Attitudes toward Women in Managerial Position in Pakistan: A Comparative Study

This study was undertaken in order to investigate the difference in attitude towards women in managerial position between male and female employees. It is a comparative study in which 50 employees including 25 male and 25 female participated as a sample. The minimum educational qualification was graduation. After taking their consent they were individually requested to fill in the demographic data sheet, followed by Attitudes toward Women as Managers (ATWAM) Scale. For statistical analysis t'test was applied, which indicates that there is no significant difference between males and females in their attitude towards women managers in Pakistan. Supplementary findings reveal that males residing in joint families have significantly negative sex-role stereotypes towards women as managers whereas males residing in nuclear families possess a neutral attitude towards women as managers. Further males having working mothers as well has significant positive attitude towards woman managers as compared to males having mothers who are housewives. Index Terms—Attitude, women, managers, employee, negative sex-role, stereotypes. Women's educational and professional life and their status in society are at present more on increase due to efficient and dedicated role played by them in different organizations. From junior staff up to managerial position which is not limited to educational management, they not only handle particular department but also as a political leaders they can represent their entire nation. Some women have now become more powerful, knowledgeable and function intelligently in crises situations, in the world of management. Nowadays they are ready to take challenges of the practical life and do not limit them to the domestic domain only. We can count number of woman playing significant role in our society. We can see how media highlights the contribution of women in different fields. Due to their extraordinary performance in various professions, now attitude towards women has changed in various countries. Particularly in job situation attitude towards woman as manager has now becoming positive in many countries because they are now showing their efficiency in many masculine related management positions. However sometimes we perceive that women limits their potentials to specific posts in the work setting, therefore others also perceive them as capable of handling limited works at job. Herbert and Yost (1978), (1) writing indicates that a number of people believe that women can disqualify for taking responsible position in masculine jobs. With this impression in mind in past years varieties of researches have been conducted throughout the world focusing on various psychosocial issues related to women. With rapid increase of women leaving and staying away from home for higher education and bread earning, raises questions in the mind of employers that ―whether women can be hired for administrative post, other than educational management‖. With hiring of women on merit, equal opportunity, their gradual promotions in public sector organizations and non availability of males for appointment as head for particular fields made human resource management to look into possible appointment of highly qualified females to management posts. In spite of efficient performance and increase in finance, production and marketing of female owned /managed organization there remain a question in the mind of many employers that how women manager can overcome particular traits necessary and important condition for particular job. Now we can find in literature lots of researches related to attitude towards women in general as well as in job and at managerial position, of male and female students, professionals, colleagues etc. The results were both positive as well as negative. In the writing of Guney, Gohar, Akinci, and Akinci (2006) (2) we come across the work of Dubno (1985) (3) and Papalexandris and Bourantas (1991), (4) who found that male MBA students had more negative attitude towards women managers than female students over the period 1975-1983 and there was no major change in their views in these eight years.