Priming the pipeline

Women's progress in the Arab world: classroom–boardroom pipeline

“…The pipeline became somewhat of a “go to” metaphor-in-use about gender (in)equality (Blickenstaff, 2005; Chizema et al , 2015; Stewart, 2016; Thomson et al , 2005). Thus, to a great extent, these findings replicated that metaphor for women's progress as previously reviewed from literature of the non-Arab world (Blickenstaff, 2005; Thomson et al , 2005; Terjesen and Singh, 2008).…”

“…The “pipeline theory [1]” (Schweitzer et al , 2011) explained the reliance of educated women (Blickenstaff, 2005) being recruited into the labour force (Thomson et al , 2005) and retained in sufficient numbers to flow into board candidate pools (Terjesen and Singh, 2008). And pipeline metaphor also encapsulates attrition of female students in an image of a “leaky pipeline”, as a “sex-based filter that removes one sex from the stream and leaves the other to arrive at the end of the pipeline” (Blickenstaff, 2005, p. 369).…”

“…And pipeline metaphor also encapsulates attrition of female students in an image of a “leaky pipeline”, as a “sex-based filter that removes one sex from the stream and leaves the other to arrive at the end of the pipeline” (Blickenstaff, 2005, p. 369). The failure to retain women in the workplace has also been imagined as a leaking pipeline (Stewart, 2016; Thomson et al , 2005). Rhetoric around this metaphor exposed institutional discrimination against WoB because of “gendered expectations within the pipeline” (Schweitzer et al , 2011, p. 422).…”

“…As an example, the pipeline was referenced in government policy documents following years of academic study into WoB in the United Kingdom (UK) (Singh and Vinnicombe, 2004; Vinnecombe et al , 2017). To retain women, a “female executive pipeline” was required to achieve gender balance in senior leadership (Thomson et al , 2005, p. 159) and companies were urged to maintain “a diverse talent pipeline of women” (Stewart, 2016, pp. 61-64).…”

“…The focus for this research is on a particular metaphor, the pipeline, as frequently referenced in scholarship about gender (in)equality (Amery et al , 2015). The pipeline is imagined as a conduit (Chizema et al , 2015) through which women travel from education (Blickenstaff, 2005) through work place (Thomson et al , 2005) to that pinnacle of company decision-making, i.e. the boardroom (Colaco et al , 2011; Terjesen and Singh, 2008).…”