Senior Management Women and Gender Equity: A Comparison of Women in the Private and Public Sectors

Abstract

Men still heavily dominate the context in which senior management women operate in Australian organisations. Legislative initiatives such as Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action over the last twenty years have not substantially changed the gender balance at the senior management level. A complex interplay of structural and individual factors combine to act as barriers to addressing the gender imbalance, the most salient of these being the 'male-gender-system' dominant within the culture of many Australian organisations. Existing research in Australia has not explored the values, norms and practices of senior management women in terms of the persistent barriers to gender equity. Consequently, myths of senior management women as 'Queen Bees' have developed which tend to stereotype the image of woman in positions of power. This thesis intends to explore the values, norms and practices of the small cohort of women incumbent in senior management positions. The five aims of the study are: to explore senior management women's experiences with, and views of, the use of power and the dominant culture within their workplaces; their views of Affirmative Action programs and quota systems; the differences and similarities between women working in the private and public sectors; and the effects of independent variables on their values, norms and practices regarding gender equity.