 8 P<0.001

Women accept a lower salary because they have no access to better opportunities

53 3 2 p<0.10


TABLE IXWHY DO WOMEN ACCEPT A SALARY LOWER THAN MEN?

PERSONAL CHOICE AS A REASON TO EXPLAIN THE SALARY GAPBETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN


*Level of significance for the null hypothesis that the % of agreement for men andwomen is the samen.s. = not significantSample of men = 30


B. Barriers for hiring women

Table X presents some barriers to the hiring of women. Labor protectionlaws are one of them. Men pay greater attention than women to them (72per cent vs. 43 per cent; p<0.05). Also, half of the men in the sample holdthe opinion that the commitment of women in a firm is weaker comparedto men, because they have to pay attention to family demands. On the otherhand, women perceive that they are not treated fairly on this issue: 64 percent of them agree that they have to exhibit more qualifications and expe-rience than men to get a job offer. This is a marked difference with men’sperception (27 per cent agree with the statement above, a highly significantdifference with women; p<0.01) The same percentage of women (64 percent) feel that they are excluded from jobs traditionally related to men.


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Women accept a lower salary because they favor job stability over job rotation

50 52 n.s.

Women are not unduly concerned about having a lower salary if they are satisfied with their job

27 36 n.s.

Women are willing to accept a lower salary because they get most of their personal gratification from other sources

43 36 n.s.

Women remain in lower hierarchical positions in the organization

40 62 n.s.


TABLE XBARRIERS FOR HIRING WOMEN




C. Limits to career development of women

Women are grossly underrepresented in higher executive positions. Only3 per cent of women hold top positions in Chile and 10.6 per cent in theU.S.12 Table XI shows that there are clear perceptions of limits to thecareer development of women due to an unfavorable organizational envi-ronment. Women strongly perceive that they “are required to show a su-perior performance than men to be recognized as successful” (92 per centagreement). Men agree with them (73 per cent), though there is a signifi-cant difference (p<0.05). Also, women feel restricted to positions of lowerresponsibility (76 per cent of them agree that “Women are in positions oflower responsibility than men are”). Men do not fully agree with them (40per cent of men agree with the same statement above; p<0.01). In theperception of women, those positions are ranked lower in the firm (62 percent), and often they hold positions with no potential for career advance-ment (38 per cent). Moreover, “Women are constantly required to provetheir abilities” (56 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men agree;p<0.05). Finally, 66 per cent of women think that “Having a mentor hasbeen critical to my career development”.


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Labor protection and women rights, mainly related with maternity, play against their hiring

72 43 p<0.05

The commitment of women with the firm is weaker than men’s because they have to respond to family demands

50 34 n.s.

For a given job, women are required to have more qualifications and experience

27 64 p<0.01

Women are not offered certain jobs traditionally related to men

53 64 n.s.

12 Catalyst, 1997


TABLE XILIMITS TO THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN IN A FIRM IM-

POSED BY THE ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT(% OF AGREEMENT WITH THE STATEMENT MEASURED IN A LIKERT SCALE)

*Level of significance for the null hypothesis that the % of agreement for men and women is the samen.s. = not significantSample of men = 30


In addition to the limits to the career development of women imposed bythis unfavorable organizational environment, there may be self-imposed lim-its to career advancement. The limits, in this case, are personal choices.Table XII shows that 64 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men in thesample agree with the statement: “Women show less interest in importantmanagerial positions”. This is a significant difference (p<0.05). Women seethemselves as less inclined to put the energy required to reach highermanagerial positions, when compared with men, but it should not be inferredthat they do not have aspirations to reach the top (only 28 per cent of themagree that “Women do not aspire to reach the top executive positions”).


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Women are required to show a superior performance than men to be recognized as successful

73 92 p<0.05

Women are in positions of lower responsibility than men are 40 76 p<0.01 Women are in positions ranked lower in the organizational hierarchy

40 62 n.s.

Women are in positions that have no potential for career advancement

37 38 n.s.

Women are constantly required to prove their abilities 33 56 p<0.05 Having a mentor has been critical to my career development 47 66 n.s.


TABLE XIISELF-IMPOSED LIMITS TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN

IN A FIRM (% OF AGREEMENT WITH THE STATEMENT MEASURED IN A LIKERT SCALE)



IV. THE MANAGEMENT STYLE OF FEMALE LEADERS

Women perceive important differences in leadership style. They wererequested to express their opinion on this regard. They were presented withthe list of behaviors related to leadership shown in Figure 1. They indicatedif the behavior was more characteristic of women, men or both.

Their most salient traits, as perceived by women, are: ability to createa positive work environment, intuitive conflict resolution, willingness to in-vest time in people, consensus building, promoting a cooperative environ-ment, developing a more open and creative work environment, teamwork,people oriented communication, ability to motivate, and personal relation-ships with peers. In sum, women see the strengths in their leadership stylemore associated with a people orientation.

On the other hand, the strengths of men’s management style, as per-ceived by women, emphasize more task-oriented aspects of leadership:relevance of salary (extrinsic motivation is more important than intrinsicmotivation), riskier decision-making, use of power, rational and promptdecision-making, orientation to end results, long term business planning, andan analytical approach to management.

It is interesting to observe that male and female management styles areperceived by women as complementary.


Sample of women

Statistical test*

Women show less interest in important managerial positions

40 64 p<0.05

Women do not aspire to reach the top executive positions

40 28 n.s.


FIG

UR

E 1

LEA

DER

SHIP

STY

LEW

OM

EN’S

PER

CEP

TIO

NS


Socialization is recognized by women as a critical factor to explain thesedifferences in the management styles. A high percentage of them (82 percent) agree with the statement “Women’s management style is differentfrom men’s due to their differences in socialization”, while only 50 per centof men assert the same. This is a significant difference (p<0.01).

Though women exhibit a different leadership style, their success oftendepends on their ability to emulate the style of men: 53 per cent of men and54 per cent of women in the sample agree with the statement “Successfulexecutive women are those with a leadership style similar to men”. Thereis no difference on this regard.

V. DISCUSSION

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an exploratorystudy of the perceptions men and women have about executive women inChile. We suggest that this is a challenging issue, mainly because womenneed to balance work and family, and when they get into an organization,they face constraints that make their career development more difficult. Onthe other hand, women perceive their management style as not equal to thatof men, and the question is if this was helping or hindering their opportu-nities for advancement to top positions in the organization.

A. The balance of work and family

Many of the results found for Chile in this paper are not different fromthose reported in the literature for the U.S (as discussed in the introductionto this paper):

(1) As in the U.S, in Chile the traditional roles of men and women are alsochanging. But in Chile men assert more emphatically the traditional roleof women. They state that the professional development of workingwomen has a high family cost (Table VII). Chilean men consider thatthe self-development of women is derived mainly from the family. Also,the responsibility for house chores stays mainly with women (Table V).This is closer to what has been reported for the Hispanic communityin the U.S (John, et al., 1995).


(2) The expectations men and women have regarding the role of womenat home and in the job are dissimilar. Women require a proper balancebetween personal growth, family, and work. For men, being a goodmother is the most important issue (Table VI). This is consistent withthe findings of Gordon and Whelan (1998) in a sample of 36 profes-sional women at midlife. They find that 78 per cent of the women intheir sample express the need for a renewed work-family balance.

(3) In the U.S., women find difficulty in balancing the demands of workand family: they postpone marriage and maternity, restrict the size oftheir families, and have feelings of guilt for lack of attention to children(Hewlett, 2002). The situation is no different in Chile (Tables IV.6 andIV.7)

B. Constraints faced by women at work

The constraints faced by women at work are reflected in the salary gap,barriers for hiring women, and the limits to career development. This issimilar to what happens in other western countries, but in Chile the situationis more extreme than in the U.S.

(1) Executive women in Chile earn 60.6 per cent of the salary of theirmale counterparts. This is explained partly by labor protection lawsfavoring maternity, but more importantly by the personal choices madeby women (Table IX). Some conjectures can be presented to explaintheir preference for job stability. First, for women it is more difficultto find a job; and second, when they get a job, they work hard to finda comfortable balance between work and family, so they have animportant incentive to maintain the status quo.

(2) In the opinion of Chilean men, labor protection laws are one of themain barriers for hiring women. Women have a different opinion.They emphasize the need to exhibit more qualifications and experiencethan men to get a job offer, and the exclusion from jobs traditionallyreserved for men.

(3) As in the U.S, women in Chile perceive that they are required todemonstrate a superior performance for career advancement. Theyhave to prove their abilities constantly (Table XI). Ragins, et al. (1998)find a similar result. They state that “Superior performance is ex-


pected of all executives, but it may be particularly important for women.Consistently exceeding performance expectations was the top-rankingstrategy used by these successful female executives, and an over-whelming 99 per cent of the respondents reported that this strategywas critical or fairly important.” Finally, men and women mentionmentors as important for their career, but they appear to be morecritical for women. This is also consistent with the findings of Ragins,et al. (1998) who report that “a full 91 per cent of the femaleexecutives surveyed reported having a mentor sometime in the courseof their careers, and 81 per cent felt their mentor as being eithercritical or fairly important in their career advancement”.

(4) All of the above provide likely explanations to understand the underrepresentation of women in executive positions.

C. The management style of female leaders

As expected, women seem to have a different management style thanmen. Women see themselves as relatively more people-oriented, whichimplies that they see men as more task oriented. Their perception is thatwomen are mainly interested in creating a positive work environment, whilemen emphasize the more quantitative dimensions of management.

VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS

The most appropriate management style for the future is not necessarilythe one prevailing today. In fact, the dramatic changes in corporations andbusiness environments have brought a new kind of organization and lead-ership (Majluf, Abarca and Rodríguez, 1999). Today executive leaders haveto emphasize “emotional intelligence” (Goleman, 1995) and social skills towork in a vast network, with flatter hierarchies and a lot of teamwork. Itis precisely in this area where women show particular strengths (Petridesand Furnham, 2000). This is certainly a fertile subject for research. Forexample, What is the impact of the differences in perception observed inthis paper between men and women? Are women contributing somethingspecial and unique to leadership or they are primarily emulating men? Dofamily friendly policies affect productivity, satisfaction and commitment?


We have shown that this is a challenging time for women and that theyfind difficulties in balancing work and family, and reaching the top of anorganization. But we can add now, that this is also a time of opportunities,because the most salient traits in the women leadership style are preciselythe ones most in need in the prevailing business environment. To succeed,women should not have the need to inhibit their differential traits and actmore like men do in executive positions.

Finally, the results in this study show that there are similar patterns in thechallenges and opportunities faced by women at work in many Westerncountries. However, the magnitude of these patterns differs.

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WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT: A STUDY OF CHILEAN EXECUTIVES

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