The career advancement challenge faced by female executives in Peruvian organisations

Abstract

The percentage of women in Peru's workforce overall has been growing at a steady rate, but there are still few women are seen in executive positions. This qualitative study describes the challenges in women's professional career advancement in a country in which the cultural pattern of business is dominated by men and where specific roles have been assigned to women. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 professionals, 11 women and 13 men. The interviews were analysed using qualitative data analysis software. The results show that family responsibilities were the main challenge for female executives' career advancement. Moreover, family responsibilities were linked to other challenges, such as physical mobility, educational attainment, professional experience and informal networks. Family responsibilities can be considered a transcultural challenge to the career advancement of female executives. Finally, the study shows that a country's culture is an important challenge to career advancement, as in the Peruvian context where women are still considered responsible for attending to the family and are assigned a fundamental role in raising the children.

Investigating the relationship between selected organisational factors and women’s skills development aspirations and career progression: A South African case study

“…When compared with men, women's career trajectories are encumbered; hence, fewer women advance within organisations, and this disparity persists despite government legislation that affirms women and forbids discrimination against them (Moalusi & Jones, 2019). The myriad challenges women face in the workplace (Chetty & Naidoo, 2017; Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, 2019; Jaga, Arabandi, Bagraim, & Mdlongwa, 2017;Steyn & Jackson, 2015) impact their skills development and career progression (Jáuregui & Olivos, 2018), aspects that are constantly hindered by their life patterns and organisational conditions (McKie & Jyrkinen, 2017).…”

Perceived organizational politics, knowledge hiding and diminished promotability: how do harmony motives matter?

“…To test these research hypotheses, we gathered data in early 2020 from employees and their supervisors in three Peruvian-based organizations that operate in different industry sectors (food, mining and employment services). These sectors constitute important components of Peru's economic fabric (J auregui and Olivos, 2018;Parnell, 2010) and their simultaneous consideration enhances the external validity of the results. As explained in the introduction section, the theoretical arguments that underpin the proposed conceptual framework are not country-specific, so they should be valid in many settings, but the cultural profile of Peru, which features high levels of power distance, uncertainty avoidance and collectivism (Hofstede et al, 2010), makes this country highly appropriate.…”

“…In this third largest country in South America, a substantial number of residents claim ancestry tracing back to Japan and other Asian and largely Confucian nations, as well as different countries in Europe. It engages in substantial foreign trade and is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world (Jáuregui and Olivos, 2018; Parnell, 2010). Notably, previous applications of the dualistic harmony model – which distinguishes between the aforementioned disintegration avoidance and harmony enhancement motives – primarily take place in East Asian countries with Confucian traditions, such as China and Singapore (Chen et al , 2015; Leung et al , 2015; Lim, 2009).…”

Women’s Articulates towards Career Advancement

“…A person's developmental process throughout the course of his or her life is referred to as a career. Organizations provide career possibilities to their employees so that they can improve professionally by moving vertically, horizontally, or linearly and occupying a succession of jobs at work (Jáuregui & Olivos, 2018) [19]. Career Advancement may be described in terms of their capacity to expect professional advancement chances and opportunities, as well as their level of title promotion (Osch & Schaveling, 2017) [20].…”