Factors that impede and facilitate management careers of women in the Malaysian civil service

Abstract

Female and male managers of the Malaysian civil service were surveyed in an attempt to elucidate the factors that have facilitated and hindered their careers. The emphasis in this article is on career differences between women and men. Many of the conditions which inhibit the careers of female managers elsewhere in the world were also reported by those sampled. Family requirements and resulting role conflict were evident. Many women have not married. There was some evidence of sexual harassment. There is a suggestion that women may suffer from low self‐esteem and attribute their career progress primarily to luck. On the positive side, and despite a government policy that has resulted in more public resources for higher education being awarded to men than to women, women managers have achieved career success. This is largely because of the socioeconomic status of their parents and the apparent willingness of parents to educate female offspring who were not necessarily the first‐born.

Personnel practices in careers of women at the top in government and business in Nicaragua and Costa Rica

“…When we return to the original question about whether or not the public sector is more hospitable to women, we find more similarities between sectors and countries than differences. Here, as in other countries, having an education is an important factor in securing a managerial position (Hale and Kelly, 1989;Aberbach et al, 1981;Yousof and Siegal, 1994). While the Nicaraguans are more likely to have children, only fifty to sixty per cent of the managers in each country are married.…”

“…Gender research has focused on the degree to which family obligations serve as a greater hindrance to women's advancement than that of men (Schwartz, 1989;Kelly et al, 1991;Yousof and Siegal, 1994). According to several sources, more female executives are single or divorced and without dependents than their male counterparts (Adler and Izraeli, 1988;Kelly et al, 1991;Yousof and Siegal, 1994). Respondents indicated marital status and ages of children and how many hours per week they work.…”

“…reported denial of a job or job reward due to the buddy system and 16% reported discrimination based on sex, race, marital status or handicapping condition-significantly higher percentages than for the men surveyed (Lewis, 1992). Women have also been found to be disproportionately affected by both blatant and subtle forms of harassment (Yousof and Siegal, 1994;Hale and Kelly, 1989;Kelly, 1991). A survey of mid-level government and business employees in Central America revealed that 35.6% of the women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment (Osland, et al, 1993).…”

“…There were no significant differences across sectors or between the countries. Like the toplevel managers in Malaysia (Yousof and Siegal, 1994), these top-level managers have had less experience with harassment than younger mid-level women in Central America (Osland et al, 1993).…”

Women’s Issues in Mauritius: Of CEO Attitudes and Platitudes

“…Indeed, several explanations have been offered in the literature to explain the poor participation of women in management. There appear in effect to be numerous barriers that prevent women worldwide from advancing to higher organizational positions, and which result in gender-based differences within management (Yousof and Siegel, 1994).…”