Women In Business Nowadays and In The Past - Essay Example

Women in Business Nowadays and the Past Introduction Woman - a symbol of delicacy yet the most powerful being created by nature. The woman has been the figure who has always been underestimated for her capabilities and talents but she always proves everybody wrong in excelling with whatever she does. Be it be the home or the office, the women has shown that she can manage each and everything that she is made responsible of. Being a homemaker has always been one of the traditional roles of women, but the business world has always been unwelcoming for the women. Yet that did not stop women from entering it and proving her worth. More and more women are seen entering the business world and even making it to the top level positions. Stereotyping against women is a common trait around the business world. Yet, everybody should realize that a woman is in no way inferior to man and she can very well handle the pressures and stressful life of the business. Handling a family with the work is no easy job and many women in today's age are not just balancing work and family life, rather they are integrating it. The Differences Between the Man and the Woman in the Business The business world is getting infused with a diverse workforce day by day. The trend towards being an equal opportunity employer is rising. More and more women are being hired in today's corporate world. And the differences between men and women are being sorted out as women take on as many as 25% of top level managerial posts in successful organizations. Therefore, the composition of males and females in the workforce of a typical organization has changed. Yet men still possess a significant amount of decision making in their hands. Whether it is the power to hire and fire or to access financial resources, men are always given the advantage over women. But if businesses are to reach their highest potential, they need to make full use of women by accepting the fact that they are different from men and are not inferior to them in any way.1 Some of the major differences between the man and the woman in the business are: Approaches to conflict: When it comes to a conflict, men usually consider it a healthy process and they use logic, bargaining and even anger to resolve it. Whereas, on the other hand, women tends to focus on the affective part by understanding each others feelings in a conflict. For women, conflict is undesirable and damaging in many ways. They have a negative view point of conflict and therefore, they would like to get it solved without exaggerating it thereby using less direct approaches. Research also suggests that men will tend to go for riskier solutions when it comes to resolution of conflict. Supervision and leadership styles: although leadership styles would look pretty similar on the core, they are quite different. Research has found that women tend to treat their subordinates more as colleagues than the men and women also encourage the participation of everyone in a decision making process. Men, in such positions, will go for a less collaborative style, and will give more directions and tend to be more dominating too. Relationship with others is an integral part of women's leadership styles than for men. A woman also tries to build a sense of community in the place where she is the leader, unlike men. Working in teams: men and women think differently in terms of what needs to be communicated when a team is in action. Women put a lot of importance to these team characteristics: competence, respect, fairness, knowledge of team member's roles, and team members should also provide extra help and support to each other when needed. Whereas, men do not place much importance on these characteristics. The Role of Women in the Society Women, more or less, assume a particular cultural and gender role that they have to fulfill. In pre-historic times, the women of the family used to help the man in doing whatever business they did out of the farms or by doing agriculture. The women used to gather products like fish or learn to nurse a cow to milk her, while the man did other hardcore work. The veil has also been a common symbol for women. It is used to the hair or the face and meant to protect the public from seeing her beauty and grace. The veil can or cannot be work by the women for religious purposes. In recent times, the roles of women have changed significantly. Traditionally, in the middle class houses, which constitute a large percentage of the total population, women are assumed to take care of the house and domestic issues, rear children and are not supposed to go out of the house to earn as that is the role of the man of the house. For women who belonged to poor families, they had to work out of obligation due to financial crises at their homes. Therefore, earning for them was a necessity rather than a choice. But when these women used to enter the business world, the occupations that were available to them were mostly low in honor and the pay was also not equal. Changes in the labour market's composition and type are taking place. 2Women are now getting better jobs, but the employer usually demands a little more education than before. First women were made to work in dirty factories for long hours but the trend is changing as they now have jobs available in offices. The trends with women coming into the labour force changed with time in a very subtle manner and more and more women became inclined towards getting more education and then even pursuing a career after they are done with their education. Thus the identity of a woman has changed. She is now not just defined in terms of her husband, father or children. She is now defined for the woman that she is. She is now thought of in terms of the advancements she is making in her career. Therefore, the role of women in the society has changed significantly. The Work Role of Women in the Past The work role of women in the past has always been that of a work with low pay, low prestige and considering them inferior to men. When women thought to enter the field of employment, the only choices they felt they had was that of a teacher and of a nurse. They were stereotyped to fit the job description of only these careers. They were not thought to possess the abilities and stamina to survive in the ever competitive corporate world. 3 Even if women were allowed to enter business, they had to settle for tactical or operational levels of management, with no place for them in the top most managerial levels. They even had to accept the fact that they will be paid less than the man who would be doing the same job as them, just because of the gender stereotype that was so evident in the workplace. Moreover, gender was also significantly related to promotion potential ratings. Men always received more favourable evaluations than women in spite of all kinds of similarities between them, be it be in terms of age, education, organizational tenure, salary grade and type of job. This factor always hampered the growth of the woman and when it comes to being successful in the career, it is really essential that an individual goes through professional growth development, or else they would never be able to compete with the changing times. Even in terms of hiring, women were never considered for op-level posts, because it was felt that they could never shoulder such a huge responsibility. Moreover, the woman who leaves her career for a few years to take care of her family and then rejoins the workplace faces a lot of trouble as people feel that she is more inclined towards her family and this hampers her hiring, evaluation and promotion. Work family life conflict is present for men and it is considered an even bigger issue for women, considering they are the prime home makers and therefore, this leads to the hesitation of any organization to embrace women, because they come with the package of work family life conflict. The Work Role of Women Today The work role of women today has significantly altered, with women today entering varying and diversified fields and proving their excellence in them. The concept that a woman can only become a nurse or a president has changed and now she can even become a pilot, an astronaut or simply enter the stressful, ever changing world of core business. There is very little that is closed to the woman of today. Women are no longer handicapped by the gender that they possess. In fact there are some cases, where they might be at an advantage because of their gender.4 The growing process for women has started. Women have always had to face criticism and they still do but the women of today knows how to deal with it and be ever stronger in the face of challenges that she faces at work. The woman of today knows how to lead and has occupied top level positions in the best companies all over the world. The work role of women today allows her to take more participation in the decision making process. The woman, as gentle as she is, can very well handle customers, who are the basic essence of any business. Therefore, they can handle conflicts and complaints from customers better, making sure that they turn into loyal and long term customers. Women have now started the journey of finding their identity rather than be known by other people. 5 Examples of Successful Woman Who is a successful woman One who has entered the corporate world and redefined it with her leadership style and altered the company's future to a positive turn with her capabilities and talents. The Fortune magazine examines all the women in the business world yearly and then lists down the Power 50, that is the top 50 women who took their business to the high altitudes with their will, power, determination and capabilities, proving the typical stereotype wrong. One such example is Indra Nooyi, who is the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (PEP). Aged 51, she has taken the company to such high operating profits, earnings per shares and revenues that it is remarkable and defies all thoughts that a woman cannot lead well. In 2001, Nooyi acquired the Quaker Foods, which is performing exceptionally well. Pepsi International is also doing an amazing job worldwide with revenues rising by a whooping 14%. And it was in May 2007 that she added the title of chairman to her name.6 Another example is the Anne Mulcahy. She is the Chairman and CEO of Xerox (XRX). She has been a remarkable leader and thinking in the right direction for the company by focusing on the growth and expansion aspect, which was lacking. This step of hers brought Xerox back to health and in the race again. The recent acquisition of Global Imaging System will increase a further billion to the sales of the company. And the stock market is bringing good news to the company by rising a 10%. Meg Whitman, the President and CEO of the e-commerce website eBay (EBAY), aged 51, is doing wonders for her company. She has succeeded in maintaining e-Bay as the world's top e-commerce brand. Investors are heavily investing in the company, taking the stock upto almost half its original that is 45%. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that the woman has always been and will be a symbol of power for all and sundry, because she has made her place in all horizons of life, whether it is the home or the workplace. Women all over the world carry a legacy of civilization, a revolution that changed the definition of what women are worth, women have evolved from the deep rooted gender roles that confined the woman to the home and did not allow her an identity of her own. Works Cited 1. Douglass, Leslie. Women in Business: How to Make Yourself Marketable. 1980 2. Truman, Carole. Women in Business: Perspectives on Women Entrepreneurs. 1993 3. Zalesak, John. Women in Business. 1979 4. Yeager, Mary. Women in Business. 1999 5. The Power 50. 9 Apr. 2008 http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostpowerfulwomen/2007/ 6. Looking back on the past and designing the future. 9 Apr 2008. www.bnet.com/articles Read More