Introduction
The present study is focused on the urgent need for organizations to develop and implement strategies and policies that will facilitate the reduction of gendered occupational segregation in engineering and technology-oriented domains, particularly in Europe and the Middle East.
Towards the attainment of this broad objective, a survey was conducted on a sample of 100 female participants working for telecommunication and ICT-oriented firms, either in Europe or in the Middle East.
An online in-depth interview was also done on a sample of 20 management personnel/supervisors of the selected firms for the purpose of having a deeper understanding on why female professionals continue to constitute a minority of the labour force in these sectors.
This section purposes to detail the results of the two exercises, followed by a wide-ranging discussion of the findings when evaluated against existing literature on the topic. The discussion will be focussed on unearthing the reasons and providing tenable solutions/alternatives to the problem of gendered occupational segregation as per the study’s stated objectives and key research questions.
It is important to note that the researcher received 62 completed questionnaires, representing 62% response rate. 14 in-depth interviews were conducted to their logical conclusion, representing 70% response rate. Of the 62 returned questionnaires, 34 (54.8%) came from Europe while 28 (45.2%) came from the Middle East
Statement of Results (Questionnaire Schedule)
The major highlights of the study are not only interesting, but informative too, particularly in relation to understanding why women persist to constitute a minority of the labour force in engineering and technology-oriented domains of the economy.
An analysis of demographic information demonstrates that engineering and technology-oriented firms employ a young female workforce, with the majority of the female participants’ sampled (62.8%) saying they are yet to celebrate their 30th birthday, both in Europe and Middle East. Only a handful of the participants (5.2%) have celebrated their 40th birthday.
A substantial number of participants (70%) had been in active employment for a period not more than five years. A major research finding is that many participants in the two research regions (Europe and Middle East) reported working in low cadre positions as demonstrated in the figure below.
Figure 2: Area of Engagement
The above figure demonstrates that 42% of the female professionals in the sampled firms worked as support personnel; while a mere 10 % were engaged in administrative functions.
A cross-tabulation analysis aimed at noting the differences between Europe and the Middle East revealed that the problem is much embedded in the former, where only two women (3.2%) reported working in an administrative capacity. In Europe, 4 women (6.5%) worked as administrators or supervisors.
Overall, a third of the participants (34.5%) said their satisfaction with their current career engagement was poor, while one in every ten women (11.7%) said they have had very poor experiences with their current career engagement. It is imperative to note that only 15.6% of the female participants agreed that their current career engagements were deeply satisfying.
Majority of the women cited discriminative workplace policies and lack of attention from management and fellow male colleagues as the main reasons behind developing negative attitudes towards their current careers. Training and career advancement opportunities, work-life balance initiatives and reasonable pay were cited as contributing to positive workplace experiences and satisfaction.
Work Environment
The 5-point Likert-type scale was employed to evaluate some critical issues that were perceived to have a domineering influence on the representation of women in engineering and technology-oriented careers.
These issues are directly related to the work environment and include: learning opportunities; training opportunities; tools and resources for performance; achievement recognition; cooperation from male work colleagues; adequate communication frameworks, and; inclusion into the company’s vision and mission.
Descriptive means were employed to demonstrate how the female participants rated the underlying issues in their respective organizations according to region. As suggested above, a 5-point Likert-type scale was used to rank the responses, with 1 representing ‘highly disagree’ and 5 representing ‘highly agree.’ The table below summarizes the results
Table 1: Descriptive Means of Work Environment Ratings
This descriptive analysis evidently demonstrates that female employees in the two regions disagree with the assertion that their respective companies provide them adequate learning and training opportunities, as well as the necessary tools and resources required to successfully complete work engagements.
An interesting observation from this analysis is the fact that majority of the female employees in the two regions highly disagree with the statement that that management recognizes their abilities and achievement.
Another interesting finding from the analysis is that while majority of female employees in Europe highly agree that they easily get a long with male work colleagues, the scenario drastically changes in the Middle East, with the majority of the female employees sampled highly disagreeing to that assertion.
In equal measure, majority of the employees in Europe highly agree to the assertion that there is adequate communication between them and management, while many of the employees in the Middle Easily disagree to that assertion.
Two-fifths (41.2%) of women professionals in the Middle East had contemplated leaving their current position in their respective companies, with a substantial number citing cultural barriers, discriminative practices, and unfavourable organizational practices and policies as the main reasons behind the move.
Equally, one-fifths (21.7%) of women professionals in Europe had at one time contemplated leaving active employment, mainly due to stagnation in career advancement and lack and inadequate training opportunities.
This finding is particularly important to this study as it demonstrates that the variables that inform women occupation representation in engineering and technology-oriented domains are indeed unique to particular regions.
Women engineers in the Middle East are overworked than their counterparts in Europe, resulting in a scenario where more women crave to leave active employment so as to have time to raise a family.
This observation points to the importance of culture in deciding which career trajectories are meant for women as can be underscored by one of the findings of the in-depth interviews that women are negated to the role of raising a family in many cultures which are predominant in the Middle East.
Consequently, a job with huge demands and strict deadlines is not perceived as ideal for women in the Middle East as it makes them abridge their child-rearing responsibilities.
On the other hand, many firms operating in Europe seems to have implemented good work-life balance initiatives as fewer women working in these firms reported ever having to allocate additional personal time beyond their normal working hours to meet the work demands of their respective companies.
This observation can perhaps explain why few women working for firms in Europe opted to leave active employment, while more women in the Middle East agreed that they had at one time contemplated leaving active employment.
Meritocracy and Organizational Policies & Culture
The 5-point Lickert-type was once again employed to come up with descriptive rankings of various statements used to measure the influence of meritocracy and organizational policies and culture on the representation of women in engineering and technology-oriented domain.
Again, the results demonstrated notable differences of perception between women professionals working in Europe on the one hand and those working in the Middle East on the other, implying that divergent factors might be at play. The mean score was used to rank the responses, with 1 representing ‘highly disagree’ and 5 representing ‘highly agree.’ The table below outlines the results
Table 2: Descriptive Means of Meritocracy and organizational Policies Influences
A number of important findings arise from this analysis:
- the progression of women professionals in the Middle East in engineering and technology-oriented firms remains severely constricted by unequal treatment of women and men at the organizational level,
- women Professionals in Europe seem to be gaining adequate ground in terms of organizational policies intended to encourage them to seek active employment in these fields,
- discriminative practices against women professionals in the Middle East appears well embedded in the organizational culture and policies of firms operating in this region,
- the existing culture and organizational policies are galvanized towards carrying male employees in high esteem as opposed to female employees.
Overall, 39 (62.9%) of the female participants said they were not happy with their respective company’s policy issues and directions relating to the provisions of a gender-neutral working environment.
In considering regional differences, it is important to note that 17 (50.0%) of female employees in Europe were not happy with their companies’ provisions, while 24 (85.7%) of female employees in the Middle East said the provisions adopted by their respective companies could not guarantee a gender neutral working environment.
The main reasons given for assuming this perspective include: long working hours; untenable job demands for women, such as on-site/field postings; biased contribution and compensatory schemes; perceived lack of abilities in women as opposed to men, and; lack of career progression and training opportunities for women.
Again, about two-thirds (64.5%) of the women polled believed that the current organizational policies practiced by their respective firms were not equally supportive for both male and female employees, and failed to provide an enabling environment for workers to perform optimally in a demanding work environment.
A cross-tabulation analysis of the finding demonstrated this perception was more ingrained in the Middle East, with 24 (85.7%) and 16 (47.1%) of the women professionals saying the current organizational policies are not equally supportive for both males and females in the Middle East and Europe, respectively. The region-specific reasons behind this scenario are demonstrated in the figure below.
Figure 2: Reasons behind the Lack of Equally Supportive Organizational Policies
The above distribution demonstrates that the three leading reasons why women feel unsupported when working in engineering and technology-oriented firms in the Middle East include:
- women feel constrained to the periphery of service delivery,
- most job advertisements are intended for males,
- workplace policies tend to limit the women’s opportunities to lead teams/groups.
Equally, the three leading reasons why women working for European-based firms feel unsupported include:
- biased promotion/training opportunities in favour of men,
- policies limiting women’s opportunities to lead teams/groups,
- limiting women to the periphery of service delivery.
Education & Abilities
Overall, nine in ten women (88.7%) thought they had acquired the right education and abilities required to perform optimally in their current work settings.
However, an interesting observation is the fact that despite nearly all the women saying they had they possessed the right education and abilities to do the job, a third (22.4%) agreed to the assertion that they have at one time faced challenges in their work settings as a direct consequence of their level of education.
This finding points to a particular misconception that women have when working in demanding work environments – that they are not equal to the task despite their level of education, abilities, or cumulative achievements.
This view is reinforced by the fact that about two-thirds (64.8%) of the women polled in this particular survey held a perception that male work colleagues are more qualified than them, mainly due to the reason that it was only males who seemed to lead project teams and other positions of authority in the organizations.
Additionally, the women suggested that male work colleagues always received more pay and recognition than their female counterparts and, as a direct consequence, could have been more qualified than the women.
An interesting finding suggested by some women participants is that women often held males in high esteem even in situations where they knew the males are less qualified, while males often perceived the women as low achievers even in situations where they knew that they are less qualified than the women.
38 (61.9%) of the women participants said that their level of education is not commensurate to their pay and/or benefits in their respective work stations. Region-wise, 22 (78.6%) of women sampled from the Middle East (n=28) believed that they received extremely low pay, which is not in any way commensurate to their level of education, abilities and achievement.
Equally, 16 (47.1%) of women working for Europe-based firms (n=34) said their pay was not commensurate to their level of education. The following distribution captures the reasons behind this perception
Figure 3: Reasons why Current Pay is Not Commensurate to Level of Education
The above figure shows that the three foremost reasons why women professionals in the Middle East think their current pay is not commensurate to their level of education include:
- perception that male colleagues are rewarded more for equal work,
- failure by management to provide their women employees with important benefits such as annual leaves and maternity leaves,
- payment imbalances between males and females with similar levels of education.
Equally, the three foremost reasons why women professionals in Europe think their current pay is not commensurate to their level of education include:
- lack of career progression to higher positions which guarantee more pay,
- non-consideration of level of education in making payment decisions,
- biased training opportunities in favour of male work colleagues at the expense of women with similar qualifications.
Statement of Results (In-depth Interview Guide)
A number of themes were generated when interviewees were asked to elucidate their perception on women professionals in engineering and technology-oriented domains.
Of the 14, interviewees, 6 portrayed women professionals as being equal to the task of what was demanded of them by their employers, while 4 interviewees said engineering is perceived to be a man’s profession and therefore there existed limited encouragement for women to excel in engineering.
Another 3 interviewees suggested that women were disadvantaged to work in engineering and technology-oriented firms due to difficult job demands and ungodly working hours. Indeed, someone said that “…women professionals want their job to be pleasurable, have an excellent work environment, make a difference, provide a good remuneration package and allowances, and be flexible.”
When the interviewees were requested to state the greatest strengths and weaknesses of women professionals working for engineering and technology firms, a sizeable number said that educational background, talents and abilities were the main sources of strength, while others suggested that an organization’s leadership and management style could provide the needed strength for women engineers.
Some underlying themes for the weaknesses facing women working in these domains included: discriminative workplace practices; unequal treatment of men and women, particularly when it came to pay, allowances and leadership roles; non-responsive management, and; lack of role models.
A number of notable themes were established when interviewees were asked to explain the reasons for the dwindling numbers of women employees in engineering and technology-oriented domains.
One underlying theme revolved around the fact that organizational culture in engineering and technology-oriented firms is traditionally masculine, while another underlying theme suggested that women professionals in these firms are excluded from men’s occupation networks and cannot rely on an authoritative women’s occupational network to compensate the exclusion from men’s networks.
The emergence of family businesses, particularly in the Middle East, also made it possible for women to be locked out of engineering fields so as they could take care of family responsibilities. Lack of clear career trajectories and unreasonable work demands such as working odd hours were also noted as significant factors.
Interestingly, 8 of the 14 interviewees held a perception that women are constrained to become better engineers and technology experts, not because they have lower educational achievements or abilities than men but due to external factors intrinsically related to the work environment, such as odd working hours, routine travel to the field sites and heavy workload, among other factors.
Other interviewees, particularly from the Middle East, blamed cultural barriers and socialisation processes as the main reasons why women continue to be constrained to outperform their male counterparts.
Indeed, one interviewee for the Middle East stated that “…despite my level of education, the male colleagues I was working with could not care to introduce me to meetings held to share knowledge about existing networks. I was always left in the dark to manoeuvre my way…and almost felt like giving in.”
A number of underlying themes surfaced when the interviewees were asked to suggest the issues that needed to be addressed to reduce gendered occupational segregation in engineering and technology-oriented fields.
One theme that came out strongly is that of women empowerment; that is, the management and male employees of engineering and technology-oriented firms need to see women professionals less as passive recipients of knowledge and instructions, and more as dynamic contributors and innovators of outstanding ideas.
Another strand of opinions centred on increasing training career advancement opportunities to not only encourage more women into these domains but also to make sure that they are retained in service.
Some interviewees from the Middle East stressed the need for educational institutions to identify established women engineers and use them as role models to encourage more girls choose academic disciplines that would guarantee them a career trajectory in science, engineering and technology-oriented fields.
Still, a sizeable number of interviewees supported a rapid shift of organizational culture and policies practiced in these firms, from a masculine-dominated projection to a gender neutral work environment.
Discussion
The initial objective of the present study was to critically evaluate the reasons why there are few women in the telecommunication industry in Europe and Middle East.
A strand of existing studies (e.g., Morganson et al, 2010; Franzway et al, 2009; Hatchel & Aveling, 2008) have already been commenced to look into the broad issue of gendered occupational segregation in engineering and technology-oriented fields, but only a few have been interested in establishing the scope of the problem beyond the United States of America.
This particular study focussed attention to establishing the antecedents and consequences of employment discrimination in telecommunication and ICT-related sectors in Europe and the Middle East.
The present study has not only corroborated the findings of previous studies on gendered occupation segregation in the engineering domain, but has demonstrated useful insights into understanding the problem from the employee’s perspective, as well as from organizational and socio-cultural standpoints.
Overall, it has been revealed that the problem of gendered occupational segregation in Engineering and Technology-oriented fields in the two regions is precipitated by, among other things: discriminative workplace policies; inadequate attention of women professionals by management, as well as fellow male work colleagues;
lack of training and career advancement opportunities; low pay compared to male colleagues; a crash between work and life/family responsibilities exemplified by huge work demands, a continuous need to travel to the field, and ungodly working hours, and; the presence of an organizational culture and policies that are traditionally masculine.
These findings reinforce the results of previous studies, which held that despite the fact women were been increasingly absorbed into engineering-related domains in the recent past they have to not only contend with a slump in salaries, status, and working conditions but also with the harsh domain of masculinity that is well entrenched in these sectors (Benson & Yukongdi, 2005; Hafkin & Huyer, 2007; Bystydzienski, 2004).
It has also been established that the problem of gendered occupational segregation in engineering and technology domains is more entrenched in the Middle East than in Europe, particularly due to the strict cultural adherence, which outlines that the place of women is in the family setting as opposed to workplace environment.
A new finding related to these reasons is that family-related businesses in the Middle East have continually served as active co-perpetrators of gendered occupational segregation as they are usually run by the sons of the founders, condemning the daughters and other women professionals to providing supportive roles despite their level of academic qualification.
Again, these findings are reflective of the conclusions of other previous studies, which revealed that religious and social cultural barriers in the Middle East demands that women abide by a social convention that reinforces the need for them to play a supportive role relative to men (Benson & Yukongdi, 2005).
An important insight that has been revealed by this study is that the religious and cultural dogmas practiced in the Middle East trigger a scenario which places men in core occupations despite their qualifications relative to women, thus permitting culture to become the basis for gender divergences in recruitment, promotion, training, compensation and decision-making authority.
It is important to note that this problem is less entrenched in Europe. However, it underlines the need for policy makers to consider cultural issues, particularly from the social constructionist standpoint, when devising and implementing programs and policies aimed at addressing the problem.
As observed by Bhatia & Amati (2010), one of the most elaborated features of the social constructionist perspective is the recognition that women and men are located divergently in society and that not all women or all men share similar experiences or challenges.
One of the specific objectives of the present study was to critically analyze how women are impacted negatively as a result of gendered employment discrimination in the telecommunication and ICT-related sectors.
The findings demonstrate that women are not only constrained to lower cadre positions with no recognition for their abilities and achievement, but they lack support from management and fellow male colleagues, engage in massive resignations due to unbearable/unfavourable working conditions, as well as lack crucial training opportunities to ensure career advancement and growth.
These findings appear to reinforce the conclusions made by Gillard et al (2008), who suggest that women professionals in telecommunication/ICT sectors tend to be concentrated in particular occupational spheres, which are normally the lower skilled support jobs related to data entry.
An important disclosure here is that these negative impacts are more intensive in the Middle East, again due to cultural barriers and the presence of male-dominated work-environments.
This particular study has established that the negative impacts related to gendered occupational segregation in telecommunication and ICT-oriented firms in Europe triggers massive resignations of women professionals, lending credence to Sappleton & Takrui-Rick (2008) assertion that women experience certain influences upon recruitment into these sectors, which obstructs them and make it hard for them to be retained in the sectors.
The interplay between Meritocracy and socio-cultural and organizational variables in entrenching gendered occupational discrimination in engineering and technology-oriented forms have also been evaluated.
It has been revealed that most engineering firms operating in the Middle East demonstrate greater bias in favour of men over equally competitive and perfuming women despite the fact that their respective managements argue that these firms subscribe to meritocratic principles in recruitment and promotion.
It should be recalled that meritocracy denotes a social system that subscribes to merit, talent and capabilities as the foundation for recruiting employees into positions and dispensing rewards (Castilla & Bernard, 2010; Deem, 2007).
A substantial number of women professionals in the Middle East feel that the management of their respective firms limits their career advancement by favouring women over equally qualified women. Indeed, women professionals face more challenges trying to penetrate these critical sectors when job advertisements clearly states some advertised job positions are only reserved for male applicants.
This problem is less entrenched in Europe, but it still needs to be addressed to ensure that women access opportunities in these critical sectors.
In organizational variables, it has been established how organizational policies and culture entrench gendered occupational segregation of women engineers in engineering and technology-oriented firms by: establishing procedures and policies that consider gender when allocating work; ensuring that men are paid more for equal work; facilitating a masculine organizational culture; ignoring or inadequately recognising the contributions made by women employees, and; poor communication networks between women employees and management.
These variables, which are felt across board in Europe and the Middle East, are further exacerbated by social-cultural variables revolving around issues of active work-place discrimination, entrenched cultural barriers, and misplaced perceptions of the women’s role in society. Again, it is imperative to note that these problems are more entrenched in the Middle East than in Europe.
Indeed, these revelations lend credence to an assertion by Benson & Yukongdi (2005), who suggested that many organizational policies and strategies orient themselves to the unfounded paradigm that women possess less levels of human capital relative to men.
Lastly, the findings of the present study demonstrates that alternatives to check the problem of gendered occupation segregation in engineering and technology-oriented sectors need to be developed and implemented while considering regional variations, in large part because of the fact that some variables are unique to particular regions.
In this study, it has been demonstrated that European engineering firms need to deal more with variables touching on organizational policies and culture, while engineering forms operating in the Middle East need to deal more with variables touching on the value of education and abilities, social and cultural barriers, as well as organizational policies and culture.
A major alternative for the problem in Europe is to increase training and career advancement opportunities for women professionals with a view to not only encourage more women into these domains but also to guarantee their retention in service. Another alternative is to level the playing ground for both male and female employees by allocating pay and allowances in relation to individual merits and achievements.
Third, European firms need to encourage the development and integration of women networks for purposes of availing ready information and opportunities arising from the evaluated sectors. The underlying denominator in all these alternatives is a reduction in male domination in engineering and technology fields.
Organizations need to develop policies that are responsive to the needs and demands of women professionals as opposed to maintaining a perception popularized by Kusk et al (2007), which posits that women’s success in engineering and technology-related fields is often contingent upon them adopting an overtly male-oriented career pattern.
In the Middle East, stakeholders need to address issues relating to cultural barriers and the value of education in women’s career progression.
The study findings demonstrate that the Pipeline Theory, which suggests that increasing the number of women professionals in male dominated sectors should automatically lead to more equality in the labour market (Schweitzer et al, 2011), does not hold much water in Middle East work settings due to cultural barriers that condemn women professionals to the periphery of service delivery, their level of education or achievement notwithstanding.
Another alternative for firms operating in the Middle East is to ensure that recruitment and selection of personnel in family-run organizations are done on merit rather than on superficial dimensions such as family lineages. Also, women professionals in the Middle East need to be recognized for their achievement and the girl students aspiring to become engineers need to be provided with adequate role models to identify with.
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