Web viewVincent-Höper et al. (2012) also confirmed higher correlations exist, between transformational leadership and career satisfaction for women rather than man,

Running head: WOMEN’S CAREER AND ADVANCEMENT 1

Women’s Career and Advancement: An Update on the Latest Trends in Research

2WOMEN’S CAREER AND ADVANCEMENT

Abstract

Women’s career and advancement in the workplace has attracted consistent research

attention in the past few decades. As more women enter the job market and recognized

benefits of having a diverse workforce, gender related issues have emerged as one of the top

concerns of contemporary organizations. The purpose of this article is to provide an update

on research on women’s career and women leadership at work during the past decade. By

performing a thorough review and critical analysis of 37 empirical studies published in

refereed journal articles between 2000 and 2013, I identified pressing issues still facing career

women today and the current trends in literature. I offer recommendations for both human

resource development practitioners and researchers with a hope to address challenges facing

women in their career advance and to advance research along this line.

Keywords: women’s career development, female leadership, women leaders


Introduction

Women face a wide range of challenges on their career path (Ryan & Haslam, 2005).

A few barriers they have to break down include the overt gender-based stereotyping at work

(Bergeron, Block, & Echtenkamp, 2006), inadequate mentoring and social networking

(Wang, 2009), disproportionate family responsibilities (Cabrera, 2007; Clarke, 2011), and

organizational policies and practices that hinder women’s career advancement (Oakley,

2000). It is, therefore, not surprising that women continue to have a small representation in

the upper echelons of management (Clarke, 2011) and experience gender inequity at work

(Miller & Attridge, 2011).

The latest statistics (Catalyst, 2013) show the number of women executive officers in

the Fortune 500 companies has stagnated in recent years, from 13.5% in 2009, 14.4% in

2010, to 14.1% in 2011, and 14.3% in 2012. The Fortune 500 board seats held by women

increased by only a small percentage from 9.6% in 1995 to 16.6% in 2012 (Catalyst, 2013).

Evidently, women today continue to experience gender discrimination and glass ceilings

(Weidenfeller, 2012). However, in 2012, women made up 46.9% of the U.S. labor force and

comprised 51.5% of management, professional and related positions.

Nevertheless, in the United States, women are increasingly recognized for having

excellent leadership skills. Eagly (2007) argued more women than men manifest leadership

styles associated with effective performance (Eagly, 2007). The 2010 McKinsey Women

Matter revealed companies with a higher proportion of women in executive committees

achieve better financial performances (Desvaux, Devillard, & Sultan, 2010). These findings

support the assertion that having more female leaders is positively related to organizational

success.

Despite the well-recognized advantages of female leadership, male bosses are still

preferred to female bosses. The implication is that it is going to take extra efforts for women


to become leaders and to succeed in the male-dominated society (Eagly, 2007). In light of

women’s continuous struggle for gender equity at work, the sustained “glass ceiling”

phenomenon, the rising appreciation for the positive impact of gender diversity on

organizations, and the increasing research attention to women leadership, I desire to provide

an update on latest research on women, particularly women’s career progression.

Problem and Significance

Three issues emerged out of our preliminary literature review and warrant the need

for this research.

First, women leadership and gender diversity in the workplace are important topics

deserving systematic research attention. While organizations today place an increasing

emphasis on promoting and retaining female leaders, the reality does not paint a promising

picture. According to Catalyst (2013), only 21 women hold Fortune 500 CEO positions,

accounting for 4.2 % of all Fortune 500 CEOs. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly

difficult to ignore gender diversity at work. McKinsey’s study (2012) contended companies

now recruit equal numbers of men and women, but women are still underrepresented as they

move higher up in the organization (Devillard, Graven, Lawson, Paradise, & Sultan, 2012).

The lack of female leaders is a consequence of various internal and external factors as many

researchers have noted. Yet, it seems little progress has been made in advancing women to

corporate leadership positions.

In addition, despite the increasing attention to women’s career by both scholars and

practitioners, Evans (2010) reminded us that climbing the corporate ladder is still a daunting

task for most women all over the world. In other words, professional women are not well

prepared for breaking down the “glass ceiling” barrier to their career development. I offer

two possible explanations here.


First implication is that current research has not been useful to help women overcome

the “glass ceiling” barrier. While current research may have generated some insightful

findings and valuable recommendations, they have not been disseminated to the practitioners’

world. As a result, women professionals do not have adequate knowledge to help them to

make strategic and informed career planning.

Second, the research findings have been made available to practitioners, yet they are

either not helpful or irrelevant. In either case, lack of knowledge about current issues facing

women at work would limit both researchers and practitioners’ ability to identify or develop

effective tools or methods to facilitate career development of women in organizations.

Through this research, I intend to review the latest research findings and identify outlets for

research dissemination.

Although various methodologies and methods have been applied to conduct research

on women’s career, very few publications offer a comprehensive analysis of the latest

research and trends in terms of female career and leadership development. By adopting an

integrative literature review approach, this article aims to provide readers with an updated

perspective of women leadership in the contemporary workplace by analyzing empirical

studies that are published during the last decade.

Purpose and Research Questions

This research has two objectives. The first is to provide an update on current state of

scholarly literature on career women and women leaders; and the second is to identify trends

observed about women’s careers in the past decade (from January 2000 to August 2013).

This research was guided by three questions.

1. What are the foci of research on women leadership published in the past decade?

2. What are the major challenges facing women leaders in the past decade?

3. What are the trends of women leadership development?


In the remainder of the article, I start with a brief description of the method I adopted

for conducting this research. I then move to present major findings, followed by discussion

based on the review of empirical studies published from 2000 to date. I conclude this article

with implications for research and practice.

Method

To answer the above research questions, I adopted a thorough literature review

approach. The literature search included use of the electronic databases and four leading

scholarly journals in the field of HRD: Advances in Developing Human Resource, Human

Resource Development International, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and Journal

of Career Development.

To ensure the thoroughness of the literature identified and the rigor of research

findings, I invited a reference librarian to guide the search process. I used the following

criteria to screen publications: (a) published in peer-reviewed journals; (b) published between

January 2000 and August 2013, (c) empirical studies that were published in English, and (d)

studies conducted in the U.S. context. The following terms were used either alone or

combined to generate as many publications as possible in an advanced electronic search

process: ‘career women’, ‘female leader’, and ‘career development.’ Based on the inclusion

criteria, I screened the 68 publications generated from the database searches and included 37

of the journal articles for the final review and analysis. The articles were treated as qualitative

data and analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.

Findings

This section reports findings relevant to the three research questions. It begins with a

brief overview of 37 articles (see Table 1). It then reports major themes under three broad

categories: (a) women’s career advancement, (b) women’s career barriers, and (c) women’s

leadership development.


Brief Overview of the Published Articles from 2000 to 2013

Included in this article for final analysis are 37 empirical studies published between

January 2000 and August 2013 in 24 different peer reviewed journals. As depicted in Table 1,

the number of empirical studies on women at work remained very small during the past

decade, but appeared to increase in number from 2009.

Table 1

The Number of Identified Studies of Women and Leadership

Year 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Total

Number 1 0 0 5 2 2 1 3 5 3 5 5 5 37

As summarized in Table 2, 37 articles addressed a wide range of interest areas related

to women’s career and leadership. The foci of these study includes mentorship, personal

attributions for leadership, gender discrimination, gender differences, female leadership,

career decision making, female network value and impact, and transformational leadership

and work engagement. These studies were situated in varied research contexts such as

college/university, the medical field, sport and exercise psychology, public relations, social

work, graduate and executive education programs of business schools. The population

included in these studies was also diverse, ranging from military officers, university faculties,

department chairs, college students to physicians and managers. Methodologically, both

quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to investigate the above topics. Out of 37

articles, 17 were quantitative studies, 16 were qualitative studies, and four were mixed

research methods studies.

Most of these articles were published in The Career Development International

(seven articles), followed by Advances in Developing Human Resources (three articles) and

Academic Medicine (three articles). Among the HRD Academic journals, Advances in


Developing Human Resources published most articles (three articles). Human Resource

Development Quarterly and Journal of Career Development each published two articles, and

Human Resource Development International published one article since 2000.

Table 2

The Review Matrix for Career Women Literature from 2000 to 2013

NoFirst

Author & Year

Journal Focus Method Findings

1 Baker (2003)

Military Psychology

Mentorship Survey Women are more likely to have a mentor than men.

2 Baumgartner (2010)

Journal of Career Development

Glass ceiling Interview Strategies to break the “glass ceiling”: overcoming stereotypes, balancing work and family, choosing mentors, developing a leadership style, and determining personal aspirations for advancement.

3 Boatwright (2003)

Journal of College Student Development

Leadership aspiration

Survey Connectedness needs, gender role, self-esteem, and fears of negative evaluation accounted for a significant amount of the variance in predicting college women's leadership aspirations.

4 Buckley (2000)

Academic Medicine

Female faculty career progress in the medical field

Survey Women were less likely to be tenured. Women spent more time on clinical than scholarly activities, and had slower career progress.

5 Cabrera (2007)

The Career Development International

Reasons for women leaving work

Survey Forty-seven percent of the women surveyed had stopped working at some point in their career. Sixty-two percent of the women reported their career focus had changed.

6 Cabrera (2009)


Female retention

Interview Out of 25 women interviewed, 17 followed a protean career when they returned to job.

7 Carr (2003) Journal of Women's Health

Gender discrimination in academic medicine

Interview Forty percent of respondents ranked gender discrimination as the first factor out of 11 possible choices hindering their career in academic medicine.

8 Clarke (2011)

Employee Relations

Female career development

Interview Women-only development programs provide a safe and supportive environment for improving self-confidence, learning new skills, and learning from the experiences of successful role models.

9 Cocchiara (2010)


Gender differences

Survey Women graduates reporting less salary gain but higher hierarchical levels and job satisfaction compared to men.


(Table 2 continues)

(Table 2 continued)

No First Author &

Year


10 Compton (2010)

Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk

Gender differences

Longitudinal Study

Women who completed degrees in business and marketing earn less than men without completing degrees.

11 Creamer (2005)

Journal of College Student Development

Female career decision making

Interview & Survey

Students may reject career advice when it requires the cognitive complexity to engage diverse viewpoints.

12 Gibson (2008)

Advances in Developing Human Resources

Developmental relationships

Interview Developmental relationships serve as an ongoing vehicle for leader development.

13 Goodman (2003)

Group & Organization Management

Variables differentiating work establishments for women

Survey Women are more likely in top management if there are more lower-level management positions filled by women, have higher management turnover, have lower average management salary levels, place greater emphasis on development and promotion of employees, and operate in non-manufacturing industries.

14 Hertneky (2012)


Female leader development

Interview Female leaders were actively composing their lives, careers, and leadership self-identity.

15 Hite (2004) Human Resource Development Quarterly

Differing views of Black and White female managers

Interview & Survey

Most of the white managers consistently perceived equal access to career opportunities than women of color.

16 Hite (2003) Journal of Career Development

Female career aspirations

Interview Career goals often are adapted to meet other life circumstances.

17 Horsley (2009)

Journal of Communication Management

Female leaders in public relations

Longitudinal Study

Women were very much involved in public relations work at all levels.

18 Ibeh (2008) Journal of Business Ethics

Women's uptake of graduate programs in the business schools

Analysis of website

Only ten percent of these schools have a specialist center for developing women business leaders.

19 Jagsi, DeCastro (2011)

Academic Medicine

Career Development Award recipients in the medical field

Survey Women were less likely to have children than men. 89.6 % of respondents remained in academic medicine.

20 Kempster (2009)

Journal of Management Development

Leadershipdevelopment

Interview Observational learning from "notable people" is a prominent influence of managers' conceptions of leadership.

21 Krane (2010)

The Sport Psychologist

Female leadership in U.S. sport and exercise

Interview Female leaders were driven, selfless, dignified, humble, competent, and passionate.


psychology.(Table 2 continues)

(Table 2 continued)

No First Author &

Year


22 Kurtulus (2012)

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Female top managers and mid-level

Mathematic Model

An increase of female top managers is associated with subsequent increases in the share of women in mid-level management positions.

23 Miller Burke (2011)

Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health

Gender differences

Survey Both genders were similar on the measures tested: parental and early-life experiences, core personality traits, work and leadership styles, formative work assignments, career path life detours, and work-related failures. However, twice as many women than men reported experiencing discrimination in their work.

24 Murrell (2006)


Gender differences

Survey In order to be perceived as a role model, women needed to give advice, earn organizational rewards, hold leadership positions, and maintain strong ties with other employees.

25 Noonan (2004)

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Career women with physical and sensory disabilities

Interview Nonlinear career paths and ability to turn challenges into opportunities; experiences with oppression; perseverance in challenges; dedication to work; reliance on internal standards of judgment; use of supportive relationships; myriad strategies for stress and role management; and a predominance of women who have been leaders in their fields.

26 O'Neil (2011)


Female network Interview Women’s network placed responsibility for women’s career advancement.

27 Perrakis (2012)


Female faculties with young children

Interview Role management, mentorship from deans, and sustainability of a lifestyle conducive to work-life balance are critical for female department chairs with children.

28 Reed (2011) Academic Medicine

Gender imbalances

Longitudinal study

Women published fewer articles in their careers than men. Sixty-six percent of the men achieved an academic rank of professor compared with 28 % of women.

29 Russ-Eft (2008)

Human Resource Development Quarterly

Career success focused on minorities and women

Longitudinal study

Minority status was not related to career success, while gender appeared to have a negative influence on objective career success but was unrelated to subjective career success.

30 Ryan & British Journal Glass cliff Analysis of During a stock-market decline,


Haslam (2005)

of Management website companies appointed women to their boards have experienced consistently poor performance.

(Table 2 continues)

(Table 2 continued)

No First Author &

Year


31 Simon (2008)

Journal of Social Work Education

Mentoring experiences of Black women

Survey Participants provide more psychosocial and career mentoring than they received as doctoral students or as faculty members.

32 Sökjer-Petersen (2008)

Nordic Psychology

Women’s relationship

Interview The relationship between women usually involved support and commitment rather than hope for economic gain.

33 Sullivan (2007)


Gender differences

Interview Two major patterns were found. (1) Alpha career pattern: first focus on challenge, then authenticity, and then balance. (2) Beta career pattern: first focus on challenge, then balance, and then authenticity.

34 Vincent-Höper (2012)


Leadership style Survey Significant positive relations were found between transformational leadership and work engagement.

35 Wasburn (2007)

Mentoring & Tutoring

Mentoring programs in a university context

Nonclinical Case Study

The collaborative, peer oriented structure of the approach can be particularly beneficial for women seeking career advancement.

36 Weidenfeller (2012)

Human Resource Development International

Female career advancement

Interview The five themes presented across enterprise leaders: (1) desire to control destiny, (2) aspire to leadership positions, (3) achieve influence through a connect-and-collaborate style, (4) initiate culture change, and (5) apply self-knowledge and resiliency to address challenges.

37 Yeagley (2010)

Journal of Vocational Behavior

College women's interests for leadership

Survey Self-efficacy and outcome expectations for elite leadership positions related positively to interests and goals for such positions.

While many different findings were generated by these empirical studies, they can be

classified into three aspects: (a) women’s career advancement, (b) women’s career barriers,

and (c) women’s leadership development. In the subsequent paragraphs, I discuss major

themes in each category.

Women’s Career Advancement


Fourteen articles addressed what had been done for examining women’s career in

various fields. In order to understand the needs and excel woman’s career advancement, the

following components were narrowed down in the selected articles: mentorship, perception,

and relationship in the workforce.

First, developing mentorship was emphasized by Baker, Hocevar, & Johnson (2003);

Baumgartner & Schneider (2010); Carr, Szalacha, Barnett, Caswell, & Inui (2003); Perrakis

& Martinez (2012); Simon, Roff, & Perry (2008); Wasburn, (2007). Baker et al. (2003)

indicated the importance of having mentors especially for the organizations where women are

minorities. Mentored women were more satisfied with their experiences and more inclined to

mentor others (Baker et al., 2003). Also, female employees could foresee their career

advancement more effectively. Another study found mentorship is also critical for female

leaders in the academic field as it holistically supports women and their multiple roles, both

at home and at work (Perrakis & Martinez, 2012). O’Neil, Hopkins, and Sullivan (2011)

extended the similar idea that values women’s networking as it would bring change in the

women’s leadership roles. In fact, mentoring and skill development are regarded as

anticipated change that would result from the women’s network (O’Neil et al., 2011). Many

researchers agreed that networking can be an effective tool that enables individuals to transfer

their knowledge and experiences, such as strategies for career development and job

satisfaction. To the same degree, through network, women in leadership positions could

effectively foster their subordinates.

Second, perception plays a vital role in women’s career advancement. Three articles

stressed that women are in charge of their own career decision making. In Cabrera’s (2009)

study, the author interviewed 25 women graduates of a top ranked business school in the U.S.

who had voluntarily left the job at some time in their career and eventually returned to work.

The results showed that more than half of these women followed a protean career that values


self-directed career guided by personal values and subjective measure of success (Cabrera,

2009). For this purpose, women preferred more flexible work conditions away from

traditional work settings that emphasize full-time and continuous employment (Cabrera,

2009). This kind of protean career path would make it easier for female to balance their

careers in response to their life circumstances while improving job satisfaction. Furthermore,

Hite and McDonald (2003) noted that women keep altering their career goals to fulfill life

needs. However, women were concerned about their career swifts and taking risks to explore

other career options (Hite & McDonald, 2003). The results of these studies pointed to the

significance of women’s career choices that are impacted by life circumstances.

Third, developmental relationships provide an on-going support for women’s

leadership development. Sökjer-Petersen and Thorssell (2008) suggested that the relationship

among women generally required support and commitment to each other. Extensive use of

supportive relationships was one of the main reasons for women who have been leaders and

pioneers in their fields or workplaces (Noonan, McGuinnis, Fassinger, Wang, & Goodman,

2004). Likewise, a longitudinal study of female emergency medical technicians conducted by

Russ-Eft, Dickison, & Levine (2008) reported that having positive relations with supervisors

and peers lead to career success for women. Compared to men, women were emotional, and

they valued how they treat each other (Sökjer-Petersen & Thorssell, 2008).

In sum, findings from the above studies suggest that participating in mentorship,

establishing job perception, and developing relationship are imperative to women’s career

advancement.

Women’s Career Barriers

Previous studies strongly indicated that there are noticeable gender differences in

terms of income, career advancement, and job satisfaction (Miller & Attridge, 2011). Clarke

(2011) conceded that women’s lives tend to be congested by roles, relationships, and


responsibilities, such as spouse’s careers, child-bearing and rearing, and the care of elderly

family members. In the USA, women work part-time more often than men, work at home

more than men, and have different career trajectories that include opting out from the

workforce to nurture a family (Sullivan & Mainiero, 2007). Additionally, Miller and Attridge

(2011) found that about two thirds of women in their study assumed more domestic

responsibilities than men, such as child care, cooking, and cleaning. These findings suggest

women’s career choices are greatly influenced by other life choices, particularly concerning

family.

Along with family responsibilities, lack of relevant management experience, lack of

mentoring, and the relative under-representation of women in higher level positions have all

been identified as barriers to women’s career progress (Clarke, 2011). Despite advances that

women have achieved in organizations over the past century, some women are still reluctant

to pursue an upper management position, because it is difficult to reach a high degree of

motivation and commitment (Baumgartner & Schneider, 2010). In examining women’s

perception of work, Hite and McDonald (2004) found women were less likely to change their

careers if they perceive their current jobs as paying well and offering good benefits for the

sake of their family. This also signifies women tend to make career choices based more on

their families’ needs and wants rather than their own.

In many situations, despite the same performance ratings, women and minorities

received lower salary increases compare to White men (Cocchiara, Kwesiga, & Baruch,

2010). Other researchers have found gender has the strongest influence on the amount of

earnings (Compton, Laanan, & Starobin, 2010). These results reinforce the need for further

examining gender-based disparities in order to discover causes for this unfairness. Recent

studies stressed women need to overcome gender stereotypes and glass ceilings in their career

ladder to become an enterprise leader (Weidenfeller, 2012). Miller and Attridge (2011)


conducted a survey of those in leadership positions in business and professional work

domains who experienced a high degree of individual success, and found that twice as many

women than men experienced gender discrimination in their work histories. In their study,

sexism was the most frequently cited reason for prejudice and discrimination against the

interviewed women. These findings indicate gender plays a critical part in women’s career

success. In order to be successful in their career, women need to be aware of and overcome

these gender oriented obstacles.

Another serious challenge for career women is their responsibility for family rearing

and child bearing. Many women choose to quit their job completely in order to care for their

children (Cabrera, 2007). It is apparent that many women are burdened by family

responsibility and work. An interesting and surprising finding from our reviewed empirical

studies is that men in highly competitive positions have a greater desire to have children than

women in those positions. For example, in academic medical careers, female physicians and

scientists were less likely to have children than men (Jagsi, DeCastro, Griffith, Rangarajan,

Churchill, Stewart, & Ubel, 2011). University faculties took similar footsteps as there was an

increased likelihood of leaving an institution before gaining tenure. According to Wasburn

(2007), most tenure and promotions occurred during the child bearing years, which caused

more women quitting their jobs than their male counterparts. Among various life events,

motherhood is perceived as one of the greatest challenges for women who aspire to succeed

in their careers.

In short, among various barriers that hinder women from their career advancements,

gender discrimination and family obligation appear to be the primary foci of research in the

past decade. Given the number of challenges, career progression seems virtually

inconceivable for women. It is doubtful that these obstacles diminish in the future; however,

the promising news is that both individuals and organizations are striving to find ways to


remove these barriers in order to retain more female employees in the contemporary

workplaces.

Women’s Leadership Development

Previous studies have reported women are lauded as having the right combination of

skills for leadership, yielding exemplary leadership styles and outstanding effectiveness

(Desvaus et al., 2010; Eagly & Van Engen 2003). The benefits of having women at senior

levels include having the opportunity of tapping into a wider talent pool, obtaining the best

people to fill leadership positions, and having female role models for younger generations

(Clarke, 2011). Today, it is essential for organizations to have more female leaders to

enhance, and to employ effective strategies to achieve this goal.

To encourage more women to work in organizations, organizations need build and

promote an understanding of woman’s career development by adopting more creative and

integrated approaches. Hertneky (2012) argued it is not enough to have many types of

leadership development programs available, organizations must identify practical methods

and make customized plans that focus on developing women. By the same token, Clarke

(2011) recommended a customized leadership development program for women in the

women-only environment. In fact, Clarke (2011)’s research showed a positive outcome from

applying women-only development programs to his study sample. It was a strategic program

made for women employees only; it was a useful addition to other strategies designed to

increase the number of women in leadership positions. The idea of women helping other

women in a group was a powerful way that allows women to open and share their thoughts

and opinions in a more comfortable atmosphere (Clarke, 2011).

Given the new career context and aspiration in the female labor market, women are

becoming more important as we seek to increase their representation as senior leaders. To

increase female leaders, Gibson (2008) suggested women especially need to develop more


close relationships with their colleagues through coaching, mentoring, and networking. These

components serve as stepping stones for leadership development. Hertneky (2012) stated

sharing stories of women who are in leadership positions will benefit female employees as

these stories could engage, validate, and inspire others. Furthermore, Kurtulus &

Tomaskovic-Devey (2012) concluded women at the top play a positive but transitory role in

women’s career advancement. Apart from increasing probability of female promotions

through female leaders in organizations, women managers utilized their female networks to

recruit high-potential female employees. This would eventually lead to higher internal

promotions within an organization (Kurtulus & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2012).

In order to promote more female leaders, it is vital to consider what leadership styles

are common in women. Arnold and Loughlin (2013) noted transformational leadership style

is perceived as more communal and feminine, and women prefer to adapt to transformational

leadership style more than men do. Transformational leadership has gained academic

attention as it became a new paradigm for understanding leadership. Transformational leaders

are executives who promote and motivate their followers by projecting and communicating

valuable visions, common goals and shared values as well as by setting an example for the

requested behavior (Bass & Avolio, 1990; Bass &Riggio, 2006). According to Bass &

Riggio’s (2006) study, female leaders were found to be more transformational than male

leaders; and they also engaged in more of the contingent reward behaviors that are a

component of transactional leadership. In addition, empirical evidence showed positive

relations between transformational leadership, work engagement, and subjective occupational

success for men and women (Vincent-Höper, Muser, & Janneck, 2012). Vincent-Höper et al.

(2012) also confirmed higher correlations exist, between transformational leadership and

career satisfaction for women rather than man, as transformational leadership improves

overall work engagement and career satisfaction for women.


Based on this finding, we can safely conclude that the transformational leadership

style is manifested in more women than men. Hence, strengthening women’s

transformational leadership may be especially beneficial to woman’s career development.

Discussion and Recommendations for Practice

While the 37 empirical studies included in this article were conducted with different

research foci, in different contexts, and through different research methods, all of them

unfolded some still unresolved issues facing women in the contemporary workplace, and

offered possible solutions for addressing these issues. In this section, I discuss two prominent

trends derived from the empirical data in the past 13 years and draw practical implications

from each in order to offer practitioners some guidelines for improving their future practice.

Trend 1: Career women continue juggling between work and family.

Balancing work and home lives has been an issue for women in the past. For example,

Neugarten (1968) found difference how men and woman perceive work and life. For men,

there existed a close tie between the life line and the career line whereas women’s cues were

drawn heavily from the timing of events with the family. This implies many talented women

may leave a company when they decide to have or nurture children or take on other family

commitments. The empirical studies conducted during the past decade send us an alarming

message, that is, women today still face the same struggle as they did more than 40 years ago.

The work-family balance still stands out as a pressing issue, causing many women to leave

their jobs (Cabrera, 2007). This can be explained by historical reasons, that is, taking care of

children and nurturing a family has been generally a norm for women throughout history.

Researchers described the combination of work and domestic responsibilities for

working women as “the double burden” syndrome and noted the difficulty of reconciling

family and work (Desvaux et al., 2010). Surveys conducted by Taniguchi and Rosenfeld

(2002) also confirmed having children greatly influenced rates of leaving the workforce for


women. Despite their gains in labor market experience and in education, women still earn

less than men (Cocchiara et al., 2010). While these challenges are partially caused by

historical reasons (e.g., women fill in lower-paying and traditionally female occupations),

they should not be overlooked by organizational leaders and HRD professionals who are

responsible for developing people (including women) and foster an inclusive work

environment.

Recommendations for Practice

This trend has significant implications for organizational leaders and HRD

practitioners. It is important to note that the goal here is not to stop women from assuming

their traditional family responsibilities; the goal is to find strategies to help women better

balance demands from home and work, so that they can still be the caregivers while pursuing

a career path that is satisfying to them. One way to accomplish this goal is to develop

appropriate organizational policies and structures that allow the co-existence of dual

responsibilities. A few examples in the action plan include: (a) offering part-time positions,

allowing flexible work schedules, and non-traditional locations (e.g., work from home;

internet); (b) providing on-site childcare services either or momentary compensations; (c)

getting involved in community services to help female employees make childcare

arrangements among communities; (d) giving women more paid leaves when needed; (e)

developing customized career plans that focus on women only; and (f) designing programs to

educate male employees (particularly those with decision making power) about the unique

challenges facing career women. It is worth noting that our suggestions aim to help female

employees better integrate work and family lives to a managerial degree, instead of resolving

the work-family conflicts and make them go away.

Trend 2: Career women still have to break down many barriers in order to advance to

senior leadership positions.


Women’s battle for gender equity and equality has come a long way. Unfortunately,

the findings from latest research I examined did not present a happy outlook. Today, women

still struggle to break the glass ceilings and advance to the top of the organizational hierarchy.

The 2013 Catalyst statistics presented earlier, along with empirical data I analyzed,

confirmed that little progress has been made in this area in the past decade. For the career

women in the reviewed articles, reaching senior leadership positions requires women to build

close relationships and connections through mentoring and networking (Baumgartner &

Schneider, 2010; Ibeh, Carter, Poff & Hamill, 2008; O’Neil et al., 2011; Wasburn, 2007).

Yet, the reality is women have little access to social capital and networks in the workplace;

and there are very few senior female leaders who can serve as their mentors and role models

(Wang, 2009). This issue here can be described as “catch 22.” On one hand, there are women

who aspire to be organizational leaders (Boatwright & Egidio, 2003), but there exists lack of

required experiences and/or qualifications needed for taking senior positions. On the other

hands, many organizations are eager to support women’s career progress yet have difficulty

filling senior female leadership positions with the ‘right’ women.

Further, as some of the studies in this article revealed women have more advantages

than men in their approaches to leadership (Eagly, 2007). As our data and literature revealed,

compared to male leaders, female leaders tend to be more transformational in leading

(Vincent-Höper et al., 2012) and more proactive in addressing problems (Bass & Avolio,

1990). They are consensus builders who encourage wider participation in decision-making

and are more open with colleagues (Bass & Avolio, 1990). Despite these recognized

advantages women can bring to organizations, their climbing of the career ladder is not any

easier than before. Such reality poses a critical question: What can HRD professionals do to

facilitate women’s career advancement?

Recommendations for Practice


To solve the “catch 22” dilemma, organizational leaders must embrace a different

mentality, which we argue as a paradigm shift. That is, leaders must provide women with

opportunities at different career stages of their career with the organization to involve women

in major decision-making processes, and to accumulate qualifications and experiences needed

for senior positions. This requires organizations to be open-minded and flexible in evaluating

the credentials of career women, especially those who have chosen to re-enter the workforce

after taking a break to take care of family needs. This group of women should not be

disadvantaged simply because of the gap in their careers. Instead, they should be given equal

opportunities as those with continuous jobs, and be promoted based on their demonstrated

competency and projected potential rather than organizational tenure and job history. Without

such paradigm shift, women’s career advancement will remain stagnant. HRD practitioners

are in the position of educating organizational leaders to help them make the paradigm shift.

Secondly, considering the recognized characteristics of women’s leadership as

described on the above, it appears women can be more effective leaders than men in

nurturing and engaging employees. If organizations in the new era truly embrace employee

and make this goal as part of their core missions, then they should actively promote women

who can bring such qualities and fill this mission. In addition, a successful woman can make

a prime contribution to the mentoring of other women who are at earlier stages of their

careers (Wang, 2009). Because females value relationship building more than men do,

forming a female mentoring group can be a good way to initiate a coworker network among

women. More female leaders should strive to be role models for their female followers. By

sharing their own stories, female leaders can build strong relationships with other female

colleagues and cultivate future female leaders. Also, any circumstantial work pressure can be

eased by sharing different points of view with others in similar situations. Therefore, high-

achieving women should be encouraged to share their career challenges and success tips, as


well as their career development strategies with other women in the pipeline of future leaders

(Beeson & Valerio, 2012).

Conclusions

The purpose of this article was to update and synthesize research on career women

and women leadership by reviewing empirical studies published since 2000. Our goal was not

simply to identify pressing issues still facing career women today, but more importantly, to

provide an opportunity to both practitioners and researchers to critically evaluate these data

and decide for themselves ways forward. It is also our hope to offer some valuable “food for

thought” to policy makers, organizational leaders, HRD practitioners, and scholars.

As noted earlier, although women have a rising presence in the labor force, obstacles

to their career development still exist in the contemporary era. Career women still struggle in

their battle for being a good mother at home and an effective manager at work. Moreover,

women prefer to stay in their comfort zones without career changes or advancements if the

salary and benefits by organizations are sufficient for their living. Therefore, there is a

definite need for various career development interventions to help women better balance

work and life demand and to cultivate them into senior leaders they desire. Most importantly,

women can help other women to understand themselves and the world of work in their

leagues (Kurtulus, & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2012; O’Neil et al., 2011).

Organizational leaders and HRD professionals must base their decisions on the

consideration about women’s life spans and the way they respond to the world around them

and their values. In the spirit of advancing research on this important, time-sensitive topic, I

offer the following recommendations to scholars in organization management, gender studies,

and HRD.

Recommendations for Future Research


The following research suggestions intend to address the limitations associated with

this research.

First, this research included data generated from the U.S. context; thus, any

generalization beyond this cultural context is inappropriate. By focusing on national context

leads to a variety of unanswered and unresolved issues, for example, what factors should be

considered when other countries observe different styles of leadership other than

transformational in women. I encourage studies including other contexts and review women’s

career issues with a global perspective. Engaging cross-culture comparative studies can be

very valuable in generating holistic insights.

Second, the purpose of this study is to provide an update on the latest research on

women leadership and women’s career. Our goal was to identify current trends derived from

empirical evidence rather than evaluating the quality of these studies. In other words, I took

data on a face value with an assumption that each study followed a rigorous research

protocol. It would be interesting to conduct an evaluation research to test the validity and

reliability of the findings.

Third, the study reviewed only empirical studies published since 2000. While this

approach helps us identify latest trends, it does not necessarily include all perspectives on this

research topic. Conceptual papers and literature reviews could provide additional insights; so

I encourage future research include other types of research publications. In addition,

examining publications from other decades can also be helpful in understanding the evolution

of women’s career issues and related studies.

It is hoped that this research will trigger more scholarly interest. Additional studies

will further advance our knowledge and help both scholars and practitioners to continue

seeking effective ways that facilitate women’s career development.


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Web viewVincent-Höper et al. (2012) also confirmed higher correlations exist, between transformational leadership and career satisfaction for women rather than man,