There should be more women in top positions…but unfortunately there is not. This matter is discussed in Talk of the Nation concerning whether or not corporations could lure women back into the workforce. Personally, I don’t think that corporate America can lure women back into the top positions in the workforce because women will always put their family before their work, no matter what. Studies show that women experience the values vs. control dilemma, which means that they have to have a balance between their values and the control they have over exercising those values.
So for example if a women has no control over the amount of hours she has to work, she is sacrificing her family which she values more, which is am impediment to her desire to reach a higher position. This is a problem for many women because the top positions usually require being on call and to prioritize the company over their own lives. Corporations do a type of “hazing” to new top executives by over working them in order to asses how committed they are to their company. In fact, America is the most overworked industrialized country in the world; working over 500 hours more per year than in Germany.
No woman who values her family and the control she has over spending time with that family will choose to be in a top position that is so demanding. The only ways that women will be lured into corporate America is that if these women have a strong support system or if the rules of corporate America change. A strong support system, for example can be like having a stay at home dad to take care of the children so the woman can be free to pursue their careers because she can rest assured that her their family is being taken care of. Also, if rules for corporate America change by being less demanding and requiring less working hours per year then women could stay in top positions longer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=5&prgDate=1-27-2004
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