A decade into the 21st century, women in nearly all progressive societies across the world continue to be underrepresented in formal employment relative to men.
Despite sustained efforts by governments and industry to promote equal gender representation in formal employment, women persist to experience occupational segregation, wage disparities, fewer promotions into senior management positions, and less significant wage increases (Schweitzer, Ng, Lyons, & Kuron, 2011). The present paper looks into factors that lead to the underrepresentation of women in expat work.
Smith, Smith, and Verner (2013) argue that a major factor that continues to galvanize women’s underrepresentation in formal employment, including international assignments, concerns the cultural assumption that women are more superior to men in their capacity for non-market work (e.g., housework and caring for children), hence most employers do not consider them for formal positions due to higher probability of leaving formal employment.
These authors argue that most women do not make it to the management realms and other heavily demanding positions because they are perceived as inflexible compared to men due to family related obligations.
The cultural assumption factor is consistent with Berry and Bell (2012) exploration that women are unlikely to be selected for international assignments due to work-family conflict, which is reinforced by gendered-based division of domestic responsibilities.
In this perspective, the gender-based division of domestic responsibilities comes across as an important factor in reinforcing the underrepresentation of women in expat work, particularly in light of the fact that such an engagement requires a lot of travel and long periods of absence from family obligations (Berry & Bell, 2012).
Another factor documented in the literature concerns the low expectations women have toward formal employment compared to men.
Schweitzer et al (2011) argue from the perspective that women university graduates entering the labor force have lower pay and promotion expectations than their male counterparts, hence continuing to reinforce the gender gap in representation, pay and promotion even as bigger numbers of women continue to enter formal employment.
Workplace and organizational dynamics have also been blamed for the persistent underrepresentation of women in expat work. Schweitzer et al (2011) use the pipeline theory to demonstrate the “leaky pipeline” perspective, “whereby women enter the pipeline but subsequently leave the career field due to such things as personal priorities, feelings of isolation, lack of support, and lack of self-esteem” (p. 424).
This view is reinforced by Berry and Bell (2012), who argue that some organizations provide little in the way of social support and family friendly policies, thus leaving women without any form of support to resolve the conflict between their domestic and professional responsibilities.
Lack of supportive organizational practices, according to Smith et al (2013), lead to a higher turnover level among women professionals relative to men, further aggravating the underrepresentation dilemma.
Lastly, the glass ceiling phenomenon has been blamed for leading to the underrepresentation of women in expat work, particularly when it comes to senior management positions (Schweitzer et al., 2011).
The glass ceiling phenomenon has seen women occupying “fewer of the highest status international assignment positions even though they sometimes have more education and other qualifications than male expatriates” (Bell & Berry, 2012 p. 21).
Workplace discrimination, male-dominated organizational culture and cultural barriers have all been blamed for encouraging this phenomenon, which limits women professionals from ascending to the upper echelons of the corporate ladder (Smith et al., 2013).
To address the issue of underrepresentation of women in expat work, therefore, governments and practitioners need to provide an enabling platform through which to assist women overcome barriers related to adverse cultural assumptions, gendered-based division of domestic responsibilities, negative organizational dynamics and practices, lack of social support, low self-esteem, high turnover level, and the glass ceiling phenomenon.
References
Berry, D.P., & Bell, M.P. (2012). ‘Expatriates’: Gender, race and class distinctions in international management. Gender, Work and Organization, 19(1), 10-28.
Schweitzer, L., Ng, E., Lyons, S., & Kuron, L. (2011). Exploring the career pipeline: Gender differences in pre-career expectations. Industrial Relations, 66(3), 422-444.
Smith, N., Smith, V., & Verner, M. (2013). Why are so few females promoted into CEO and vice president positions? Danish empirical evidence, 1997-2007. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 66(2), 380-408.