Key Issues and Developments for Women Managers in Asia
Contributed by Professor Chris Rowley, Director, Centre for Research on Asian Management, City University, UK and Director of Research and Publications, HEAD Foundation, Singapore
As we sit amongst the wreckage of the post-2008 ‘credit crunch’ and global financial crisis and consequent economic mess, several other business and management shibboleths have also seemingly come crashing down. These include those such as ‘the war for talent’, ‘work-life balance’, ‘managing diversity’ and so on. Some commentators may now argue these are less important. However, our all too common ethnocentricity may blind us to a clearer view of the situation. I will use the case of women managers in Asia to illustrate this. After all, we can learn more about our own systems and practices by looking at those of others.
Asia’s rapid economic growth led to a significant increase in demand for managers and professionals. Indeed, in parts of Asia women’s labour force participation rates ranked highly, aided by better educational participation levels and falling fertility rates requiring the best use of all talent. It seemed that as women became more educated and qualified for managerial positions, their numbers would rise. However, this is not an unalloyed picture of progress.
Research on women managers often focuses on developed, Western countries. Far less is known about the situation in Asia and the specific barriers faced there. Yet, we find differences in experiences based on locality, suggesting women in Asia might encounter greater challenges because of the culture and traditions of local societies. In addition, the ‘voice’ of women managers remains to be better heard, especially in Confucian and patriarchal societies, such as some of those in Asia. There is also often a lack of individual organisation and manager case studies and vignettes presenting innovative and different perspectives to examine the constraints, opportunities and challenges. Of course, we need to be careful as cases often over-state the situation. For example, the few women at the top of business often receive disproportionate amounts of media attention.
For example, Hyun Jeong-eun of Korea’s Hyundia Group, Chua Sock Koong of SingTel, Olivia Lum of Malaysia’s Hyflux, Dong Mingzhou of China’s Gree Electric, etc. Nevertheless, despite such caveats, real life cases of management practitioners should not to be over-looked. Furthermore, there is less comparative work using common analytical and organisational frameworks, such as overviews of labour markets, educational levels and proportions in managerial positions, contributors to occupational gender segregation, work-life balance and barriers to careers and the influence of national cultures.
In the light of the above, if we look at China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, overall, we find that the changing ‘face’ of women in management has varied forces pushing for change (such as people themselves, employers and states), and that there is a ‘Janus Face’ to management, with both shifts, but also continuities (or even new constraints, such as the states’ waning influence in this area, as in Vietnam).
There is further evidence in the following five areas, First, women worldwide experience similar facilitators and barriers to career advancement regardless of stage of economic development. Second, what appears to be unique to Asian economies is that women encounter greater challenges imposed by societal expectations and cultural norms and social mores. Third, legislative changes are not only needed, but must be strictly enforced and penalties applied for non-compliance. Fourth, governments, organisations and women themselves need to take more active roles to tackle obstacles to managerial careers. Fifth, the influence of culture permeates organisations and shapes gendered practices, especially, in Confucian societies which stress male dominance.
We can note seven key themes in this area. First, the importance of individual attributes, such as ‘craft’ in management (as seen in China and Hong Kong) or management qualities/competences (as seen in Singapore) remain. Second, the pivotal role of education (as seen in Hong Kong) continues. Third, in some economies the role of the state remains pares inter pares; but it varies, such as in Vietnam (where it was thought most was possible but actually it was more constrained) versus Taiwan (where it was thought least was possible but was called to do more). Fourth, the spectre hanging over countries of a new demographic ‘time bomb’ of falling birth rates and commensurate declines in indigenous workforces is large. Fifth, the loss of women from the labour market to raise families, which requires government responses, such as affordable quality child care, as well as organisational ones, including employment policies is fatal to economic success. Sixth, the assumption of homogeneity among women in terms of ethnicity (except for Malaysia) is too simplistic. Yet, with the above labour market issues and greater internationalization of business, one result may be immigration and diversity within management. This adds even more complexity to the analysis of women managers as they may have to deal with men and women from different backgrounds and assumptions. Seventh, the importance of a broader perspective in the analysis of barriers and issues in the area stemming from not just once source, but an amalgam of gender, organisations and society (as seen in Singapore, Korea and Thailand) is paramount.
In short, if cultural values and societal norms heavily influence gender role stereotyping in Asia, to what extent can social attitudes towards women be altered? Changes in politics and legislation have facilitated women’s careers to some extent, but deeply entrenched cultural values and traditions appear to pose the greatest barriers. The future of the changing ‘face’ of women in management in Asia will be dependent, to some extent, on how societal attitudes towards women shift with changes in legislative frameworks over time. These, and other ideas, are all detailed by leading experts in the field by Chris Rowley and Vim Yukongdi in “The Changing Face of Women Managers in Asia” (2009, Routledge).
